S/Stattf St: 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 Claaf^^ 
 
 Book 
 
 Volume 
 
 'iljASlS OK 
 
 dtPARTMENT 
 
BY COPYRIGHT ARRANGEMENT WITH THE AUTHOR. 
 
 THE NOVELS OF 
 
 FRIEDRICH SPIELHAGEN. 
 
 l2mo, cloth, uniform in size and style, per vol., $2.00. 
 JUST PUBLISHED. 
 
 L— PROBLEMATIC CHARACTERS. 
 
 IL— THROUGH NIGHT TO LIGHT 
 III— THE HOHENSTEINS. 
 
 The above translated by Prof. Schele de Vere. 
 
 IV.— HAMMER AND ANVIL. 
 
 Translated by Wm. Hand Browne. 
 I N PRESS. 
 
 v.— IN RANK AND FILE, 
 
 VI— ROSE, AND THE VILLAGE COQUETTE. 
 
 CRITICAL NOTICES. 
 
 " Sncb a novel as no English author with whom 
 we are acquainted could hare written, and no 
 American author except Hawthorne. What separ- 
 ates tt from the multitude or American and English 
 novels Is the perfection of its plot, and its author's 
 
 insight Into the souls of his characters 
 
 If Germany Is poorer than England, as regards the 
 number of its novelists, it is richer when we consi- 
 der the Intellectual value of their works. If it has 
 not produced a Thackeray, or a Diclsens, it has pro- 
 duced, we venture to think, two writers who are 
 equal to them In genius, and superior to them In 
 the depth and spirituality of their art — Auerbach 
 and Spielhagen." — PutnanCs Ma'jazint. 
 
 "The name Is suggested by a passage In Ooethe, 
 which serves as a motto to the booli. Sl)lelliagen 
 means to illustrate what Goetlie speaks of— natures 
 not In full possession of themselves,' who are not 
 equal to any situation in life, and wiiom no situation 
 satlsftes* — the Hamlet of our latest civilization. With 
 these he deals In a poetic, ideal fashion, yot also 
 with humor, and, what is less to be expected in a 
 Gei'man, with sparkling, flushing wit, and a cynical 
 ▼eln that reminds one of Heine. He has none of the 
 tiresome detail of Auerbach, while he iwcks some- 
 what that excellent man's profound devotion to the 
 moral sentiment. There is more depth of passion 
 and of thought In Spielhagen, together with a 
 French liveliness by no means common in German 
 novelists. ... At any rate, they are vastly supe- 
 rior to the bulk of English novels which are annual- 
 ly pomed out upon us — as much above Trollope's as 
 Stelnbergor Cabinet Is better than London porter. — 
 Sprinufi^ld Republican. 
 
 " The reader Uvea among them (the characters) as 
 he does among his acquaintances, and may plead 
 each one's case as plausibly to his own |ndgmont as 
 he can those of the men whose mixed motives and 
 actions he sees around him. In other words, these 
 characters live, they are men and women, and tJie 
 whole mystery of humanity is upon eacli of thorn. 
 Has no superior in German romance for its en- 
 thusiastic and lively descriptions, and for the 
 dignity and the tenderness with wliich its leading 
 characters are invested." — Neto Vork Kt-.tutuu I'oxt. 
 
 " Ue strikes with a blow like a blacksniitli, mak- 
 ing the sparks fly and the anvil ring. Terse, 
 Eolnted, brilliant, rapid, and no dreamer, lie has tlie 
 est traits of the French manner, wlille in earnest- 
 ness and fulness of matter he is thoroughly German. 
 One sees, moreover, in his pages, how powerful Is 
 the impression which America has of late been 
 making upon the mind of Europe."— iJosfo/i Com 
 montoealth. 
 
 "The work is one of immense vigor; the characters 
 are e.xtraordiiiary, yet not unnatural ; ilie plot is 
 the sequence of an admirably-sustained web of in- 
 cident and action. The portraitures of character- 
 istic foibles and peculiarities remind one mucli of 
 the masterhand of the great Thackeray. The 
 author Spielhagen In Germany ranks very imicli as 
 Thackeray does with us, and many of his Eiiglisli 
 reviewers place him at the head and front of Oer 
 man novelists."— Pro]/ Datty Times. 
 
 " His characters have, perha|)8, more passion, ami 
 act their parts with as much dramatic effect as 
 those which have passed under the hand of Auer 
 bach."— Wiict/inriH Chronicle. 
 
 The N. Y. Times, of Oct. 23d, in a long Review of the above two works, says : " The descriptions of 
 nature and art, the portrayals of character and emotion, are always striking and truthful. As one reads, 
 there grows upim him gradually the conviction that this is one of tlie greatest of woi ks of fiction. . . ] 
 No one, that is not a pure egoiste, can read I'lOblemaHc Characters without profound and even soleniu 
 interest. It Is altogether a tragic work, the tragedy of the nineteenth centnry— greater in its truth and 
 earnestness, and absence of Ilnooe-ie affectation, than any tragedy the century has produced. It stands 
 far above any of the productions of either Fret/tag or Auerbach. 
 
 LEYPOLDT &- HOLT, Publishers, 
 
 25 BOND ST., NEW YORK. 
 
 . .i >' J ^&agi^^»&^^^: ' -. 
 
'w^ailjp^j^ir' "^J?^'^*^»ff'5S8iJ5l?yg»"<!^S^^!S^g-T^~'»<s^^ 
 
 -Hte- ■«B^,^ 
 
 H 
 
 AMMER AN 
 
 D A 
 
 NVIL 
 
 A Novel 
 
 BY 
 
 FRIEDRICH SPIELHAGEN 
 
 Author s Edition. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 LEYPOLDT & HOLT 
 
 25 Bond Str:eet 
 
 1870. 
 
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 ■%: 
 
 .-« 
 
 .3*3' ijiiiiitElMi'i.ii. 
 
H 
 
 AMMER AND 
 
 A 
 
 NVIL 
 
 A NOVEL 
 
 B¥ 
 
 Friedrich Spielhagen 
 
 FROM THE GERMAN 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM HAND BROWNE 
 
 Author's Edition. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 LEYPOLDT & HOLT 
 
 25 Bond Street 
 
 1870. 
 
 tiV"'iVr"^hi'iVr^il^^fitfr«^i-^"r ' ^'^ -i^-iiil-r, , ■ 'V'i'ikt^iF^i^ iii<'!'y ' ' 
 
s 
 
 ?3/ 
 
 \j h k p 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by 
 
 LEYPOLDT & HOLT, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
 Southern District of New York. 
 
 STEREOTYPED BY 
 
 DENNIS BRO'S & THORNE, 
 
 AUBURN, N. Y. 
 
 PRESS OF 
 
 The New York Printing Company 
 
 81, 83, andZs Centre Street, 
 
 New York. 
 
Hammer and Anvil, 
 
 Part First. 
 
 sd 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 WE were standing in a deep recess at the open window 
 of our class-room. The sparrows were noisily chat- 
 tering in the school-yard, and some scattered rays 
 of the late summer sun glanced past the old gray walls down 
 to the grass-grown pavement; from the class-room, which 
 was high-ceilinged, sunless, and ill-ventilated, came -the buz- 
 zing sound of repressed talk from our schoolfellows, who 
 were all in their places, bent over their Sophocles, and 
 watching for the arrival of the " old man," who was looked 
 for every moment. 
 
 ' At the worst, you can shuffle through somehow," I was 
 saying, when the door opened and he came in. 
 ^ Ife — Professor Lederer, Provisory Director of the Gymnas- 
 ium, and Ordinarius of the first form,* " the old man," as we 
 i. used to call him — was in reality not exactly old, but a man 
 ^ past the middle of the forties, whose small head, already turn- 
 y ing gray, rested upon a stiff white cravat, and whose tall and 
 -*- extraordinarily lean figure was buttoned up, from one year's 
 ^-^ end to the other, summer and winter, in a coat of the finest 
 and glossiest black. His slender hands, of which he took 
 extreme care, with their long and tapering fingers — when 
 Q twitching nervously, as they had a habit of doing, close 
 •e© under my eyes — had always a sort of fascination for me, 
 — and more than once I could scarcely resist the temptation 
 to seize one of those artistic-looking hands and crush it in 
 _^ my own coarse brown fist. 
 
 « Professor Lederer always paced the distance from the 
 « door to his desk in twelve measured, dignified strides, head 
 
 V * " Ordinarius," the professor charged with the especial instruction of any 
 t ly class. " The Prima," or first form, corresponds to the sixth or highest form in 
 an English public school. — Tr. 
 
 142430 
 
2 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 and eyes a little drooped, with the austere look of inten- 
 sest meditation ; like a priest approaching the sacrifi- 
 cial altar, or a Caesar entering the senate — at all events like 
 a being who, far removed from the modern plebeian sphere, 
 walked day by day in the light of the sun of Homer, and 
 was perfectly aware of the majestic fact. So it was never a 
 judicious proceeding to try to detain this classical man upon 
 this short journey, and in most cases a prohibitory gesture 
 of his hand checked the attempt ; but the sanguine Ar- 
 thur was so sure that his request would not be refused, that 
 he ventured it, reckless of further consequences. So, step- 
 ping out in front of the professor, he asked for a holiday 
 for the day, which was Saturday. 
 
 " Certainly not," said the professor. 
 
 " To go sailing," urged Arthur, not in the least deterred 
 by the stern tone of the professor, for my friend Arthur was 
 not easily abashed — " to go in my uncle's steamboat to ex- 
 amine the oyster-beds which my uncle planted two years ago. 
 I have a note from my father, you know, professor," and he 
 produced the credential in question. 
 
 " Certainly not ! " repeated the professor. His pale face 
 flushed a little with irritation ; his white hand, from which 
 he had drawn his black glove, was extended towards Arthur 
 with a classical minatory gesture ; his blue eyes deepened in 
 hue, like the sea when a cloud-shadow passes over it. 
 
 " Certainly not ! " he exclaimed for the third time, strode 
 past Arthur to his desk, and after silently folding his white 
 hands, explained that he was too much excited to begin with 
 the customary prayers. And presently followed a stammer- 
 ing philippic — the professor always stammered when irritat- 
 ed — against that pest of youth, worldliness and hankering 
 after pleasure, which chiefly infected precisely those upon 
 whom rested the smallest portion of the spirit of Apollo and 
 Pallas Athene. " He was a mild and humane man," he 
 said, " and well mindful of the words of the poet, that it was 
 well to lay seriousness aside at the proper time and place ; 
 ay, even at times to quaff" the wine-cup and move the feet in 
 the dance ; but then the cause should be sufficient to justify 
 the license — a Virgil must have returned from a far-off land, 
 or a Cleopatra have freed the people from imminent peril by 
 her voluntary, yet involuntary death. But how could any 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 3 
 
 one who notoriously was one of the worst scholars — yes, 
 might be styled absolutely the worst, unless one other" — here 
 the professor gave a side-glance at me — " could claim this 
 evil pre-eminence — how could such a one dare to clutch at a 
 garland which should only encircle a brow dripping with the 
 sweat of industry ! Was he, the speaker, too strict ? He 
 thought not. Assuredly, no one could wish it more ear- 
 nestly than he, and no one would rejoice more heartily than 
 he, if the subject of his severe rebuke would even now give 
 the proof of his innocence by translating without an error 
 the glorious chorus of the Antigone, which was the theme of 
 the morning's lecture. Von Zehren, commence ! " 
 
 Poor Arthur ! I still see, after the lapse of so many years, 
 his beautiful, but even then somewhat worn face, striving in 
 vain to hold fast upon its lips the smile of aristocratic indif- 
 ference with which he had listened to the professor's rebuke, 
 as he took the book and read, not too fluently, a verse or 
 two of the Greek. Even in this short reading the scornful 
 smile gradually faded,, and he glanced from under his 
 dropped lids a look of beseeching perplexity towards his 
 neighbor and Pylades. But how was it possible for me to 
 help him ; and who knew better than he how impossible it 
 was.-* So the inevitable came to pass. He turned the 
 "shaft of Helios " into a "shield of -^olus," and blundered 
 on in pitiable confusion. The others announced their better 
 knowledge by peals of laughter, and a grim smile of triumph 
 over his discomfiture even played over the grave features of 
 the professor. 
 
 " The curs ! " muttered Arthur with white lips, as he took 
 his seat after the recitation had lasted a couple of minutes. 
 " But why did you not prompt me ? " 
 
 I had no time to answer this idle question, for it was now 
 my turn. But I h^d no notion of making sport for my com- 
 rades by submitting to be classically racked ; so I declared 
 that I was even less prepared than my friend, and added 
 that I trusted this testimony would corroborate the charge 
 that the professor had been pleased to bring against me. 
 
 I accompanied these words with a threatening look at the 
 others, which at once checked their mirth ; and the professor, 
 either thinking he had gone far enough, or not deigning to 
 notice my insolent speech, turned away with a shrug of the 
 
4 Hammer vnd Anvil. 
 
 shoulders, and contented himself with treating us with silent 
 contempt for the rest of the recitation, while towards the 
 others he was unusually amiable, enlivening the lesson by- 
 sallies of the most classical and learned wit. 
 
 No sooner had the door closed behind him, than Arthur 
 stood up before the first form and said : 
 
 " You fellows have behaved meanly again, as you always 
 do ; but as for me, I have no notion of staying here any 
 longer. The old man will not be back any more to-day ; 
 and if the others ask for me, say I am sick." 
 
 " And for me too," cried I, stepping up to Arthur and lay- 
 ing my arm on his shoulder. " I am going with him, A 
 fellow that deserts his friend is a sneak." 
 
 , A moment later we had dropped from the window twelve 
 feet into the yard, and crouching between two buttresses that 
 the professor might not espy us as he went out, we consulted 
 what was next to be done. 
 
 There were two ways of getting out of the closed court in 
 which we now were : either to slip through the long crooked 
 corridors of the gymnasium — an old monastery — 'and so out 
 into the street; or to go directly through the professor's 
 house, which joined the yard at one corner, and thence upon 
 the promenade, which nearly surrounded the town, and had 
 in fact been constructed out of the old demolished town- 
 walls. The first course was hazardous, for it often happened 
 that a pair of teachers would walk up and down the cool 
 corridors in conversation long after the regular time for the 
 commencement of the lessons, and we had no minute to lose 
 in waiting. The other was still more dangerous, for it led 
 right through the lion's den ; but it was far shorter, and 
 practicable every moment, so we decided to venture it. 
 
 Creeping close to the wall, right under the windows of our 
 class-room, in which the second lesson had already begun, 
 we reached the narrow gate that opened into the little yard 
 of the professor's house. Here all was quiet ; through the 
 open door we could see into the wide hall paved with slabs of 
 stone, where the professor, who had just returned, was play- 
 ing with his youngest boy, a handsome black-haired little 
 fellow of six years, chasing him with long strides, and clap- 
 ping his white hands. The child laughed and shouted, and 
 at one time ran out into the yard, directly towards where we 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 5 
 
 were hidden behind a pile of firewood — two more steps of 
 the little feet, and we should have been detected. 
 
 I have often thought, since that time, that on those two 
 little steps, in reality, depended nothing less than the whole 
 destiny of my life. If the child had discovered us, we had 
 only to come forward from behind the wood-pile, which 
 every one had to pass in going from the gymnasium to the 
 director's house, as two scholars on their way to their teacher 
 to ask his pardon for their misbehavior. At least Arthur con- 
 fessed to me that this idea flashed into his mind as the child 
 came towards us. Then there would have been another rep- 
 rimand, but in a milder tone, for the professor was a kind 
 man at the bottom of his heart ; we should have gone back 
 to the class-room, pretended to our schoolmates that our 
 running away was only a joke, and — well, I do not know 
 what would have happened then ; certainly not what really 
 did happen. 
 
 But the little trotting feet did not come to us ; the father, 
 following with long strides, caught the child and tossed it in 
 the air till the black curls glistened in the sunshine, and then 
 carried it back, caressing it, to the house, where Mrs. Pro- 
 fessor now appeared at the door, with her hair in papers, and 
 a white apron on ; and then father, mother, and child disap- 
 peared. Through the open door we could see that the hall 
 was empty — now or never was the time. 
 
 With beating hearts, such as only beat in the breasts of 
 school-boys bent on some dangerous prank, we stole to the 
 door through the silent hall where the motes were sparkling in 
 the sunbeams that slanted through the gothic windows. As 
 we opened the house-door, the bell gave a clear note of warn- 
 ing ; but even now the leafy trees of the promenade were 
 beckoning to us ; in half a minute we were concealed by the 
 thick bushes, and hastening with rapid steps, that now and 
 then quickened to a half run, towards the port. 
 
 " What will you say to your father ? " I asked. 
 
 " Nothing at all, because he will ask no questions," Ar- 
 thur replied ; " or if he does, I will say that I was let off ; 
 what else ? It will be capital ; I shall have splendid fun." 
 
 We kept on for a while in silence. For the first time it 
 occurred to me that I had run away from school for just 
 nothing at all. If Arthur came in for a couple of da5^s in the 
 
6 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 dungeon, he, at all events, would have had " splendid fun," 
 and thus, for him at least, there was some show of reason in 
 the thing. His parents, too, were very indulgent ; his share 
 of the danger was as good as none, while I ran all the risk 
 of discovery and punishment without the least compensa- 
 tion ; and my stern old father was a man who understood no 
 trifling, least of all in matters of this sort. So once again, 
 as many times before, I had helped to pull the chestnuts out 
 of the fire for somebody else. However, what did it mat- 
 ter ? Here, under the rustling trees, after our brisk race, it 
 was more pleasant than in the stifling class-room ; and for 
 me, in those times, every silly, venturesome frolic had a 
 pleasure in itself. So I felt it a special piece of magna- 
 nimity on the part of my usually selfish friend, when he sud- 
 denly said : 
 
 " Look here, George, you shall come too. Uncle charged 
 me particularly to bring as many friends as I could. I tell 
 you it will be splendid. Elise Kohl and Emilie Heckepfen- 
 nig are going with us. For once I shall leave Emilie to you. 
 And then the oysters, and the champagne, and the pine- 
 apple punch — yes, you certainly must come." 
 
 " And my father .-' " I said ; but I only said it, for my reso- 
 lution to be one of the party was already taken. Emilie 
 Heckepfennig — Emilie, with her little turned-up nose and 
 laughing eyes, who had always shown me a decided prefer- 
 ence ; and recently, at forfeits, had given me a hearty kiss, 
 to which she was in no wise bound, and whom Arthur, the 
 coxcomb, was going to leave especially to me ! Yes, I must 
 go along, happen what might. 
 
 " Can I go as I am, do you think ? " I asked, suddenly 
 halting, with a glance at my dress, which was plain and neat, 
 it is true — I was always neat — but not exactly the thing for 
 company. 
 
 "Why not?" said Arthur. "What difference does it 
 make? And, besides, we have not a minute to spare." 
 
 Arthur, who was in his best clothes, had not looked at 
 me, nor slackened his pace in the least. We had not a min- 
 ute to spare, that was true enough, for as slipping through 
 some narrow alleys we reached the harbor, we heard the bell 
 ringing on board the steamer that was lying at the wharf 
 just ready to start. The sturdy figure of the captain was 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 7 
 
 seen standing upon the paddle-box. We pushed through the 
 crowd on the wharf, ran up the gang-plank, which they were 
 just hauling in, and mingled with the gay throng on deck, as 
 the wheels began to turn. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 " T TOW you startled me ! " said Frau von Zehren, seizing 
 
 JLJL her son by both hands. " We began to think, what 
 
 was really impossible, that Professor Lederer had 
 
 refused you permission. You see now, Zehren, that I was 
 
 right." 
 
 " Well, it is all right now," replied the steuerrath.* "The 
 young ladies were inconsolable at the prospect of your ab- 
 sence Arthur — or am I saying too much, Fraulein Emilia 
 and Fraulein Elise ? " and the steuerrath turned with a po- 
 lite wave of his hand to the young ladies, who tittered and 
 nodded their dark broad-brimmed straw-hats at each other, 
 " And now you must speak to your uncle," he went on ; 
 " but where is your uncle, then ? " and he ran his eye over the 
 company that was moving about the deck. 
 
 The Commerzienrath Streber came bouncing up. His 
 little, light-blue eyes glittered under bushy gray brows, the 
 long peak of his old-fashioned cap was pushed back from 
 his bald forehead, the left sleeve of his loose blue frock-coat, 
 with gold buttons, had slipped half off his shoulder, as he 
 hurried along on his little legs, cased in yellow nankeen 
 trousers : 
 
 " Where has that rascal John put the ? " 
 
 " Allow me, brother-in-law, to present my Arthur ■ 
 
 Very good," cried the commerzienrath, without even 
 giving a look at the presentee. " Aha ! there the villain 
 is ! " and he made a dart at his servant, who was just com- 
 ing up the companion-way with a tray of glasses. 
 
 * " Steuerrath," Councillor of Customs, the title of an official, is is also 
 Commerzienrathj" Councillor of Commerce, in the next paragraph. — Tr. 
 
8 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 The steuerrath and his lady exchanged a look, in which 
 " the old brute," or some similarly flattering expression, was 
 plainly legible. Arthur had joined the young ladies and 
 said something at which they burst out laughing and rapped 
 him with their parasols ; I, whom nobody seemed to notice, 
 turned away and went on the more quiet forward deck, 
 where I found a seat upon a coil of rope, and leaning my 
 back against the capstan, looked out upon the bright sky 
 and the bright sea. 
 
 In the meantime the boat had left the harbor, and was 
 moving down with the coast on our larboard, where the red 
 roofs of the fishermen's cottages shone through the trees 
 and bushes ; while on the narrow strip of level beach here 
 and there figures were seen, seafaring folks probably, or sea- 
 bathers, who were watching the steamer go by. To our right 
 the shore receded, so that it was only just possible to distin- 
 guish it from the water ; before us, but at a still more remote 
 distance, gleamed the chalk-coast of the neighboring island 
 over the blue expanse of sea, which now began to roughen 
 a little under a fresher breeze, while countless flocks of sea- 
 birds now flew up from the approach of the pufiing steamer, 
 and now, with their cunning heads turned towards us, sported 
 on the waves and filled the air with their monotonous cries. 
 
 It was a bright and lovely morning ; but though I saw its 
 beauty, it gave me no pleasure. I felt singularly dejected. 
 Had the Penguifi that, with a sluggishness altogether at 
 variance with her name, was slowly toiling through the water, 
 been a beautiful swift clipper, bound for China or Buenos 
 Ayres, or somewhere thousands of miles away, and I a pas- 
 senger with a great purse of gold, or even a sailor before the 
 mast, with the assurance that I should never again set eyes 
 on the hateful steeples of my native town, I should have 
 been light-hearted enough. But now ! what was it then that 
 made me so low-spirited ? The consciousness of my dis- 
 obedience ? Dread of the disagreeable consequences, now, 
 to all human foresight, inevitable ? Nothing of the sort. 
 The worst could only be that my stern father would drive 
 me from his house, as he had already often enough threat- 
 ened to do ; and this possibility I regarded as a deliverance 
 from a yoke which seemed to grow more intolerable every 
 day ; and as the idea arose in my mind, I welcomed it with 
 
Hammer and Anvil. g 
 
 a smile of grim satisfaction. No, it was not that. What 
 then ? 
 
 Well, to have run away from school with an ardor as if 
 some glorious prize was to be won, and then, in a merry- 
 company, on the deck of a steamboat, to sit away by myself 
 . on a coil of rope, not one of the gentlemen or ladies taking 
 the slightest notice of me, and with not even the prospect 
 that the waiter, with the caviar-rolls and port wine, would at 
 last come round to me ! This last neglect, to tell the honest 
 truth, for the moment afflicted me most sorely of all. My 
 appetite, as was natural for a robust youth of nineteen, was 
 always of the best, and now by the brisk run from school to 
 the harbor and the fresh sea-breeze, it was sharpened to a 
 distressing keenness. 
 
 I stood up in a paroxysm of impatience, but quickly sat 
 down again. No, Arthur certainly would come and take me 
 to the company ; it was the least that he owed rae, after I 
 had been so obliging as to run away with him. As if he had 
 ever yet paid me what he owed me ! How many fishing-rods, 
 canary birds, shells, fifes, pocket-knives, had he not already 
 bought of me, that is, coaxed and worried me out of, without 
 ever paying me for them. Ay, how often had he not bor- 
 rowed my slender stock of pocket-money, whenever the 
 amount made it worth his while ; for which sometimes even 
 a couple of silbergroschen sufficed. 
 
 Curious, that just now, on this bright sunny morning, I 
 should take to reckoning up this black account ! It was cer- 
 tainly the first time since the beginning of our friendship, 
 which dated at least from our sixth year. For I had always 
 loved the handsome slender boy, who had such sunny hair 
 and gentle brown eyes, and whose velvet Sunday jacket felt 
 so soft to the touch. I had loved him as a great rough mas- 
 tiff might love a delicate greyhound that he could crush 
 with one snap of his jaws ; and so I loved him even now, 
 while he was flirting with the girls, and chattering and laugh- 
 ing with the company like the petit maitre he was. 
 
 I grew very melancholy as I watched all this from my 
 place, where nobody could see me — very melancholy and 
 altogether disspirited. I must have been very hungry. 
 
 We were now just rounding a long headland, which ran 
 out from the western coast. At its farthest low extremity, 
 I* 
 
TO Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 in a spot entirely surrounded by water, separated by a wide 
 interval from the row of houses on the dune, and shadowed 
 by a half-decayed oak, stood a cottage, the sight of which 
 called into my mind a flood of pleasant memories. The old 
 blacksmith, Pinnow, lived there, the father of my friend 
 Klaus Pinnow. Smith Pinnow was by far the most remark- 
 able personage of all my acquaintance. He possessed four 
 old double-barreled percussion guns, and a long single-barrel- 
 ed fowling-piece with a flint lock, which he used to hire to the 
 bathers when they took a fancy to have a little shooting, and 
 sometimes to us youngsters when we were in funds, for 
 Smith Pinnow was not in the habit of conferring gratuitous 
 favors. He had, besides, a great sail-boat, also kept for the 
 bathing company, at least of late years, since he had grown 
 half blind and could not venture longer trips. The rumor 
 ran that formerly he used to make very different voyages, of 
 by no means so innocent a character ; and the excise officers, 
 my father's colleagues (my father had lately been promoted 
 to an accountantship) shook their heads when Smith Pin- 
 now's by-gone doings happened to be referred to. But what 
 was that to us youngsters .'' Especially, what was it to me, 
 who owed the happiest hours of my life to the four rusty 
 guns, and the fowling-piece, and Smith Pinnow's old boat, 
 and who had had the best comrade in the world in Klaus 
 Pinnow .? Had had, I say, for during the last four years, 
 while Klaus was an apprentice to the locksmith Wangerow, 
 and afterwards when he became a journeyman, I had seen 
 him but seldom, and, indeed, for the last half year not at 
 all. 
 
 He came at once into my mind as we steamed past his 
 father's cottage, and I perceived a figure standing on the 
 sands by the side of the boat which was drawn up on the 
 beach. The distance was great, but my keen eyes recog- 
 nized Christel Mowe, Klaus's adopted sister, whom sixteen 
 years* before, old Pinnow's wife — long since dead — had 
 found the morning after a storm, lying on the beach among 
 the boxes and planks driven ashore from a wreck, and whom 
 the old blacksmith, in an unwonted impulse of generosity, as 
 some said, or to raise his credit with the neighbors, accord- 
 ing to others, had taken into his house. The wreck was a 
 Dutch ship from Java, as they made out from some of the 
 
Hammer and Anvil. ii 
 
 things cast ashore ; but her name and owners were never 
 discovered — probably from the negligence of the officials 
 charged with the investigations — and they named the little 
 foundling Christina, or Christel, Mowe \_GuI/\, because the 
 screams of a flock of gulls in the air had attracted Goodwife 
 Pinnow to the spot where the child was lying. 
 
 A noise close at hand caused me to look round. Two 
 paces from me a hatchway was opened, and out of the hatch- 
 way emerged the figure of a man who was standing on the 
 ladder, but whose head rose high enough above the deck to 
 allow him to see over the low bulwarks. His short stiff hair, 
 his broad face, his bare muscular neck, his breast open 
 almost to the belt, his shirt which had once been striped 
 with red, and his trousers which had once been white — were 
 all covered with a thick black deposit of coal-dust ; and as he 
 was blinking with his small eyes almost shut in order to see 
 more keenly some distant object, he; would have presented 
 an unbroken surface of blackness, had he not at this moment 
 expanded an immense mouth into a joyous grin, and dis- 
 played two rows of teeth of unsurpassed whiteness. And 
 now he raised himself a few inches higher, waved his great 
 black hand as a greeting towards the beach, and all at once 
 I recognized him. 
 
 " Klaus !" I called out. 
 
 " Hallo !" he cried, starting, and quickly bringing his small 
 eyes to bear upon me. 
 
 " That was a mighty affectionate salute of yours, Klaus." 
 
 Klaus blushed visibly through his rind of soot, and showed 
 
 all his teeth. " Why, in the name of , George," cried 
 
 he, " where do you come from, and what has brought you 
 here?" 
 
 " And what has brought you here ? " 
 
 " I have been here ever since Easter. I have had it in 
 my mind for some time to come to see you and inquire 
 after your health." 
 
 " You foolish fellow, why do you put on that respectful 
 tone with me ? " 
 
 " Oh, you belong to the great folks now," replied Klaus, 
 jerking his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the 
 quarter-deck. 
 
 " I wish I were below with you, and you would give me a 
 
12 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 good thick slice of bread and butter. Hang the great folks, 
 as you call them." 
 
 Klaus looked at me in astonishment. 
 
 " Well, but why in the world " he began. 
 
 " Why am I here ? Is that what you mean ? Why, 
 because I am a fool and an ass." 
 
 " Oh, no," remonstrated Klaus. 
 
 " Yes, I am — a complete ass. I wish all my friends were 
 as good as you are, Klaus." Here I gave a glance towards 
 the perfidious Arthur, who was strutting about among the 
 guests with the parasol of the perfidious Emilie, while she 
 had set his little straw-hat in a coquettish fashion on her curls. 
 
 " I am wanted below," said Klaus, with a friendly grin ; 
 " Good-by." And down the ladder he went. 
 
 " Was that a chimney-sweep ? " asked a clear voice be- 
 hind me. 
 
 I turned hastily round, rising from my seat. There stood 
 a charming little lady of eight, in a little white frock with 
 ribbons of cornflower blue at the shoulders and streaming 
 from her straw-hat, whose great cornflower blue eyes first 
 stared with intense curiosity at the hatchway through which 
 my black friend had vanished, and then turned inquiringly 
 to me. 
 
 At this moment the hatch was raised again, and Klaus's 
 head emerged — " Shall I really get you a slice ? " 
 
 " Oh, mercy ! " cried the little lady. Klaus vanished in- 
 stantaneously, and the hatch shut down with a bang. 
 
 " Oh, mercy ! " cried the little maid again. " How it 
 frightened me ! " 
 
 " What frightened you, ma chhre ! " asked another voice. 
 The voice was extremely thin, and so was the lady to whom 
 it belonged, and who had just come out of the deck-cabin. 
 So also was the worn dress of changeable silk that fluttered 
 about her figure, and the reddish locks that drooped on each 
 side of her pale face. 
 
 This lady was Fraulein Amalie Duff", and the little maid 
 with the cornflower eyes and ribbons was her pupil, Her- 
 mine Streber, the commerzienrath's only child. Of course 
 I knew them both, as indeed I was pretty well acquainted 
 with everybody in our little town, as soon as they were out 
 of long-clothes ; and they might well have known me, for I 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 13 
 
 had been two or three times with Arthur in his uncle's large 
 garden at the town-gate, and a fortnight before had even had 
 the honor to swing the little Hermine in the great wooden 
 swing, from which, if you swung high enough, you could 
 catch a sight of the sea through the tops of the trees. 
 Friiulein Duff, moreover, was a native of the little Saxon 
 town which was the birthplace of my parents ; and when she 
 arrived, some months before, she brought various messages 
 and greetings from the old home, which unhappily came too 
 late for my good mother, who had been resting in the church- 
 yard for fifteen years. She had frequently condescended — 
 indeed no longer ago than the afternoon of the swinging — 
 to bestow her instructive conversation upon me ; but she 
 was very near-sighted, and I could not take it amiss that 
 she applied her gold double eye-glass to her pale eyes, and 
 with a sweeping reverence, which in the dancing-school is 
 called, I believe, gravid compliment^ inquired : " Whom have 
 
 I the honor to 1 " 
 
 I introduced myself. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 " t^\ CIEL ! " cried Fraulein Duff, " mon jeune compa- 
 V^ triote ! -A thousand pardons ! — ^my near-sighted- 
 ness ! How is your respected father, and your 
 ami-able mother ? Dear me ! how confused I am ! But your 
 sudden appearance in this retired corner of the world has 
 quite unnerved me. I was about to say — the company are 
 asking for you. How did you manage to elude observation .-* 
 — they are looking for you everywhere." 
 
 " Yet I might have been found easily enough," I said, 
 probably with a touch of wounded pride in the tone, which 
 did not escape the quick ear of Fraulein Duff. 
 
 " Ah, yes," she said, conveying a look of intelligence into 
 her pale eyes. " ' Who solace seeks in solitude ' — alas ! too 
 true. 
 
 " ' For gold all are longing, 
 
 Round gold all are thronging — ' " 
 
14 Hatnmer and Anvil. 
 
 " Not so wild, ma chlre ! The dreadful creature will tear 
 your dress ! " 
 
 These last words were addressed to the little Hermine, 
 who had begun to romp on the smooth deck with a pretty 
 little spaniel that had run to her barking and jumping. 
 
 " You have a feeling heart," continued the governess, 
 turning again to me ; "I see it in the pained expression of 
 your mouth. Your soul shrinks from noisy joys ; this bois- 
 terous merriment is odious to you. But we poor ones must 
 submit to the inevitable — or I, at least must. Would I be 
 here if it were not so ? Upon this tossing bark, in terror for 
 my life ? And all for what purpose ? to assist at a cannibal 
 feast ! Innocent oysters, which men tear from the maternal 
 bosom of the sea to devour alive ! Is that a fit spectacle to 
 be exhibited to a child ? " and Fraulein Duff shook her 
 thin locks with an expression of the deepest solicitude. 
 
 " It remains yet to be seen whether we shall find any," I 
 said, with something like a sneer. 
 
 " Do you think so ? The other gentlemen doubt it, too. 
 The water of the Baltic is not salt enough. True, we are 
 informed that the Romans propagated them in fresh-water 
 lakes near Naples — but why parade my modest bit of learn- 
 ing before a young scholar like yourself } The good com- 
 merzienrath ! Yes, yes ; despise reason and learning who 
 will ! — but here he comes himself. Not a word of what we 
 have been saying, my young friend, I beseech you ! " 
 
 I had no time to assure the pale lady of my discretion, for 
 nearly the whole company came crowding on the forward- 
 deck, in the wake of the commerzienrath, who had the fat 
 Mrs. Justizrath Heckepfennig upon his arm, to look at a 
 three-master that was just passing us under full sail. In 
 the next moment I was in the midst of the crowd, and the 
 ice, in which I had been sitting, so to speak, was broken. 
 Arthur, whose delicate face was already flushed by the wine 
 he had been drinking, clapped me on the shoulder and 
 asked where upon earth I had been hiding. The perfidious 
 Emilie held out her hand and murmured : " Had you then 
 entirely forgotten me 1 " and — as just at that moment a 
 salute was fired from some small mortars on board the 
 steamer — fell, with a little scream, into my arms. The three- 
 master, that was just returning from the West Indies, belonged 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 15 
 
 to the commerzienrath's fleet. They knew that she would 
 arrive to-day ; and it was by no means disagreeable to the 
 commerzienrath to be able to carry his guests, on their way 
 to his oyster-beds, past the finest of his ships. He mounted 
 the paddle-box, speaking-trumpet in hand, and roared, at the 
 pitch of his lungs, something which, amid the universal hur- 
 rahing and the explosions of the mortars, was perfectly in- 
 audible to the bronzed captain of the ship, who shrugged 
 his broad shoulders as a sign that he could not catch a word 
 of it all. What difference did it make ? It was a splendid 
 sight ; and the commerzienrath upon the paddle-box, trum- 
 pet in hand, was the chief figure in it. That was enough 
 for him ; and as the Albatros with her wide wings swept by, 
 and the short legs of the Penguin began to paddle again, 
 and he descended from his pedestal to receive the congratu- 
 lations of the company, his little clear eyes sparkled, his 
 nostrils expanded, and his loud laugh rang like the crowing 
 of a cock, exulting in the proud consciousness that he is 
 the master of the dunghill. 
 
 The rest of the poultry freely acknowledged this superi- 
 ority : there was cackling and clucking, bowing and scrap- 
 ing, and no one more obsequious than Arthur's father, the 
 steuerrath, who kept constantly at the side of the great man, 
 saying, in his smooth voice, flatteries, which the other re- 
 ceived as a matter of course — something to which he was 
 well accustomed, especially from that quarter — with an in- 
 difference which to most others would have been insulting. 
 It is quite possible that the steuerrath did not find this be- 
 havior on the part of his rich brother-in-law altogether 
 pleasant, but he was too much a man of the world to give 
 any outward sign of his inward emotions. But his spouse 
 was not quite so successful in her self-command, who, as 
 born Baroness Kippenreiter, had an unquestionable claim to 
 respectful attention, and a right to be dissatisfied if this were 
 withheld. So she sought to indemnify herself for the humilia- 
 tion by the extremest possible condescension of manner to- 
 wards the other ladies, Mrs. Burgomaster Koch, Mrs. Justiz- 
 r^th Heckepfennig, Mrs. Bauinspector Strombach, and the 
 rest of the feminine elite of our little town, though even this 
 satisfaction could not roll away the clouds from her aristo- 
 cratic brow. 
 
1 6 Haptmcr and Anvil. 
 
 I had hardly begun to feel at ease in the company, which 
 happened quickly enough, when my natural vivacity, which 
 bordered on rudeness, returned and impelled me to a hun- 
 dred pranks, which were decidedly not in the best taste, 
 though certainly not instigated by any intention to offend, 
 and which I carried on all the more recklessly, as I perceived 
 I had all the laughers on my side. I could blush with shame 
 even now, when I think of my shallow attempts at wit, and 
 how poor in invention and clumsy in execution were the 
 comic imitations to which I must needs treat my respectable 
 audience, because forsooth I had a sort of celebrity in the 
 town for this sort of thing, (my masterpiece, I remember, 
 was a lover bent on regaling his mistress with a serenade, 
 and incessantly disturbed by barking dogs, mewing cats, 
 scolding neighbors, and malicious passers-by, and finally 
 taken up by the watch,) what foolish flippancy and want of 
 tact in the speeches that I made at the table, and with how 
 many glasses of wine I repaid myself for all my ridiculous 
 exertions. 
 
 And yet this lunch under an awning on deck of the 
 steamer that was now anchored in the calm, smooth sea, was 
 the last real merry-making that I was to have for many long 
 years. I do not know if it was this that keeps it so bright 
 in my memory, or rather the youth that then glowed in my 
 veins, the wine that sparkled in the glasses, the bright sun- 
 shine that glistened on the sea, and the sweet air that swept 
 so softly over the water that it did not suffice to cool the 
 flushed cheeks of the maidens. It was rather all together — 
 youth, sunlight, sea-breeze, golden wine, rosy cheeks ; and 
 ah ! the oysters, the unlucky oysters, that had had two years 
 in which to multiply like the sand of the sea, and which the 
 sea-sand and sea-currents had buried and swept away, all 
 to a few empty shells ! What an inexhaustible theme were 
 these empty shells, displayed with humorous ostentation in 
 a splendid dish in the centre of the table ! how every one 
 tried his wit on them, and what a malicious joy each felt 
 that the millionaire's obstinate conceit had had a lesson, and 
 that not all his millions could extort from nature what she 
 had determined to refuse ! 
 
 But the old fellow bore it all with the utmost good-humor ; 
 and after he had bewailed his ill-luck in a humorous speech, 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 17 
 
 suddenly a loud clamor arose on the forward-deck, and the 
 sailors dragged forward great barrels of oysters, which they 
 declared they had just taken up. Then there was no end 
 to the exultation and cheers to our magnificent host, who 
 once more had shown that his sagacity and foresight were 
 even greater than his conceit and his obstinacy. 
 
 I do not know how late the feast was protracted, while the 
 ladies promenaded the deck ; it was certainly kept up far too 
 long for us youngsters. Very queer stories were told, in 
 which the commerzienrath particularly distinguished him- 
 self; we laughed, we shouted — I must volunteer songs, which 
 were received with storms of applause, and I was not a little 
 vain as my powerful bass drew even the ladies to the table 
 again, and did my best, when both ladies and gentlemen 
 joined in unison in the glee, " What it means I cannot tell," 
 to carry through a second voice (in thirds), keeping my eye 
 all the while on Friiulein Emilie — an attention which natu- 
 rally set the other young ladies to giggling and nudging each 
 other, and occasioned Arthur such pangs of jealousy, that 
 afterwards, as we were walking up and down the deck, with 
 our cigars, he called me to account for it. 
 
 By this time it was evening, for I remember that, while 
 talking with Arthur, I noticed on the coast of the island, 
 which we had neared on our return, an old ruin, standing 
 picturesquely on a high and steep cliff, and glowing in the 
 light of the setting sun. The sight of this ruin gave an un- 
 pleasant turn to our discussion, which had already grown 
 sharp. This tower happened to be the sole remnant of the 
 ancient Zehrenburg, the ancestral seat of Arthur's family, 
 which, in former times, had enjoyed large possessions on. the 
 island. Arthur pointed with a pathetic gesture to the ruddy 
 walls, and demanded that I, here and now, with my eye upon 
 the castle of his ancestors, should renounce forever all pre- 
 tensions to Emilie Heckepfennig. " A plebeian like myself," 
 he said, " was in duty bound to give way to a patrician." I 
 maintained that there were no such things as plebeians or 
 patricians in affairs of the heart, and that I would never con- 
 sent to a pledge which would entail perpetual wretchedness 
 on both Emilie and myself 
 
 " Slave ! " cried Arthur, " is it thus that you repay me for 
 the condescension that has so long tolerated your society? " 
 
1 8 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 I laughed aloud, and my laughter still further exasperated 
 Arthur's drunken passion. 
 
 " My father is Steuerrath von Zehren," he cried, " and 
 yours a miserable subaltern." 
 
 " Let us leave our fathers out of the question, Arthur ; you 
 know I will not endure any insult to mine." 
 
 " Your father " 
 
 " Once more I warn you, Arthur, leave my father's name 
 alone. My father, at the very least, is as good as yours. 
 And if you say another word about my father, I'll fling you 
 overboard," and I shook my fist in Arthur's face. 
 
 " What's the matter here ? " asked the steuerrath, who sud- 
 denly appeared. " How, young man, is this the respect that 
 you owe to my son — that you owe to me ? It appears that 
 you are disposed to add the crown to your disgraceful be- 
 havior all day. My son has invited you into his company 
 for the last time." 
 
 " Invited me, indeed ! " I said. " We ran away, both of 
 us ! " — and I burst into a shout of laughter that quite justi- 
 fied the steuerrath's qualification of my behavior. 
 
 " How ! " he exclaimed. " Arthur, what does this mean ? " 
 
 But Arthur was not in condition to give an intelligible an- 
 swer. He stammered out something, and rushed toward 
 me, apparently with the intention of striking me, but his 
 father caught his arm and led him away, speaking very ear- 
 nestly to him in a low tone, and as he went he threw a furi- 
 ous look at me. 
 
 My blood, already excited, was now boiling in my veins. 
 The next thing I remember I was walking arm-in-arm with 
 the commerzienrath — I have never been able to understand 
 how I did it — and passionately complaining to him of the 
 crying outrage I had received from my best friend, for whom 
 I was at all times ready to sacrifice fortune and blood. The 
 commerzienrath seemed as if he would die with laughing. 
 " Fortune and blood ! " he cried ; " as for the fortune " — 
 here he shrugged his shoulders and blew out his cheeks — 
 " and as for the blood" — here he nudged me with his elbow 
 in the side. " Full blood, capital blood, of course. I have 
 had one of the breed myself ; a Kippenreiter ! Baroness 
 Kippenreiter ! My Hermann, at all events, is of the half 
 blood. There she runs ; is she not an angel ? Pity she was 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 19 
 
 not a boy : that's the reason I always call her Hermann, 
 Hermann ! Hermann ! " 
 
 The little maid came running : she had on a red scarf, 
 which her father, after kissing her, wrapped closer around 
 her delicate shoulders. 
 
 " Is she not an angel — a pride ? " he went on taking my 
 arm again. " She shall have a count for a husband ; not a 
 poor, penniless sprig of nobility, like my brother-in-law, nor 
 like his drunken brother at Zehrendorf, nor the other, that 
 sneaking fellow, the penitentiary superintendent at What-d'ye- 
 call-it No, a real count, a fellow six feet high, just like you, 
 my boy, just like you ! " 
 
 The short commerzienrath tried to lay his two fat hands 
 upon my shoulders, and tipsy emotion blinked in his eyes. 
 
 "You are a capital fellow, a splendid fellow. Pity you 
 are such a poor devil ; you should be my son-in-law. But I 
 must call you thou : thou mayst say thou to me, too, 
 brother ! " and the worthy man sobbed upon my breast and 
 called for champagne, apparently with a view of solemnly 
 ratifying the bond, of brotherhood after the ancient fashion. 
 
 I have my doubts whether he carried this design into 
 effect : at all events I rerriember nothing of the ceremony, 
 which could scarcely have escaped my memory. Bert I re- 
 member that not long after I was in the engine-room with a 
 bottle of wine, hobnobbing with my friend Klaus, and swear- 
 ing that he was the best and truest fellow in the world, and 
 that I would appoint him head- stoker in hell as soon as I 
 got there, which would not be long coming as I must have 
 a settlement with father this evening, and that I would let 
 myself be torn in pieces for him at any time, and that I 
 would be glad if it were done right at once, and that if the 
 great black fellow there did not stop swinging his long iron 
 arm up and down I would lay my head under it, and there 
 would be an end of George Hartwig. 
 
 How the good Klaus brought me out of this suicidal 
 frame of mind, and how he got me up the ladder again, I 
 cannot say ; it must have been managed somehow, for as we 
 steamed into the harbor I was sitting on deck, watching the 
 masts of the anchored ships glide past us, and the stars glit- 
 tering through the spars and cordage. The crescent moon 
 that was standing over the spire of the church of St Nich- 
 
20 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 olas seemed suddenly to drop behind it, but it was I that 
 dropped, as the Penguin struck the timbers of the wharf, on 
 which there was again assembled a crowd of people, not hur- 
 rahing, however, as when we started, but, as it seemed to 
 me, strangely silent ; and, as I made my way through them, 
 staring at me I thought in a singular manner, so that I felt 
 as if something terrible must have happened, or was on the 
 point of happening, and that I was in some mysterious way 
 the cause of it. 
 
 I stood before my father's small house in the narrow 
 Water street. A light was glimmering through the closed 
 shutters of the room to the left of the front door, by which I 
 knew that my father was at home — he usually took a solitary 
 walk around, the town-wall at this hour. Could it be so very 
 late, then ? I took out my watch and tried to make out the 
 time by the moonlight — for the street-lamps were never 
 lighted in Uselin on moonlight nights — but could not suc- 
 ceed. No matter, I said to myself, it is all one ! and grasp- 
 ed resolutely the brass knob of the front door. To my 
 feverish hand it felt cold as ice. 
 
 -o- 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 AS I closed the door behind me, old Frederica, who, 
 since my mother's death, had been housekeeper for 
 my father, came suddenly out of the small room on 
 the right. By the light of a lamp burning dimly on the hall- 
 table I saw the good old woman throw up her hands and 
 stare at me with wide, frightened eyes. " Has anything 
 happened to my father.?" I stammered, seizing the table 
 to support myself What with the warm atmosphere of the 
 house after the fresh night-air, and my alarm at Frederica's 
 terrified looks, my breath failed me, the blood seemed to rush 
 to my head, and the room began to go round. 
 
 " Wretched boy, what have you done ? " piteously ex- 
 claimed the old woman. 
 
 " In heaven's name, what has happened ? " I cried, seizing 
 her by both hands. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 21 
 
 Here my father opened the door of his room and appeared 
 upon the threshold. Being a large man and the door small, 
 he nearly filled up the doorway. 
 
 " Thank God ! " I murmured to myself. 
 
 At this moment I experienced no other feeling than that 
 of joyful relief from the anxiety which seemed on the point 
 of suffocating me ; in the next, this natural emotion gave 
 way to another, and we glared at each other like two foes 
 who suddenly meet, after one has long been seeking the 
 other, and the other nerves himself for the result, be it what 
 it may, from which he now sees there is no escape. 
 
 " Come in," said my father, making way for me to pass 
 into his room. 
 
 I obeyed : there Was a humming noise in my ears, but my 
 step was firm ; and if my heart beat violently in my breast, 
 it was certainly not with fear. 
 
 As I entered, a tall black figure slowly rose from my 
 father's large study-chair — -my father allowed no sofa in his 
 house — ^it was Professor Lederer. I stood near the door, 
 my father to the right, by the stove, the professor at the writing- 
 table in front of the lamp, so that his shadow reached from 
 the ceiling to the floor, and fell directly upon me. No one 
 moved or spoke ; the professor wished to leave the first 
 word to my father, and my father was under too much ex- 
 citement to speak. In this way we stood for about half a 
 minute, which seemed to me an eternity, and during which the 
 certainty flashed into my mind that if the professor did not 
 immediately leave the room and the house, all possible 
 chance of an explanation between my father and myself was 
 cut off. 
 
 " Misguided young man," at last began the professor. 
 
 " Leave me alone with my father, Herr Professor/' I in- 
 terrupted him. 
 
 The professor looked at me as if he could not believe his 
 ears. A delinquent, a criminal — for such I was in his eyes 
 — to dare to interrupt his judge in such a tone, and with 
 such a request — it was impossible. 
 
 " Young man," he began again, but his tone was not as as- 
 sured as the first time. 
 
 "I tell you, leave us alone together," I cried with a louder 
 voice, and making a motion towards him. 
 
2 2 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 " He is mad," said the professor, taking a hasty step back- 
 wards, which brought him in contact with the table. 
 
 " Sirrah ! " exclaimed my father, stepping quickly forward, 
 as if to protect the professor from my violence. 
 
 " If I am mad," I said, turning my burning eyes from one 
 to the other, " so much the greater reason for leaving us 
 alone." 
 
 The professor looked round for his hat, which stood be- 
 hind him on the table. 
 
 " No ; remain, remain," said my father, his voice quiver- 
 ing with passion. " Is this audacious boy again to have his 
 insolent way ? I have too long been culpably negligent ; it 
 is high time to take other measures." 
 
 My father began to pace up and down the room, as he 
 always did when violently agitated. 
 
 " Yes, to take other measures," he continued. "This has 
 gone on far too long. I have done all I could ; I have 
 nothing to reproach myself with ; but I will not become a 
 public by-word for the sake of a perverse boy. If he refuses 
 to do what is his plain duty and obligation, then have I no 
 further duty or obligation towards him ; and let him see how 
 he can get through the world without me." 
 
 He had not once looked at me while he uttered these 
 words in a voice broken with passion. Later in life I saw a 
 painting representing the Roman holding his burning hand 
 in the glowing coals, and looking sideways upon the ground 
 with an expression of intensest agony. It brought at once 
 into my mind the remembrance of my father at this fateful 
 moment. 
 
 " Your father is right " — commenced for the third time 
 the professor, who held it his duty to strike in while the iron 
 was hot — " when was there ever a father who has done more 
 for his children than your excellent parent, whose integrity, 
 industry and virtue have become a proverb, and who through 
 your fault is now deprived of the crowning ornament of a 
 good citizen ; that is, a well-disciplined son, to be the stay 
 of his declining years. Is it not enough that inevitable fate 
 has already hard smitten this excellent man — that he has 
 lost a dear consort and a son in the bloom of youth ? Shall 
 he now lose the last, the Benjamin of his old age ? Shall 
 his unwearied solicitude, his daily and nightly prayers " 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 n 
 
 My father was a man of strictest principles, but far from 
 devout, in the ordinary acceptation of the word ; an untruth 
 was his abhorrence, and it was an untruth to say that he had 
 prayed by night and day ; and besides, he had an excessive, 
 almost morbid modesty, and the professor's panegjn-ic struck 
 him as exaggerated and ill-timed. 
 
 " Let all that pass, Herr Professor " — he interrupted the 
 learned man rather impatiently — "I say again, I have done 
 my duty. Enough ! let him do his. I want nothing of him 
 — nothing — nothing whatever — not so much as " — and he 
 brushed one hand over the other ; " but this I will have, 
 and if he refuses " 
 
 My father had worked himself into a rage again, and my 
 apparent composure only further exasperated him. Strange ! 
 Had I fallen to prayers and entreaties, I know that my father 
 would have despised me, and yet, because I did what he him- 
 self would most assuredly have done in my position, because 
 I was silent and stubborn, he hated me at this moment as 
 one hates anything that stands in one's way, and which yet 
 cannot be spurned aside with contempt. 
 
 " You have been guilty of a heavy offence, George Hart- 
 wig" — the professor began again in a declamatory tone — 
 " that of leaving the Gymnasium without the permission of 
 your teachers. I will not speak of the boundless disrespect 
 with which, as so often before, you rejected the precious 
 opportunity offered you of acquiring knowledge : I will 
 only speak of the terrible guilt of disobedience, of insolent 
 defiance of orders, of the eVil example that your disgrace- 
 ful conduct has presented to your class-mates. If Arthur 
 von Zehren's facile temper has at last been warped into con- 
 firmed frivolity, this is the evil fruit of your bad example. 
 Never would that misguided boy have dared to do what he 
 has done to-day " 
 
 As I knew the misguided boy so much better than he, I 
 here broke into a loud, contemptuous laugh, which drove the 
 professor completely beyond his self-control. He caught up 
 his hat, and muttering some unintelligible words, apparently 
 expressing his conviction that I was lost beyond all possi- 
 bility of reformation, was about to leave the room, when he 
 was detained by my father. 
 
 " One moment, Herr Professor," he said, and then turning 
 
24 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 to me — " You will instantly ask pardon of your teacher for 
 this additional insolence — instantly!" 
 
 " I will not," I replied. 
 
 " Instantly ! " thundered my father. 
 
 " I will not ! " I repeated. 
 
 " Once more, will you, or will you not ? " 
 
 He stood before me his whole frame quivering with anger. 
 His naturally sallow complexion had turned of an ashy gray, 
 the veins of his brow were swollen, his eyes flashed. His 
 last words had been spoken in a hoarse, hissing tone. 
 
 " I will not," I said for the third time. 
 
 My father raised his arm as if to strike me, but he did not 
 strike ; his arm slowly descended, and with outstretched 
 hand he pointed to the door : 
 
 " Begone ! " he said, slowly and firmly. " Leave 
 house forever ! " 
 
 I looked straight into his eyes ; I was about to say some- 
 thing — perhaps " Forgive me, father ; I will ask your forgive- 
 ness ;" but my heart lay like a stone in my breast ; my teeth 
 were clenched like a vice ; I could not speak. I moved si- 
 lently towards the door. The professor hurried after me and 
 seized my arm, no doubt with the kindest intentions ; but I 
 saw in him only the cause of my disgrace. I thrust him 
 roughly aside, flung the door to after me, ran past the old 
 housekeeper — the good old creature had evidently been lis- 
 tening, for she stood there wringing her hands, the picture 
 of despair — and out of the house into the street. 
 
 my I 
 
 -o- 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 IRAN for a short distance like a madman, when suddenly 
 my limbs began to totter under me ; the moonlit roofs, 
 the lighted windows in some of the houses, danced 
 wildly before my eyes ; the fumes of the wine I had been 
 drinking, repressed for a while by my mental excitement, 
 now rose again to my brain ; I had to lean against a wall to 
 keep myself from falling. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 25 
 
 I had probably remained for a few minutes in a state of 
 partial insensibility when the voices of some maids, who 
 were bringing water from the adjacent fountain, recalled me 
 to consciousness. I roused myself, and staggered down the 
 street. Soon my strong natural constitution began to assert 
 itself; my steps grew firmer, and I began to consider what 
 I should do, and first of all, whither I should go. The idea 
 of seeking lodgings at an inn I rejected at once ; I had 
 never yet passed a night from home ; and besides, my whole 
 stock of money did not exceed one thaler — my father always 
 kept me on a very meagre allowance of~pQcket-money — an 
 I had an indistinct notion that I should have to make this 
 slender sum go a long way. Had I not quarreled with Ar- 
 thur and parted from him in anger, I should probably have 
 gone to him ; but as it was, I felt it impossible to present 
 myself at his house as a supplicant ; and, besides, by this 
 time he was most likely sleeping off his intoxication, and his 
 parents had never been friendly disposed towards me. The 
 commerzienrath ! He had embraced me, called me thou 
 and brother : he would assuredly receive me with rapture, 
 have me shown to a magnificent chamber, with a grand four- 
 post curtained bed 
 
 But while I was indulging in the picture of my brilliant 
 reception at the commerzienrath's, I was hastening steadily 
 in the opposite direction, towards the harbor. I passed some 
 low taverns in which sailors were roaring out coarse songs. 
 How if I went in and joined the drinkers, and to-morrow 
 went out into the wide world a sailor, like my brother Fritz ? 
 That would be a way to be revenged upon my father 1 To 
 lose two sons — both in the same way ! And then to perish 
 at sea, and my corpse to lie at the bottom of the ocean, where . 
 my brother's bones had long been lying ! " Shame upon 
 you, George ! "—I said to myself—" shame ! The poor old 
 man ! " 
 
 How if I turned back? The professor had certainly 
 long since left the house. My father was alone in his room. 
 I would go to him and say—" Strike me if you will, father ; 
 I will not resist ; I will not move an eyelid f" 
 
 But I did not return, nor even slacken my pace ; I had 
 already left the town behind, and was now in the wide street 
 of the suburb, on both sides of which stood the little cottages 
 2 
 
 J>, 
 
26 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 which at this season were chiefly occupied by the bathing- 
 guests. Here and there they shone through the dark trees ; 
 some of them had lamps burning in glass globes at the doors, 
 and under trellises, and in the little gardens sat cheerful 
 groups ; song and laughter and the merry voices of children 
 came up on the pleasant evening air ; a light breeze just 
 stirred the tops of the trees over my head, and fire-flies 
 twinkled in the bushes. 
 
 The moist, warm breeze from the sea seemed to refresh 
 me ; how pleasant it must be, I thought, over there beyond 
 the houses ; and on the instant. Smith Pinnow's cottage came 
 into my mind. The very thing ! there I was sure of a shel- 
 ter. The old man would give me a bed, or at least a shake- 
 down in the forge ; or there was the old woman's great arm- 
 chair — certainly she could not sit crouching in it all night as 
 well as all day. Pity Klaus was not at home ; but then the 
 pretty Christel was there. Christel had always been a favor- 
 ite of mine ; indeed, at one time I had fancied myself really 
 in love with her, and her charms had attracted me to the hut 
 at least quite as often as the old man's four double-barrels 
 and the long single-barrel, or the mulled wine which he used 
 to sell in the winter to the skaters that thronged the beach. 
 
 Strange light-heartedness of youth ! At this moment all 
 the mischief I had done, my father's grief, my own serious 
 position, were all forgotten ; or, if not forgotten, they were 
 only the dark background upon which shone brightly and 
 cheerily the picture of the old ruinous hut with the glowing 
 forge-fire, and above all the pretty figure of the brisk Chris- 
 tel moving lightly about. What was the school — what was 
 my father's house and all the rest of my slavery to me now ? 
 At other times, when I had been out at this hour, I was 
 haunted with anxiety how I should get in without the knowl- 
 edge of my father, who went to bed punctually at half-past 
 nine : now my father had himself driven me from his house. 
 No need now to pull off my boots at the door, and creep softly 
 up the creaking stair to my chamber ; I was a free man and 
 could do what I chose, and come and go at my pleasure. 
 
 The wide street and the suburbs were now behind me ; I 
 strode along the well-known path, on my left a little meadow, 
 on my right a potato-field, here and there a solitary tree, 
 blackly defined against the clear starlit sky, and on either 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 27 
 
 side the water, whose hollow sound I heard plainer and 
 plainer as the tongue of land narrowed, especially towards the 
 west, the windward quarter, where lay the open sea. I no- 
 ticed for the first time that I had no cap. I had either lost 
 it or left it by the lamp on the hall-table ; so much the bet- 
 ter, the sea-breeze could play freely around my heated tem- 
 ples and in my loose hair. 
 
 A pair of wild swans flew high above me ; I could not see 
 them, but heard their peculiar wailing cry — two simple notes 
 that rang strangely through the silence of the night. " Good 
 speed ! " I called out to them : " Good speed, my good 
 comrades ! " 
 
 A strangely happy feeling, mingled of sadness and joy, 
 came over me, such as I had never known before. I could 
 have thrown myself upon the earth and wept ; I could have 
 leaped and shouted in exultation. I could not then compre- 
 hend what it was that so singularly possessed me. Now I 
 know well what it was : it was the sense of delight that must 
 thrill through the fish when he darts like an arrow through 
 the liquid crystal, the bird when he sweeps on expanded pin- 
 ions through the air, the stag when he bounds over the wild 
 plain ; the rapture that thrills man's breast when in the full 
 glow of youth and vigor he feels himself one with the great 
 mother, Nature. The fore-feeling of this delight, the longing 
 to taste it, are what drives the man from the narrow round 
 of circumstances in which he was born, out into the wide 
 world, across seas, into the desert, to the peaks of the Alps, 
 anywhere where the winds blow free, where the heaven 
 broadens grandly above, where he must risk his life to win it. 
 
 Does this after-thought excuse the insolent obstinacy of 
 which I had been guilty towards my father j and the terrible 
 rashness with which I staked my whole future on a cast of 
 the die ? Assuredly not. I will excuse nothing, extenuate 
 nothing ; but simply narrate what happened to me and with- 
 in me during these events and those that followed ; only giv- 
 mg an explanation here and there when circumstances seem 
 to require it. Let the story tell its own moral ; only this will 
 I add, for the consolation of thoughtful souls, that if, as can- 
 not be gainsaid, my conduct deserved punishment, this pun- 
 ishment was dealt out to me speedily, and that in no stinted 
 measure. 
 
28 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 But at the time the haggard form with the lame foot was 
 still too far behind to cast the shade of her terrors upon me ; 
 two other figures, however, as I hastened with a quickened 
 pace over the heath, appeared in sight, who had assuredly 
 nothing spectral about them, for they were standing in a 
 close embrace. They sprang apart, with a cry of alarm 
 from a female voice, as, turning sharply around a hillock, I 
 came directly upon them. The maiden caught up a great 
 basket, which she had set upon the ground, having just had 
 other employment for her arms, and her companion gave an 
 " Ahem ! " which was so loud and so confused that it could 
 only have proceeded from a very innocent breast. 
 
 " Good evening," I said ; " I trust " 
 
 " Good Lord ! is it really you ? " said the man. " Why, 
 Christel, only think it's him ! " — and Klaus caught Christel 
 Mowe, who was about taking to flight, by her dress, and de- 
 tained her. 
 
 " Oh ! I thought it was him ! " stammered Christel, whose 
 mind did not seem entirely relieved by the discovery that 
 if they had been espied it was by a good friend. 
 
 Although the position in which Klaus and Christel evi- 
 dently stood to each other did not exactly require an expla- 
 nation, still I was somewhat astonished. As long as Klaus 
 lived with his father, from the commencement of our friend- 
 ship, I had never detected in the good fellow's heart anything 
 more than brotherly affection for his pretty adopted sister ; 
 but then that was four years ago. Klaus was but sixteen 
 when he went to work with locksmith Wangerow ; and per- 
 haps this temporary separation had aroused the love which 
 otherwise would have calmly slumbered on, and possibly never 
 awakened of itself This was confirmed by what the lovers 
 themselves told me, as we walked slowly on together towards 
 the forge, often stopping for a minute at a time when the 
 story reached a point of particularly critical interest. One of 
 these points — and indeed the most serious — was the strongly 
 and even violently expressed aversion of old Pinnow to 
 the engagement. Klaus did not say so, but from all that I 
 gathered I surmised that it was not altogether impossible 
 that the old man himself had cast an eye upon his pretty 
 adopted daughter ; at least I could see no other reasonable 
 explanation of the fact that year by year, and day by day, 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 29 
 
 he had grown more morose and rancorous towards Klaus, and 
 at last, after much snarling and storming over his gadding 
 about, and his shameful waste of time, had ended by forbid- 
 ding him the house, without the good fellow — as he solemnly 
 asseverated, and I believed him — having ever given him the 
 slightest cause of complaint. Therefore they — the lovers — 
 were under the necessity of keeping their meetings secret, a 
 proceeding not without considerable difficulties, as the old 
 man was extraordinarily watchful and cunning. For instance, 
 he would send the deaf and dumb apprentice, Jacob, to the 
 town to make the necessary purchases, although he was cer- 
 tain to make some blunder or other ; and to-day he would 
 not have sent Christel, had he not heard that Klaus had 
 some late work to do on board the steamer, that would pre- 
 vent his coming ashore. 
 
 As I had a sincere affection for the good Klaus, who had 
 been my comrade in many a merry frolic by land and water, 
 and was no less fond of the rosy, soft-voiced Christel Mowe, 
 I felt the liveliest sympathy with them ; and improbable 
 though it may seem, their love, with its sorrows and its joys, 
 and the possibility of its happy termination, lay at this 
 moment nearer my heart than the thought of my own 
 fortune. My mind, however, recurred to my own situation, 
 when, as we reached a slight elevation in the path, the forge, 
 with the light of the kitchen-fire shining through its low 
 window, appeared close at hand, and Klaus asked if we 
 should now turn back. He then for the first time learned 
 that it was no mere evening stroll that had brought me so 
 far from the town across the heath, and that my intention 
 was to ask his father for shelter for a day at least, or per- 
 haps for several days. At the same time I briefly explained 
 to him the cause that compelled me to so singular a step. 
 
 Klaus seemed greatly affected by what he heard ; he 
 grasped me by the hand, and taking me a little aside, asked 
 in an agitated whisper if I had well considered what I was 
 about ? My father, he said, could not mean to deal so 
 harshly with me, and would certainly forgive me if I returned 
 at once. He himself would go and prepare the way, and 
 let the storm spend its first wrath upon him. 
 
 " But, Klaus, old fellow," I said, " you are no better off 
 than I. We are comrades in misery : your father has forbid 
 
30 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 den you his honse, just as mine has done with me. What 
 difference is there between us ? " 
 
 "This difference," Klaus answered, "that I have done 
 nothing to give my father the right to be angry with me, 
 while you tell me yourself that you — don't take it hard of 
 me — have been playing a very ugly trick." 
 
 I answered that, be that as it might, home I would never 
 go. What further I should do, I did not know : I would 
 come on board the steamer to-morrow and talk the matter 
 over with him ; it was very likely that I would need his 
 assistance. 
 
 Klaus, who saw that my resolution was taken, and who 
 had always been accustomed to adapt himself to my plans, 
 gave my hand another hearty grasp, and said : " Well, then, 
 till to-morrow." 
 
 His good heart was so full of what he had just heard that 
 he was going off without bidding Christel good-by, had I not, 
 laughing, called his attention to this highly reprehensible 
 oversight. But he did not get the kiss I had hoped for him ; 
 Christel said I had been very wicked ; and so we departed, 
 Klaus going back towards the town, and soon disappearing 
 in the darkness, and Christel and I keeping on to the forge, 
 where through the window the fire was now blazing brighter 
 than before. 
 
 " How does the old man come to be working so late ? " I 
 asked the girl. 
 
 " It just happens so," she answered. 
 
 I put other questions, to all of which I received but the 
 briefest possible answers. Christel and I had always been the 
 best friends in the world, and I had ever known her as the 
 brightest, merriest creature. I could only suppose that she 
 had been seriously offended by my bit of sportiveness. As it 
 was never my nature, unless when overcome with passion, to 
 wound the feelings of any one, least of all a poor girl of 
 whom I was really fond, so I did not for a moment hesitate 
 to frankly ask her pardon, if I had offended her, saying that 
 what I had done was with the best intention in the world, 
 namely, that her lover should not, through my fault, leave 
 her without a good-by kiss. Christel made me no answer, 
 and I was about placing my arm around her trim waist, in 
 order to give more emphasis to my petition for forgiveness. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 3X 
 
 when the girl suddenly burst into tears, and in a frightened 
 tone said that I must not go with her to " his " house ; and 
 thai it was anyhow of no use, for "he " would certainly give 
 me no lodging there. 
 
 This declaration and this warning would have made most 
 persons hesitate. The forge was in such a lonely place, the 
 reputation of the old smith was far from being a good one, 
 and I was sufficiently versed in robber-stories to recall the 
 various romantic situations where the robber's daughter 
 warns the hero, who has lost his way, against the remaining 
 members of her estimable family, and at the same time reveals 
 her love for him in a style equally discreet and intelligent. 
 But "I was never subject to those attacks of timidity to which 
 imaginative persons are so liable ; and besides, I thought, if 
 the old man is jealous of his son — and this I set down as 
 certain — why may he not be so of me "i — and in the third 
 place, a little cur at this moment rushed, furiously barking, 
 at my legs, and simultaneously appeared a stout figure at 
 the open door of the forge, and Smith Pinnow's familiar voice 
 called out in his deep bass : " Who is there ? " 
 
 " A friend — George Hartwig," I answered, tossing the lit- 
 tle yelping brute with my foot into the bushes. 
 
 Christel must have given the old man an intimation of 
 what I wanted as she pushed by him into the house, for he 
 said at once, without moving from his post in the doorway, 
 " I can give you no lodging here ; my house is not an inn." 
 
 " I know that very well, Pinnow," I answered, stepping 
 up and offering my hand ; " but I thought you were my friend." 
 
 The old man did not take my hand, but muttered some- 
 thing that I did not catch. 
 
 " I shall not return home, you maybe sure of that," I con- 
 tinued. " So, if you do not mean that I shall lie here in the 
 bushes, and join your dog in howling at the moon, you will 
 let me in, and mix me a glass of grog — half-and-half, you 
 know ; and take a glass or two yourself: it will do you good, 
 and put better thoughts in your head." 
 
 With these words, I laid my hand on the shoulder of the 
 inhospitable smith, and gave him a hearty shake, in token of 
 my friendly feelings. 
 
 " Would you attack a weak old man in his own house ?" 
 he exclaimed in an angry tone, and in my turn I felt on my 
 
32 Hammer attd Anvil. 
 
 shoulders two hands whose size and steely hardness were, 
 for " a weak old man," quite remarkable. My blood, which 
 the cooler night air had by no means yet lowered to the desi- 
 rable temperature, needed but little provocation ; and besides, 
 here was too favorable an opportunity to put to the proof my 
 much-admired strength ; so I seized my antagonist, jerked 
 him at a single effort from the threshold, and hurled him a 
 couple of paces to one side. I had not the slightest design 
 of forcing an entrance into his house ; but the smith, who 
 feared that this was my intention, and was resolved to pre- 
 vent it at all hazards, threw himself upon me with such fury 
 that I was obliged in self-defence to exert my whole strength. 
 I had had many a hard tussle in my time, and had always 
 come off victorious ; but never before had I been so equally 
 matched as now. Perhaps it was from some small remains 
 of regard for the old man who now assaulted me, in sailor 
 fashion, with heavy blows of his fist, that I refrained from 
 repaying him in the same coin, but endeavored to grapple 
 with him. At last I felt that I had him in my power : seiz- 
 ing a lower hold, I raised him from the ground, and the next 
 moment he would have measured his length upon the sand, 
 when a peal of laughter resounded close at hand. Startled, 
 I lost my hold, and my antagonist, no sooner felt himself 
 free, than he rushed upon me again. Unprepared for this 
 new attack, I lost my balance, stumbled and fell, my antag- 
 onist above me. I felt his hands of iron at my throat, when 
 suddenly the laughter ceased. " For shame, old man !" 
 cried a sonorous voice, " he has not deserved that of you ;" 
 and a pair of strong arms tore the smith from me. I sprang 
 to my feet and confronted my deliverer, for so I must call 
 him, as without his interference I do not know what would 
 have happened to me. 
 
 -o- 
 
 CH AFTER V. 
 
 HE was, as well as I could distinguish by the faint light 
 of the moon that was now partly obscured by clouds, 
 a man of tall stature and slender frame ; so alert in 
 his movements that I took him to be young, or at least com- 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 33 
 
 paratively young, until, at a sudden turn he made, the flick- 
 ering glare of the fire through the open door fell upon his 
 face, and I saw that his features were deeply furrowed, 
 apparently with age. And as now, holding my ha«d, he led 
 me into the forge, which glowed with a strong light, he 
 seemed to me to be neither young nor old, or rather both at 
 once. 
 
 It is true, the moment was not precisely favorable to phys- 
 iognomical investigations. The stranger surveyed me with 
 large eyes that flashed uncannily out of the crumpled folds 
 and wrinkles that surrounded them from head to foot, and 
 felt my shoulders and arms, as a jockey might examine a 
 horse that has got over a distance in three minutes that it 
 takes other horses five to accompUsh. Then, turning on his 
 heel, he burst into a peal of laughter, as the smith turned 
 upon the deaf and dumb apprentice, Jacob, who all this time 
 had been blowing the bellows, quite indifferent to what was 
 going forward, and gave him a push which spun him around 
 like a top. 
 
 " Bravo ! bravo ! " cried the stranger, " that was well 
 done ! Easier handling him than the other — eh, Pinnow t " 
 
 "The other may thank his stars that he gets off so 
 easily," growled the smith, as he drew a red-hot bar from 
 the coals. 
 
 " I am ready to try it again at any time, Pinnow," I cried, 
 and was delighted that the stranger, with an amused look, 
 nodded his approbation, while with affected solemnity he 
 cried : " For sham^ young man, for shame ! a poor old 
 man ! Do you consider that a thing to boast of ? " 
 
 The smith had seized his heavy forge-hammer, and was 
 plying the glowing bar with furious strokes until the sparks 
 flew in showers, and the windows rattled in the frames. 
 
 The stranger stopped his ears. " For heaven's sake, 
 man," he cried, " stop that infamous noise ! Who in the 
 devil's name can stand it, do you think ? Do you suppose 
 that I have your plebeian ears ? Stop, I say, or " 
 
 He gave the smith a push, as the latter had just before 
 done to his apprentice, but the old man stood more firmly 
 than the young one. With a furious look he raised his ham- 
 mer — it seemed as if the next moment he would bring it 
 down on the stranger's head. 
 
34 Havimcr and Anvil. 
 
 " Have you gone mad ? " said the stranger, casting a stern 
 look at the enraged smith. Then, as the latter slowly low- 
 ered the hammer, he began speaking to him in an under- 
 tone, to which the old man answered in a muttering voice, 
 in which I thought I could at intervals distinguish my own 
 name. 
 
 " It may be," said the stranger ; " but here he is now, and 
 here he shall stav." 
 
 " Excuse me," I said, " I have not the least idea of thrust- 
 ing my company upon you : I would not have set my foot in 
 the house, had not " 
 
 " Now /le's beginning again," exclaimed the stranger, with 
 a laugh of hal vexation ; " will you ever come to your 
 senses, you two ? What I want is peace and quiet, and 
 above all, 'some supper ; and you shall keep me company. 
 Hallo ! Christel ! Where is the girl ? You, Pinnow, take 
 off your leather apron and come in too." 
 
 With these words he opened the low door on the right of 
 the forge-fire, which led from the forge into the living-room. 
 I had often enough been in the latter, and indeed I knew 
 the whole place well : the living-room was a moderately large 
 apartment, but only half as high from floor to ceiling as the 
 forge ; the sleeping-rooms lying above it, which were reached 
 by a steep stair, or sort of ladder, in a corner of the room, 
 passing through a hole in the ceiling. There was also a 
 door, reached by two steps, which led into a small side- 
 room, where the smith's mother slept. This old woman, a 
 prodigy of age, was now crouching in her easy-chair in her 
 usual corner, close to the stove, which was heated from with- 
 out. In the middle of the room stood a heavv oaken table, 
 and on the table the great basket which Christel had brought 
 from the town. Christel herself was apparently searching 
 for something in a closet at the further end of the room. 
 
 " Now, Christel," said the stranger, taking a light to look 
 into the basket, " what have you brought ? That looks in- 
 viting. But bestir yourself, for I am hungry as a wolf — and 
 you too," turning to me — " are you not ? One is always hun- 
 gry at your age. Come this way to the window. Sit 
 down." 
 
 He made me sit on one of the two benches that stood in 
 the recess of the window, seated himself on the other, and 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 35 
 
 continued in a somewhat lower tone, with a glance at Chris- 
 tel, who was now, with a noiseless despatch, beginning to 
 set the table : 
 
 " A pretty girl : rather too much of a blonde, perhaps ; 
 she is a Hollander' ; but that is in keeping here : is not the 
 old woman nodding there in her easy chair just like a picture 
 by Terburg ? Then old Pinnow, with the face of a bull-dog 
 and the -figure of a- seal, and Jacob with his carp's eyes ! 
 But I like it ; I seldom fail, when I have been in the town 
 without my carriage, as happens to-day, to look in here, and 
 let old Pinnow set me over ; especially as with a good wind 
 I can get across in half an hour, while by the town-ferry it 
 takes me a full hour, and then afterwards as much more be- 
 fore I reach my estate." 
 
 The stranger spoke in a courteous, engaging manner, 
 which pleased me exceedingly ; and while speaking, repeat- 
 edly stroked with his left hand his thick beard, which fell 
 half-way down his breast, and from time to time glanced at 
 a diamond ring on his finger. I began to feel a great respect 
 for the strange gentleman, and was extremely curious to 
 know who he was, but could not venture to ask him. 
 
 " What an abominable atmosphere in this room ! " he 
 suddenly exclaimed; "enough to make one faint;" and 
 he was about opening the window at which we were sitting, 
 but checking himself, he turned and said : " To be sure ! 
 the old woman might take cold. Christel, can't you get the 
 old lady to bed ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir ; directly," said Christel, who had just linished 
 setting the table, and going up to the old woman, screamed 
 in her ear, " Grandmother, you must go to bed ! " 
 
 The old woman received this intimation with evident dis- 
 favor, for she shook her head energetically, but at last 
 allowed herself to be raised from her crouching position, and 
 tottered from the room, leaning on Christel's arm. When 
 Christel reached the steps that led to the side room she 
 looked round. I sprang to her assistance, and carried the 
 old lady up the steps, while Christel opened the door, through 
 which she then disappeared with her charge. 
 
 " Well done, young man," said my new acquaintance, as I 
 came back to him ; " we must always be polite to ladies. 
 And now we will open the window." 
 
Havimcr and Am'il. 
 
 He did so, and the night air rushed in. It had grown 
 darker ; the moon was liidden behind a heavy mass of cloud 
 that was rolling up from the west ; from the sea, which was 
 but a few paces distant, came a hollow roaring and plashing 
 of tlie waves breaking on the beach ; a few drops of rain 
 drove into my face. 
 
 The stranger looked out intently at the weather. " We 
 must be off presently," I heard him say to himself Then 
 turning to me : " Ikit now we will have some supper ; I am 
 almost dying of hunger. If Pinnow prefers grumbling to 
 eating, let him consult his taste. Come." 
 
 He took his seat at the table, inviting me by a gesture to 
 place myself beside him. I had, during the day, eaten far 
 less than 1 had drunk, and my robust frame, which had long 
 since overcome the effects of my intoxication, now impera- 
 tively demanded sustenance. So I very willingly complied 
 with the invitation of my entertainer ; and indeed the con- 
 tents of the basket which Christel had now unpacked were 
 of a nature to tempt a far more fiistidious palate than mine. 
 There were caviare, smoked salmon, ham, fresh sausage, 
 pickles ; nor was a supply of wine wanting. Two bottles 
 of Bordeau.x, with the label of a choice vintage, stood upon 
 the table, and out of the basket peeped the silvery neck of 
 a bottle of Champagne. 
 
 " Quite a neat display," said the stranger, filling both our 
 glasses, helping himself first from one dish and then from 
 another, and inviting me to follow his example, while chat- 
 ting at intervals in his pleasant fashion. Without his ques- 
 tioning me directly, we had somehow come to speak of my 
 affairs ; and, unsuspicious and communicative as I was, be- 
 fore the first bottle was emptied I had given him a prettv 
 fair account of my neither long nor eventful life. The oc- 
 currences of the past day, so momentous for me, occupied 
 rather more time in the recital. In the ardor of my narra- 
 tion, I had, without observing it, filled and drunk several 
 glasses of wine ; the weight that had laid upon my spirits 
 liad disappeared ; my old cheerful humor had returned, all 
 the more as this meeting with the mysterious stranger under 
 such singular circumstances, gave my imagination room for 
 the wildest conjectures. I described our flight from the 
 school, I mimicked Professor Lederer's voice and manner, 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 37 
 
 I threw all my powers of satire into my sketch of the com- 
 merzienrath, and I fear that I smote the table with my fist 
 when I came to speak of Arthur's shameful ing^ratitude, and 
 the outrageous partiality of the steuerrath. But here my 
 talkative tongue was checked ; the melancholy dimness of 
 my fither's study spread a gloom over my spirits ; I fell into 
 a tragic tone, as I swore that though I should have to go on 
 a pilgrimage to the North Cape, barefoot, as I was already 
 bareheaded, and beg my bread from door to door — or, as 
 begging was not my forte, should I have to take to the road 
 — I would never more set foot in my father's house again, 
 after he had once driven me from it. That what I was in 
 duty bound to bear from a parent had here reached its limits ; 
 that nature's bond was cancelled, and that my resolution was 
 as firmly fixed as the stars in the sky, and if any one chose 
 to ridicule it, he did it at his peril. 
 
 With these words I sprang from the table, and set down 
 the glass from which I had been drinking, so violently, that 
 it shivered to pieces. For the stranger, whose evident en- 
 joyment of my story had at times encouraged me, and at 
 others embarrassed, when I came .to my peroration, which 
 was delivered with extreme pathos, burst into a paroxysm of 
 laughter which seemed as if it would never end. 
 
 " You have been kind to me," I exclaimed ; " true, I think 
 I could have held my own without your assistance ; but no 
 matter for that — you came to my help at the right moment, 
 and now you have entertained me with food and drink. You 
 are welcome to laugh as much as you please, but I, for my 
 part, will not stay to listen to it. Farewell ! " 
 
 I looked round for my cap ; then, remembering that I had 
 none, strode to the door, when the stranger, who in the mean- 
 time had also risen from his seat, hastened after me, caught 
 me by the arm, and in the grave but kindly tone that had 
 previously so charmed me, said : 
 
 "Young man, I entreat your pardon. And now come 
 back and take your seat again. I offer you the word of a 
 nobleman that I will respect your feelings, even if your ex- 
 pression of them takes a somewhat singular form." 
 
 His dark eyes gleamed, and there were twitchings in the 
 maze of wrinkles that surrounded them. 
 
 " You are jesting with me," I said. 
 
38 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 "I am not," he replied, "upon the word of a nobleman. 
 On the contrary, you please me extremely, and I was sev- 
 eral times on the point of interrupting your story to ask a 
 favor of you. Come and stay awhile with me. Whether 
 you are reconciled with your father, as I hope, or if the 
 breach be past closing, as you believe, at all events you 
 must first have a roof over your head ; and you cannot pos- 
 sibly stay here, where you are evidently not wanted. As I 
 said, I will feel it a favor if you will accept my invitation. I 
 cannot offer you much, but — there is my hand ! Good ! now 
 we will pledge good fellowship in champagne." 
 
 I had already, forgiven my mysterious but amiable ac- 
 quaintance, and pledged him in the sparkling wine with all 
 my heart. With merriment and laughter we had soon emp- 
 tied the flask, when the smith entered. He had thrown off 
 his leather apron, donned a sailor's jacket, and wrapped a 
 thick muffler round his muscular neck. It now struck me 
 for the first time that he had not on the great blue spectacles 
 which for several years I had never seen him without, and 
 which he wore on account of his alleged near-sightedness : 
 and it now occurred to me that he was not wearing them at 
 the time of our quarrel. Still, I might be mistaken on that 
 point ; but I had no time to reflect upon so unimportant a 
 matter, for my attention was at once fixed by some words 
 exchanged in a low tone between the smith and the stranger. 
 
 " Is it time ? " asked the latter. 
 
 " It is," replied the smith. 
 
 " The wind is favorable .-• " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Everything in order .'' " 
 
 " Except the anchor, which you would not let me finish.' 
 
 "We can do without it." 
 
 "Not well." 
 
 The stranger stood for a few moments in thought ; his 
 handsome face seemed suddenly to have grown twenty years 
 older ; he stroked his beard, and I noticed that he was ob- 
 serving me from the corner of his eye. He then caught the 
 smith by the arm and led him out of the door, which he 
 closed behind him. Outside the door I heard them talking, 
 but could make out nothing, for the stranger spoke in a sub- 
 dued voice, and the smith's growling speech was at all times 
 
 *| 
 
 % 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 39 
 
 difficult to understand ; presently, however, the dialogue 
 grew louder, and, as it seemed, more and more vehement, 
 especially on the part of the smith. 
 
 " I will have it so ! " cried the stranger. 
 
 " And I say no ! " maintained the smith. 
 
 " It is my affair." 
 
 "And my affair as well." 
 
 The voices sank again, and presently I heard the outer 
 door creak. They had left the forge ; I stepped to the 
 open window and saw them go to the little shed close to the 
 beach, by which Pinnow's boat was usually drawn up on the 
 sand. They disappeared in the shadow of the shed ; then 
 I heard a chain rattle, and a grating on the sand ; they were 
 launching the boat. All was then still : the only sounds 
 audible were the stronger roaring of the sea, mingled with 
 the rush of the wind in the leaves of the old oak, which 
 threw its half-decayed boughs over the forge. 
 
 I heard a rustling in the room, and turned quickly round. 
 It was Christel ; she stood behind me, looking with an in- 
 tense gaze, as I had just done, through the window into the 
 darkness. 
 
 " Well, Christel ! " I said. 
 
 She placed her finger on her lips, and whispered, " Hush ! " 
 then beckoned me from the window. Surprised rather than 
 alarmed, I followed her. 
 
 " What is the matter, Christel ? " 
 
 " Don't go with them, whatever' you do. And go away 
 from here at once. . You cannot stay here." 
 
 " But, Christel, why not ? And who is the gentleman ? " 
 
 " I must not tell you ; I must not speak his name. If 
 you go with them, you will learn it soon enough ; but do 
 not go ! " 
 
 " Why > What will they do to me, Christel ? " 
 
 " Do ? They will do nothing to you. But do not go with 
 them." 
 
 A noise was heard outside ; Christel turned away and 
 began clearing the table, while the voices of the two who 
 were returning from the beach came nearer and nearer. 
 
 I do not know what another would have done in my place ; 
 I can only say that the girl's warning produced upon me an 
 effect precisely opposite to that intended. True, I well 
 
40 - Haynmcr and Anvil. 
 
 remember that my heart beat quicker, and that I cast a hur- 
 ried glance at the four double-barrels and the long fowling- 
 piece that hung in the old places on the wall ; but the 
 desire to go through with the adventure was now fully 
 awaked in me. I felt equal to any danger that might beset 
 me ; and, for the matter of that, Christel had just said that 
 no harm was intended to me. 
 
 Besides — and this circumstance is, perhaps, the real key to 
 my conduct that evening — the stranger, whoever he might 
 be, with his partly serious and partly jocose, half-sympathetic 
 and half-mocking language, had somehow established a mys- 
 terious influence over me. In later years, when I heard the 
 legend of the Piper of Hameln, whom the children were 
 irresistibly compelled to follow, I at once recalled this night 
 and the stranger. 
 
 He now appeared at the door, dre.ised in a coarse, wide 
 sailor's jacket, and wearing a low-crowned tarpaulin hat in 
 place of his cloth cap. Pinnow opened a press in the wall, 
 and produced a similar outfit for me, which the stranger 
 made me put on. 
 
 " It is turning cold," he remarked, " and your present 
 dress will be but little protection to you, though I trust our 
 passage will be a short one. So : now you are equipped 
 capitally : now let us be off." 
 
 The smith had stepped to Christel and whispered her a 
 few words, to which she made no reply. She had turned 
 her back upon me since- the men had entered, and did not 
 once turn her head as I bade her good-night. 
 
 " Come on," said the stranger. 
 
 We went through the forge, where the fire had now burnt 
 down, and stepped out into the windy night. After proceed- 
 ing a few steps, I turned my head : the light in the living- 
 room was extinguished ; the house lay dark in the darkness, 
 and the wind roared and moaned in the dry branches of the 
 old oak. 
 
 The noise of the sea had increased ; the wind had fresh- 
 ened to a stiff breeze ; the moon had set ; no star shone 
 through the scudding clouds which from time to time were 
 lighted with a lurid gleam, followed by a mutter of distant 
 thunder. 
 
 We reached the boat which was already half in the 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 41 
 
 water, and they made me get on board, while the stranger, 
 Pinnow, and the deaf and dumb Jacob, who had suddenly 
 made his appearance out of the darkness, and was, as well 
 as I could make out, also in sailor's dress and fisherman's 
 boots — pushed off. In a few minutes we were flying 
 through the water ; the stranger stood at the helm, but pres- 
 ently yielded it to Pfhnow, when the latter with Jacob's 
 assistance had finished setting the sails, and took his seat 
 beside me. 
 
 " Now, how do you like this } " he asked me. 
 
 " Glorious ! " I exclaimed. " But I think, Pinnow, that 
 you had better take in another reef; we are carrying too 
 much sail, and over yonder " — I pointed to the west — " it 
 has an ugly look." 
 
 " You seem to be no greenhorn," said the stranger. 
 
 Pinnow made no reply but gave the hasty order : " Take 
 in the foresail," at the same time putting up the helm and 
 letting the boat fall off the wind. It was not a moment too 
 soon, for a squall striking us an instant after made her 
 careen so violently that I thought she would founder, though 
 luckily she righted again. The jib was taken in altogether, 
 and the foresail now hoisted only half-mast high, and 
 under this canvas we flew through the waves, upon whose 
 whitening crests played the pale glare of the lightning at 
 ever shorter intervals, and still louder and louder followed 
 the roll of the thunder. 
 
 After a while the squall abated as rapidly as it had come 
 up, and the stars began to shine here and there through the 
 clouds. I came aft — I had been helping Jacob to handle 
 the sails — and took my seat again by the stranger. He 
 passed his hand over my jacket : 
 
 " You are wet to the skin," he said. 
 
 " So are we all," I answered. 
 
 " But you are not used to it." 
 
 " But I am nineteen." 
 
 " No older .? " 
 
 " Not two months." 
 
 " You are a man." 
 
 I felt more pride from this short speech than I had ever felt 
 shame during the longest diatribe of Professor Lederer, or any 
 of my other teachers. There were few things which I would 
 
42 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 not have been willing at that moment to attempt had the 
 stranger required it ; but he offered no compact with the 
 powers of darkness, nor anything of the sort, but only ad- 
 vised me to lie down in the boat and be covered with a piece 
 of canvas, as the trip was likely to last longer than had been 
 expected, the wind having hauled rQgp[jb another quarter ; 
 I could be of no more service nox^^fand " Sleep is a warm 
 cloak, as Sancho Panza says," he added. 
 
 I protested, affirming that I could keep awake for three 
 days and three nights together ; but I yielded to his insist- 
 ence, and had hardly stretched myself on the bottom of the 
 boat, when sleep, which I had thought so far, fell upon me 
 heavy as lead. 
 
 How long I slept I do not exactly know ; but I was awak- 
 ened by the grating of the keel upon the sand of the shore. 
 The stranger helped me up, but I was still so heavy with 
 sleep that I cannot remember how I got ashore. The night 
 was still dark ; I could distinguish nothing but the gleaming 
 crests of the waves breaking on a long level beach, from 
 which the land rose higher as it ran inward. When I had 
 recovered my full consciousness the boat had already pushed 
 off; my unknown friend and I were following a path that 
 ascended among trees. He held me by the hand, and in a 
 friendly, pleasant manner pointed out the various irregulari- 
 ties of the path, in which he seemed to know every stone and 
 every projecting root. At last we reached the top of the 
 cliff; before us lay the open country, and in the distance a 
 dark pile, which I gradually made out, in the dawning light, 
 to be a mass of buildings, with a park or wood of immense 
 trees. 
 
 " Here we are," said the stranger at last, as, after passing 
 through a silent court-yard, we stood before a great dark 
 building. 
 
 " Where ? " I asked. 
 
 " At my house," he responded, laughing. We were now 
 standing in the hall, and he was trying to light a match. 
 
 " And where is that ? " I asked again. I could not my- 
 self have told how I found the boldness to put this question. 
 
 The match kindled ; he lighted a lamp which was in read- 
 iness, and the light fell upon his long dishevelled beard and 
 haggard face, in which the rain and surf seemed to have 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 43 
 
 deepened every wrinkle to a fold and every fold to a furrow. 
 He looked at me fixedly with his large deep-set eyes. 
 
 " At Zehrendorf, " he replied, " the house of Malte von 
 Zehren, whom they call ' The Wild.' You don't regret 
 having come with me .'' " 
 
 " That I do not," I answered him with energy. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ON awaking the next morning, it was long ere I could 
 arrive at a clear consciousness of my situation. My 
 sleep had been disturbed by frightful dreams, which 
 had left an oppression unon my spirits. It still seemed to 
 me that I heard my father's voice, when a part of my dream 
 recurred to my memory. I had been fleeing from my father, 
 and came to a smooth pond, into which I threw myself, to 
 escape by swimming. But the smooth pond suddenly changed 
 into a stormy sea, upon whose waves I was now tossed to- 
 wards heaven, and now plunged into the abyss. I was para- 
 lyzed with terror ; and strove in vain to call to my father for 
 help, while my father did not see me, although he ran up 
 and down the shore, within reach of me, wringing his hands 
 and breaking into loud lamentations over his drowned son. 
 I passed my hand repeatedly over my brow to drive away 
 the frightful images, and opened my eyes and looking 
 around, found myself in the room into which my host had 
 conducted me on the previous night. The light in the great 
 bare apartment was so dim, that I thought at first it must be 
 very early ; but my watch had stopped at nine, and on ex- 
 amination I discovered that this greenish twilight was pro- 
 duced by the thick foliage of trees whose branches touched 
 the solitary window. At this moment a ray of sunlight found 
 its way through some aperture, and fell upon the wall in front 
 of me, upon which I at first thought the most singular and 
 fantastic figures were painted, until closer observation 
 showed me that the dark hangings had here and there de- 
 tatched themselves from the lighter ground, and hung in ir- 
 
44 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 regular strips, which seemed the strange garments of gro- 
 tesque forms. 
 
 Altogether the appearance of the room was as inhospi- 
 table as it well could be : the plaster in several places had 
 fallen from the ceiling, and lay in white fragments upon the 
 floor, which was laid in parquetry, but now cracked in all 
 directions. The whole furniture consisted of a great cano- 
 pied bed, the curtains of which were of faded green damask \ 
 two high-backed chairs, covered with siniilar materials, one 
 of which posessed its normal complement of legs, while the 
 other, which in years had not yet learned to stand upon 
 three, was propped against the wall ; and finally, a pine wash- 
 stand painted white, in singular contrast to the great oval 
 mirror in a rich antique rococo frame, which hung above it \ 
 although it is true that the gilding on this piece of magnifi- 
 cence was in many places tarnished by age. 
 
 I made these observations while putting on my clothes, 
 which in the short time I had slept by no means dried as 
 thoroughly as I could have desired. But this was but a trifl- 
 ing discomfort : the thought that troubled me was, how 
 should I dress myself the next day, and after .'' upon which 
 followed the associate reflection : — what was going to become 
 of me altogether "> 
 
 The answer to this question was by no means clear ; and 
 after some consideration I hit upon the idea that it would 
 be as well, before I came to a decision — which in any event 
 was not a matter of such instant urgency — to consult my 
 friendly host upon the subject. Singular enough ! up to this 
 day I had always rejected the advice of those whose position 
 and knowledge best qualified them to give it, and had al- 
 ways maintained that I knew best what I had to do ; and 
 now I found myself looking with a sort of superstitious re- 
 liance to a man whom I had but just learned to know, and that 
 under circumstances by no means of a nature to inspire con- 
 fidence, and whose name was in evil repute, far and near. 
 It was in this fact, possibly, that lay the greatest attraction 
 for me. " The Wild Zehren " had held a place in my boy- 
 ish imagination by the side of Rinaldo Rinaldini and Karl 
 Moor ; and I had keenly envied my friend Arthur, who used 
 to tell the wildest stories about him, the possession of such 
 an uncle. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 45 
 
 Of late years he had been less talked about : I once heard 
 the steuerrath, in a public garden, in the presence of my 
 father and others, thanking God that the '• mad fellow " had 
 at last shown some signs of reformation, and the family 
 might consider itself relieved from the perpetual fear that 
 sooner or later he would come to some bad end. At the 
 same time some allusions were made to a daughter, at which 
 several of the gentlemen whispered together, and Justizrath 
 Heckepfennig shrugged his shoulders. Later, Arthur told 
 me that his cousin had eloped with a young tutor, but had 
 not gone far, as his uncle gave chase to the fugitives and 
 caught them before they reached the ferry. She was very 
 beautiful, he said further, and on that account he the more 
 regretted that his father and his uncle were on such unfriendly 
 terms, for, owing to this disagreement, he had never seen 
 Constance (I remembered the name) but once, and that was 
 when she was a child. 
 
 All this and much more in this connection came into my 
 mind while I finished my simple toilet before the dim mirror 
 with the tarnished rococo frame ; and as I thought of the 
 pretty cousin, I felt chagrin at the tardy development of 
 the beard that had begun to sprout on my upper lip. I 
 caught up the sailor's hat which I had brought with me 
 when I landed, and left the room to look for Herr von Ze- 
 hren. 
 
 Pretty soon it became evident that this very natural inten- 
 tion was not so easy of accomplishment. The room which 
 I left had, luckily, only two doors in it ; but that which I 
 entered had three, so that I had to make a choice between 
 two, not including that which led into my chamber. Appar- 
 ently I did not hit upon the right one, for I came upon a 
 narrow corridor, very dimly lighted through a closed and 
 curtained glass door. Another which I tried, opened into 
 a hall of stateliest dimensions, the three windows of which 
 looked out upon a large park-like garden. From this hall I 
 passed into a great two-windowed room looking upon the 
 court, and from this one happily back to the one adjoining 
 my chamber, from which I had set out. I had to laugh when I 
 made this discovery, but my laughter sounded so strangely 
 hollow as to check my mirth at once. And indeed it was 
 no wonder if laughter had a strange sound in these empty 
 
46 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 rooms, which seemed as if they had heard few sounds of 
 merriment In recent times, however joyous they might have 
 been in years by-gone. Yox this room was just as bare and 
 cheerless as that in which I had slept ; with just such ragged 
 hangings, crumbling ceilings, and worm-eaten, half ruinous 
 furniture, which might once have adorned a princely apart- 
 ment. And so was it with the other rooms, which I now 
 examined again more attentively than at first. Everywhere 
 the same signs of desolation and decay ; everywhere mourn- 
 ful evidences of vanished splendor : here and there upon 
 the walls hung life-size portraits, which seemed to be 
 spectrally fading into the dark background from which they 
 had once shone brilliantly \ in one room lay immense piles 
 of books in venerable leather bindings, among which a pair 
 of rats dived out of sight as I entered ; in another, otherwise 
 entirely empty, was a harp with broken chords, and the 
 scabbard of a dress-sword, with its broad silken scarf. 
 Everywhere rubbish, dust and cobwebs ; windows dim with 
 neglect, except where their broken panes offered a free pas- 
 sage to the birds that had scattered straw and dirt around — 
 to a plaster cornice still clung a pair of abandoned swallow's 
 nests ; everywhere a stifling, musty atmosphere of ruin and 
 decay. 
 
 After I had wandered through at least a half dozen more 
 rooms, a lucky turn brought me into a spacious hall, from 
 which descended a broad oaken staircase adorned with an- 
 tique carved work. This staircase also, that once with its 
 stained windows, its dark panels reaching almost to the ceil- 
 ing, its antlers, old armor, and standards, must have pre- 
 sented an unusually stately and imposing appearance, offered 
 the same dreary picture of desolation as the rest ; and I 
 slowly descended it amazed, and to a certain extent con- 
 founded, by all that I had seen. More than one step 
 cracked and yielded as I placed my foot upon it, and as I 
 instinctively laid my hand upon the broad balustrade, the 
 wood felt singularlily soft, but it was from the accumulated 
 dust of years, into which, indeed, the whole stair seemed 
 slowly dissolving. 
 
 I knew that I had not come this way the previous night, 
 when my host conducted me to my chamber. A steep stair, 
 as I afterwards learned, led from a side hall directly to that 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 47 
 
 dark corridor which adjoined the room I had occupied. I 
 had, therefore, never before been in the great hall in which 
 I was now standing ; and as I did not wish to go knocking 
 in vain at half-a-dozen doors, and the great house-door that 
 fronted the stairs, proved to be locked, I succeeded with 
 some difficulty in opening a back-door, which luckily was 
 only bolted, and entered a small court. The low buildings 
 surrounding this, had probably been used as kitchens, or 
 served other domestic purposes in former times ; but at 
 present they were all vacant, and looked up piteously with 
 their empty window-frames and crumbling tile-roofs to the 
 bare and ruinous main-building, as a pack of half-starved 
 dogs to a master who himself has nothing to eat. 
 
 I was no longer a child : my organization was far from 
 being a susceptible one, nor did I ever lightly fall into the 
 fantastic mood ; but I confess, that a strange and weird sen- 
 sation came over me among these corpses of houses from 
 which the life had evidently long since departed. So far I 
 had not come upon the slightest trace of active human life. 
 As it was now, so it must have been for years, a trysting 
 place and tilt yard for owls and sparrows, rats and mice. 
 Just so might have looked a castle enchanted by the wicked- 
 est of all witches ; and I do not think that I should have been 
 beyond measure astonished, if the hag had herself arisen, 
 with bristling hair, from the great kettle in the wash-house, 
 into which I cast a glance, and flown up through the wide 
 chimney upon one of the broom-sticks that were lying about. 
 
 This wash-house had a door opening upon a little yard 
 surrounded by a hedge, and divided by a deep trench, 
 bridged by a half-rotten plank ; which yard, as was evident 
 from the egg-shells and bones scattered about, had formerly 
 been a receptacle for the refuse of the kitchen, but grass 
 had grown over the old rubbish-heaps, and a pair of wild 
 rabbits darted at sight of me into their burrows in the trench. 
 They might possibly preserve some legend of a time when 
 the trench had been full of water, and these burrows the 
 habitations of water-rats, but at such a remote period of 
 antiquity that the whole tradition ran into the mythical. 
 
 Hearing a sound at hand which seemed to indicate the 
 presence of a human being, I pushed through the hedge 
 into the garden, and following the direction of the sound, 
 
 .1 
 
48 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 found an old man who was loading a small cart with pales, 
 which he was breaking with a hatchet out of a high stock- 
 ade. This stockade had evidently once served as the fence 
 of a deer-park ; in the high grass lay the ruins of two deer- 
 sheds blown down by the wind : the stags who used to feed 
 from the racks, and try their antlers against the paling, had 
 probably long since found their way to the kitchen, and why 
 should the paling itself not follow ? 
 
 So at least thought the withered old man whom I found 
 engaged in this singular occupation. When he first came 
 upon the estate, which was in the life-time of the present 
 owner's father, there were forty head of deer in the park, he 
 said ; but in the year '12, when the French landed upon the 
 island and took up quarters in the castle, more than half 
 were shot, and the rest broke out and were never recovered, 
 though a part were afterwards killed in the neighboring 
 forest which belonged to Prince Prora. 
 
 After giving me this information, the old man fell to his 
 work again, and I tried in vain to draw him into further con- 
 versation. His communicativeness was exhausted, and only 
 with difficulty could I get from him that the master had gone 
 out shooting, and would scarcely be back before evening, 
 perhaps not so soon. 
 
 " And the young lady ? " 
 
 " Most likely up yonder," said the old man, pointing with 
 his axe-handle in the direction of the park ; then slipping 
 the straps of his cart over his decrepit shoulders, he slowly 
 dragged it along the grass-grown path towards the castle. I 
 watched him till he disappeared behind the bushes ; for a 
 while I could still hear the creaking of his cart, and then all 
 was silent. 
 
 Silence without a sound, just as in the ruinous castle. 
 But here the silence had nothing oppressive \ the sky here 
 was blue, without even the smallest speck of cloud ; here 
 shone the bright morning sun, throwing the shadows of the 
 aged oaks upon the broad meadows, and sparkling in the 
 rain-drops which the night's storm had left upon the bushes. 
 Now and then a light breeze stirred, and the long sprays, 
 heavy with rain, waved languidly, and the tall spires of grass 
 bent before it. 
 
 It was all very beautiful. I inhaled deep draughts of the 
 
Hammer and A7ivil. 49 
 
 cool sweet air, and once more felt the sense of delight that 
 had come over me the evening before, as the wild swans 
 swept above me, high in air. How often, in after days, have 
 I thought of that evening and this morning, and confessed 
 to myself that I then, in spite of all, in spite of my folly and 
 frivolity and misconduct, was happy, unspeakably happy — a 
 short lived, treacherous bliss, it is true, but still bliss — a 
 paradise in which I could not stay, from which the stern re- 
 alities of life, and nature itself, expelled me — and yet a 
 paradise ! 
 
 Slowly loitering on, I penetrated deeper into the green 
 wilderness, for wilderness it was. The path was scarcely 
 distinguishable amid the luxuriant weeds and wild over- 
 growth of bushes — the path which in by-gone days had been 
 swept by the trains of ladies fair, and by which the little feet 
 of children had merrily tripped along. The surface grew 
 hilly; at the end lay the park, and over me venerable beeches 
 arched their giant boughs. Again the path descended to- 
 wards an opening in the forest, and I stood upon the margin 
 of a moderately large, circular tarn, in whose black water 
 were reflected the great trees that surrounded it nearly to 
 the edge. 
 
 A few steps further, upon a slightly elevated spot, at the 
 foot of a tree whose gigantic size seemed the growth of cen- 
 turies, was a low bank of moss ; upon the bank lay a book 
 and a glove. I looked and listened on all sides : all was still 
 as death : only the sunlight played through the green sprays, 
 and now and then a leaf fluttered down upon the dark water 
 of the tarn. 
 
 I could not resist an impulse of curiosity : I approached 
 the bank and took up the book. It was Eichendorf s " Life 
 of a Good-for-Nothing." I had never seen the book, nor even 
 heard of the author ; but could not refrain from smiling as 
 I read the title : it was as though some one had called me 
 by name. But at that time I cared little for books : so I re- 
 placed it, open, as I had found it, and picked up the glove, 
 not, however, without another cautious glance around, to see 
 if the owner might not be a witness of my temerity. 
 
 This glove, I at once divined, belonged to Arthur's beauti- 
 ful cousin — whose else could it be ? The inference was sim- 
 ple enough ; and, indeed, the circumstance of a young lady 
 3 
 
 \ 
 
5o Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 leaving her glove on the spot where she had been resting, 
 had nothing in it remarkable. But the fancy of a youth of 
 my temperament is not fettered ; and I confess that as I held 
 the little delicate glove in my hand, and inhaled its faint per- 
 fume, my heart began to beat very unreasonably. I had 
 walked, times without number, past Emilie Heckepfennig's 
 window in hope of a glance from that charmer ; and had 
 even worn on my heart, for weeks together, a ribbon which 
 she once gave me as I was dancing with her ; but that rib- 
 bon never gave me such feelings as did this little glove ; there 
 must have been some enchantment about it. 
 
 I threw myself upon the bank of moss, and indulged my 
 fancy in the wild dreams of a youth of nineteen ; at times 
 laying the glove on the seat beside me, and then taking it up 
 again to scrutinize it with ever closer attention, as though it 
 were the key to the mystery of my life. 
 
 I had been sitting thus perhaps a quarter of an hour, when 
 I suddenly started up and listened. As if from the sky 
 there came a sound of music and singing, faint at first, then 
 louder, and finally I distinguished a soft female voice, and 
 the tinkling notes of a guitar. The voice was singing what 
 seemed the refrain of a song : 
 
 " All day long the bright sun loves me ; 
 All day long." 
 
 "All day long," it was repeated, now quite close at hand, 
 and I now perceived the singer, who had been concealed 
 from me hitherto by the great trunks of the beeches. 
 
 She was coming down a path which descended rather 
 steeply among the trees, and as she came to a spot upon 
 which the bright sunshine streamed through a canopy of 
 leaves, she paused and looked thoughtfully upwards, pre- 
 senting a picture which is inefFaceably imprinted upon my 
 memory, and even now after so many years it comes back to 
 me vividly as ever. 
 
 A charming, deep brunette, whose exquisitely propor- 
 tioned form made her stature appear less than it really was ; 
 and whose somewhat fantastic dress of a dark green mate- 
 • rial, trimmed with gold braid, admirably accorded with her 
 striking, almost gypsy-like appearance. She carried a small 
 guitar suspended around her neck with a red ribbon, and 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 51 
 
 her fingers played over its chords like the rays of sunlight 
 over the lightly waving sprays. 
 
 Poor Constance ! Child of the sun ! Why, if it loved 
 thee so well, did it not slay thee now with one of these rays, 
 that I might have made thee a grave in this lonely forest- 
 glade, far from the world for which thy heart so passionately 
 yearned — thy poor foolish heart ! 
 
 I was standing motionless, fascinated by the vision, when 
 with a deep sigh she seemed to awake from a reverie, and 
 as she descended the path her eyes and mine met. I 
 noticed that she started lightly, as one who meets a human 
 being where he only expected to see the stem of a tree :' but 
 the surprise was but momentary, and I observed that she 
 regarded me from under her drooped lids, and a transient 
 smile played round her lips ; in truth, a beautiful maiden, 
 conscious of Tier beauty could scarcely have seen without a 
 smile the amazed admiration, bordering on stupefaction, 
 depicted in my face. 
 
 Whether she or I was the first to speak I do not now 
 remember ; and indeed I clearly retain, of this our first con- 
 versation, only the memory of the tones of her soft and 
 somewhat deep voice, which to my ear was like exquisite 
 music. We must have ascended together from the forest- 
 dell to the upland, and the sea-breeze must have awakened 
 me to a clearer consciousness, for I can still see the calm, blue 
 water stretching in boundless expanse around us, the white 
 streaks of foam lying among the rocks of the beach perhaps 
 a hundred feet below, and a pair of large gulls wheeling 
 hither and thither, and then dipping to the water, where they 
 gleamed like stars. I see the heather of the upland waving 
 in the light breeze, hear the lapping of the surf among the 
 sharp crags of the shore, and amid it all I hear the voice 
 of Constance. 
 
 " My mother was a Spaniard, as beautiful as the day, and 
 my father, who had gone thither to visit a friend he had 
 known in Paris, saw her, and carried her off. The friend 
 was my mother's brother, and he loved my father dearly, but 
 was never willing that they should marry, because he was a 
 strict Catholic, and my father would never consent to be- 
 come a Catholic, but laughed and mocked at all religions. 
 So they secretly eloped ; but my uncle pursued and overtook 
 
52 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 them in the night, upon a lonely heath, and there were wild 
 words between them, and then swords were drawn, and my 
 father killed the brother of his bride. She did not know 
 this mitil long afterwards ; for she fainted during the fight, 
 and my father contrived to make her believe that he had 
 parted from his brother-in-law in friendship. Then they 
 came to this place ; but my mother always pined for her 
 home, and used to say that she felt a weight upon her heart, 
 as if a murder were resting on her soul. At last she learned, 
 through an accident, the manner of death of her brother, 
 whom she had devotedly loved ; and so she grew melancholy, 
 and wandered about day and night, asking every one whom 
 she met which was the road to Spain. My father at last had 
 to shut her up ; but this she could not endure, and became 
 quite raving, and tried to take her own life, until they let her 
 go free again, when she wandered about as before. And 
 one morning she threw herself into this pool, and when they 
 drew her out she was dead. I was then only three years 
 old, and I have no recollection of her looks, but they say she 
 was handsomer than I am." 
 
 I said that could hardly be possible ; and I said it with so 
 much seriousness, for I was thinking of the poor woman who 
 had drowned herself here, that Constance again smiled, and 
 said I was certainly the best creature in the world, and that 
 one could say anything to me that came into one's head ; 
 and that was what she liked. So I was always to stay with 
 her, she said, and be her faithful George, and slay all the 
 dragons in the world for her sake. Was I agreed to that .'' 
 Indeed was I, I answered. And again a smile played over 
 her rosy lips. 
 
 " You look as if you would. But how did you really come 
 here, and what does my father want with you .'' He gave 
 me a special charge on your account this morning before he 
 set out ; you must stand high in his favor, for he does not 
 usually give himself much care for the welfare of other peo- 
 ple. And how come you to have a sailor's hat on, and a 
 very ugly one at that .'' I think you said you came from 
 school ; are there scholars there as large as you ? I never 
 knew that. How old are you really ? " 
 
 And so the maiden prattled on — and yet it was not prat- 
 tling, for she remained quite serious all the time, and it 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 53 
 
 seemed to me that while she talked her mind was far away; 
 and her dark eyes but seldom were turned to me, and then 
 with but a momentary glance, as though I were no living 
 man, but an inanimate figure ; and frequently she put a sec- 
 ond question without waiting for an answer to the first. 
 
 This suited me well, for thus at least I found courage to 
 look at her again and again, and at last scarcely turned my 
 eyes from her. " You will fall over there, if you do not take 
 care," she suddenly said, lightly touching my arm with her 
 finger, as we stood on the verge of a cliff. " It seems you 
 are not easily made giddy." 
 
 " No, indeed," I answered. 
 
 " Let us go up there," she said. 
 
 Upon what was nearly the highest part of the promontory 
 on which we were, were the ruins of a castle, overgrown 
 with thick bushes. But a single massive tower, almost en- 
 tirely covered with ivy, had defied the power of the sea and 
 of time. These were the ruins of the Zehrenbwrg, to which 
 Arthur had pointed yesterday, as we passed on the steamer ; 
 the same tower on which I was to fix my gaze as I renounced 
 in his favor all pretensions to Emilie Heckepfennig. This 
 I had passionately refused to do — ^yesterday : what was Emi- 
 lie Heckepfennig to me to-day .'' 
 
 The beautiful girl had taken her seat upon a mossy stone, 
 and looked fixedly into the distance. I stood beside her, 
 leaning against the old tower, and looked fixedly into her face. 
 
 " All that, once was ours," she said, slowly sweeping her 
 hand round the horizon ; " and this, is all that remains." 
 
 She rose hastily, and began to descend a narrow path 
 which led, through broom and heather, from the heights 
 down to the forest. I followed. We came to the beech- 
 wood again, and back to the tarn, where her book and guitar 
 still lay upon the bank. I was very proud when she gave 
 me both to carry, saying at the same time that the guitar had 
 been her mother's, and that she had never trusted it to any 
 one before ; but now I should always carry this, her greatest 
 treasure, for her, and she would teach me to play and to sing, 
 if I stayed with them. Or perhaps I did not mean to stay 
 with them .? 
 
 I said that I could not tell, but I hoped so ; and the 
 thought of going away fell heavy upon my heart. 
 
54 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 We had now reached the castle. " Give me the guitar," 
 she said, '* but keep the book : I know it by heart. Have 
 you had breakfast ? No ? Poor, poor George ! it is hicky 
 that no dragon met us ; you would have been hardly able to 
 stand upon your feet." 
 
 A side-door, that I had not previously noticed, led to that 
 part of the ground-floor inhabited by the father and daugh- 
 ter. Constance called an old female servant, and directed 
 her to prepare me some breakfast, and then she left me, 
 after giving me her hand, with that melancholy transient 
 smile which I had already noted on her beautiful lips. 
 
 -o- 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE breakfast which the ugly, taciturn old woman — 
 whom Constance called " Pahlen " — set before me 
 after about half an hour, might well have been ready 
 in less time, for it consisted only of black bread, butter, 
 cheese, and a flask of cognac. The cognac was excellent ; 
 but the remainder of the repast far from luxurious, for the 
 bread was sour and mouldy in spots, the butter rancid, and 
 the cheese hard as a stone ; but what was that to a youth 
 of nineteen, who had eaten nothing for twelve hours, and 
 whose silly heart, moreover, was palpitating with its first 
 passion ! So it seemed to me that I had never had a more 
 sumptuous repast ; and I thanked the old woman for her 
 trouble with the utmost politeness. " Pahlen " did not seem 
 to know what to make of me. She looked askance at me 
 two or three times, with a sort of surly curiosity ; and to the 
 questions that I put to her, replied with an unintelligible 
 grumbling, out of which I could make nothing. 
 
 The room in which I now found myself — it was the same 
 into which Herr von Zehren had conducted me on our first 
 arrival — might, in comparison with the deserted apartments 
 of the upper story, be called habitable, though the carpet 
 under the table was ragged, several of the carved oaken 
 chairs were no longer firm upon their legs, and a great an- 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 55 
 
 tique bufifet in one corner had decidedly seen better days. 
 The windows opened upon a court, into which, my breakfast 
 once over, I cast a look. This court was very spacious, the 
 barns and stables that enclosed it of the very largest dimen- 
 sions, such as are only found on the most considerable estates. 
 So much the more striking was the silence that prevailed in 
 it. In the centre of the space was a dove-cot built of stonf, 
 but no wings fluttered about it, unless perhaps those of a 
 passing swallow. There was a duck-pond without ducks, 
 a dunghill upon which no fowls were scratching — one pea- 
 cock sat upon the broken paling — everything seemed dead 
 or departed. Here was no hurrying to and fro of busy men, 
 no lowing of cattle or neighing of horses — all was vacant 
 and silent ; only from time to time the peacock on the paling 
 uttered his dissonant cry, and the sparrows twittered in the 
 twigs of an old linden. 
 
 As Constance did not return, and as Pahlen, to my ques- 
 tion about the dinner hour, responded by asking me if I 
 now wanted dinner too, I came to the conclusion that for 
 some hours at least I would be left to my own devices. I 
 therefore walked into the court, an,d then perceived that this 
 part of the castle was an addition, which formed a continua- 
 tion to the main building, and had probably served as the 
 manager's house. In the castle the shutters on the ground 
 floor were closed, and secured with massive iron bars, a fact 
 which did not by any means tend to give the old pile a more 
 cheerful appearance. That a manager's house had long 
 been a superfluous appendage, the surroundings plainly 
 showed. In truth, there was nothing here to manage ; the 
 buildings, which at a distance still presented a tolerable ap- 
 pearance, proved, when near, to be little better than crumb- 
 ling ruins. The thatched roofs had sunk in decay and were 
 overgrown with moss, the ornamental work had dropped 
 away, the plaster peeled off in patches, the doors hung awry 
 on their rusted hinges, and in many places were entirely 
 wanting. A stable into which I looked had been originally 
 built to accommodate forty horses ; now there stood in a corner 
 four lean old brutes that set up a hungry neighing as they 
 saw me. As I came out again into the court, a wagon, partly 
 laden with corn and dragged by four other miserable jades, went 
 reeling over the broken stones of the pavement, and disap- 
 
56 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 peared in the yawning doorway of one of the immense barns, 
 like a coffin in a vault. 
 
 I strolled further on, passing one or two dilapidated hovels, 
 where half-naked children were playing in the sand, and a 
 couple of fellows, more like bandits than farm-hands, were 
 lounging, who stared at me with looks half shy half insolent, 
 and reached the fields. The sun shone brightly enough, but 
 it lighted up little that was pleasant to the eye : waste land, 
 with here and there scattering patches of sparse oats, over- 
 grown with blue cornflowers and scarlet poppies, a little 
 rusted wheat, an acre or so where the rye — late enough for 
 the season — still stood in slovenly sheaves, and where a 
 second wagon was being laden by two fellows of the same 
 bandit appearance as the men at the hovels, and who stared 
 at me witti the same surprised and skulking looks, without 
 answering my salutation. At some distance appeared through 
 the trees and bushes the roofs of farm-buildings, evidently 
 upon another estate, to which belonged, doubtless, the far 
 better cultivated fields which I had now reached. Further 
 to the right, above a larger collection of houses, arose the 
 plain white steeple of a church. But I did not care to push 
 my exploration further : an impulse drew me back to the 
 park, which I reached by a circuitous route on the other 
 side, for I wished to avoid the castle and the grumbling old 
 Pahlen. 
 
 I had hoped here to meet Constance again ; but in vain 
 did I listen more than an hour under the trees and among 
 the bushes, watching the castle until I knew by heart nearly 
 every broken tile upon the roof, and each separate patch — 
 and they were not few — where the rains of so many years 
 had detached the plaster and laid bare the stones beneath. 
 No one was to be seen ; no sound was audible ; while the 
 afternoon sun gleamed upon the window-panes, save when 
 the shadow of a passing cloud swept over them. 
 
 My spirits began to yield to the depressing influences of 
 this scene of sunlit desolation. I felt as if the silence, like 'j 
 
 an invisible magic net, was folding around me closer and ^ 
 
 closer, until I scarcely ventured to move — scarcely to speak. 
 In place of the careless audacity, which was my natural tem- 
 perament, a deep sadness took possession of me. How 
 came I here ? What was I to do here — what did I want here, 
 
 K 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 57 
 
 where no one troubled himself about me ? Was not all that 
 had happened to me since yesterday only a dream, and had 
 I not merely dreamed the beauteous maiden with the dark 
 eyes and strange smile ? 
 
 A sense as of home-sickness came over me. I saw in 
 fancy the town with the narrow, crooked streets running 
 between the old-fashioned gabled houses ; I saw my little 
 room, to which I would have returned from school by this 
 time to fling my wearisome books upon the table and then 
 fly to my friend Arthur, who I knew had arranged a boat 
 excursion in the harbor. I saw my father sitting at the win- 
 dow of his bureau in the excise-office, and crept close to the 
 wall to avoid being seen by him. How had my father borne 
 my departure ? Was he anxious about me ? Assuredly he 
 was ; for he still loved me, notwithstanding our mutual alien- 
 ation. What would he do when he learned — as sooner or 
 later he must learn — that I was with the wild Zehren .'' 
 Would he allow me to stay ? Would he command me to 
 return } Perhaps come for me himself .-' 
 
 As this thought came into my mind, I looked uneasily 
 around. It would be intolerable to have to go back to the 
 stifling class-room, to be scolded again, like a boy by Pro- 
 fessor Lederer, and never more to see Friiulein von Zehren — 
 Constance ! Never would I endure it ! My father had 
 driven me from his house ; he might take the consequences. 
 Rather than go back, I would turn bandit — smuggler 
 
 I do not know how the last word came upon my lips, but 
 I remember — and I have since often thought of it — that 
 when I had uttered the word half aloud, merely as a heroi- 
 cal phrase, without attaching any distinct meaning to it, 
 I suddenly started as if some one had spoken it in my 
 immediate vicinity ; and at the same moment the adven- 
 tures of the previous night and what I had since observed, 
 arranged themselves in a definite connection, just as one 
 looking through a telescope sees heaven and earth blended 
 together in dim confusion, until the right focus is attained, 
 when a distinct picture stands before him. How could I 
 have been so blind — so destitute of ordinary apprehension ? 
 Herr von Zehren over at Pinnow's, the strange connection 
 that manifestly existed between the nobleman and the smith, 
 Christel's warnings, Pinnow's behavior towards me, and the 
 
 3* 
 
58 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 night sail in the terrible storm ! And then this uncared-for 
 house, this ruinous farm-yard, these desolated fields, this 
 neglected park ! The solitary situation of the place, upon a 
 promontory extending far into the sea ! I had learned 
 already from frequent conversations between my father and 
 his colleagues in the excise-office, how actively smuggling 
 was carried on in these waters, what a flourishing business 
 it was, and how much might be made at it by any one who 
 was willing to peril his life upon occasion. All was clear as 
 day ; this, and no other, was the solution of the mystery. 
 
 " You must be mad," I said to myself again, " completely 
 mad. A nobleman like Herr von Zehren ! Such doings are 
 for the rabble. Old Pinnow — ^yes, yes, that is likely enough ; 
 but a Herr von Zehren — shame upon you ! " 
 
 I endeavored with all my might to shake off a suspicion 
 which was really intolerable ; and thus afforded another 
 proof that we all, however free we think ourselves, or perhaps 
 have really become, still ever in our feelings, if not in our 
 thoughts, are bound by other imperceptible but none the less, 
 firm ties to the impressions of our childhood and early youth. 
 Had my father been a king and I the crown-prince, I should 
 probably have seen the Evil One embodied in the person of 
 a revolutionist ; or in a runaway slave, had I been the de- 
 scendant of a planter ; so, as I had for a father a pedantically 
 rigid excise-officer, to my conceptions the most hideous of 
 all stigmas was affixed to the smuggler's career. Yet at the 
 same time — and this will seem surprising to no one who re- 
 members the strange duplicate character of the devil in the 
 Christian mythology — this murky gate of Tophet, by which 
 my childish fancy had so often stolen at a timid distance, 
 was invested with a diabolical fascination. How could it be 
 otherwise, when I heard tell of the privations which the 
 wretches often endured with such fortitude, of the ingenuity 
 with which they knew how to baffle the utmost vigilance of 
 the officers, of the fearlessness with which they not seldom 
 confronted the most imminent peril ? These were perilous 
 stories to reach the ear of an adventurous boy ; but far too 
 many such were talked over in our town ; and what was the 
 worst of all, I had heard the most terrible and most fascinat- 
 ing from the lips of my own father — naturally with an ap- 
 pendix of indignant reprobation always tacked on in form 
 
 % 
 
 k 
 
 11 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 59 
 
 of a moral ; but this antidote was, of a surety, never suffi- 
 cient entirely to neutralize the poison. Had not Arthur and 
 I, shortly before an examination in which we had the most 
 confident assurance that we should cut but a poor figure, for 
 a whole day taken earnest counsel together over the question 
 whether we, in case we failed — or better yet, before standing 
 the trial — should not turn smugglers ourselves, until we actu- 
 ally were scared at our own plans ? That had been four years 
 ago ; but, although in the meantime the vehement antipathies 
 and sympathies of youth had been moderated by maturer 
 reason, still the thought of having fallen into the hands of a 
 smuggler had even now the effect of making my heart beat 
 violently. 
 
 " You must be mad — stark mad ! Such a' man — it is not 
 possible ! " I continually repeated to myself, as I hurried 
 along the path I had followed that morning — for indeed I 
 then knew no other — through the park into the forest, until 
 I again reached the tarn with the bank of moss. 
 
 I gazed into the calm black water ; I thought of the un- 
 happy lady who had drowned herself there because she 
 could not find the way back to Spain, and how strange it 
 was that her daughter should select precisely this spot for 
 her favorite resting-place. Behind the bank lay her other 
 glove, for which we had looked in vain in the morning. I 
 kissed it repeatedly, with a thrill of delight, and placed it in 
 my bosom. Then leaving the place hastily I ascended the 
 cliff, and passing the ruined tower, went out to the furthest 
 extremity of the promontory, which was also its highest 
 point. Approaching the verge, I looked over. A strong 
 breeze had sprung up ; the streaks of foam lying among the 
 great rocks and countless pebbles of the beach had grown 
 broader ; and here and there upon the blue expanse flashed 
 the white crest of a breaker. The mainland lay towards 
 the south-west. I could have seen the steeples of my native 
 town but for a cliff that intervened, rising abruptly from the 
 sea, and now of a steel-blue color in the afternoon light. 
 " And this is all that remains ! " I said, repeating the words 
 of Constance, as my eye, in turning, fell upon the ruined 
 tower. 
 
 I descended and threw myself down upon the soft moss 
 that grew among the ruins. No place could have been 
 
6o 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 found more fit to inspire fantastic reveries. The wide ex- 
 panse of sky, and beyond the edge of the upland a great 
 stretch of sea, and the nodding broom around me ! In the 
 sky the fleecy clouds, on the water a gleaming sail, and in 
 the broom the whispering wind ! How luxurious to lie idly 
 here and dream — the sweetest dream of sweet love that loves 
 idleness : a dream, of course, full of combats and peril, such 
 as naturally fills a youthful fancy. Yes ! I would be her 
 deliverer ; would bear her in my arms from this desolate 
 castle, a dismal dungeon for one so young and so fair — would 
 rescue her from this terrible father, and these ruins would I 
 erect again into a stately palace ; and when the work was 
 done and the topmost battlements burned in the evening- 
 red, would lead her in, and kneeling humbly before her, say, 
 " This is thine ! Live happy ! Me thou wilt never see 
 more ! " 
 
 Thus I wove the web of fancy, while the sun sank towards 
 the horizon, and the white clouds of noon began to flush 
 with crimson. What else could I have done ? A young fel- 
 low who has just run away from school, who has not a thaler 
 in his pocket, and a borrowed hat on, and who scarcely 
 knows where he shall lay his head — what else can he do but 
 build castles in the air ? 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 AS I entered the court through a little door in the park- 
 wall, there stood a light wagon from which the horses 
 were being unharnessed, and by the wagon a man 
 in hunting-dress, his gun upon his shoulder — it was Herr von 
 Zehren. 
 
 I had planned to assume towards my host a sort of diplo- 
 matic attitude ; but I never was a good actor, and had had, 
 besides, so little time to get up the part, that the friendly 
 smile and cordial grasp of the hand with which Herr von 
 Zehren received me, completely threw me out, and I met his 
 smile and returned his grasp with as much fervor as if I had 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 6t 
 
 all day been waiting for the moment when I should see my 
 friend and protector : in a word, I was entirely in the power 
 of the charm with which this singular man had, from the 
 first moment of our meeting, captivated my young and inex- 
 perienced heart. 
 
 But in truth a maturer understanding than mine might 
 well have been ensnared by the charm of his manner. Even 
 his personal appearance had for me something fascinating ; 
 and as he stood there, laughing and jesting with the setting 
 sun lighting up a face which seemed really to have grown 
 young again from the excitement of his day's sport, and as 
 he took off his cap and pushed the soft fine locks, already 
 touched with gray, from his nobly-formed brow, and stroked 
 his thick brown beard, I thought I had never seen a hand- 
 somer man. 
 
 " I came to your bedside this morning," he said, in a 
 sportive manner ; " but you slept so soundly that I had not 
 the heart to waken you. Though if I had known that you 
 could handle a gun as well as you can rudder and halyards 
 — and yet I might have known it, for fishing and shoot- 
 ing and — something else besides — go together, like sitting by 
 the stove and sleeping. But we will make up for it : we 
 have, thank heaven, more than one day's shooting before us. 
 And now come in and let us talk while supper is getting 
 ready." 
 
 The room which Herr von Zehren occupied was in the 
 front part of the building, just in the rear of the dining-room, 
 and his sleeping apartment immediately adjoined it. He 
 entered the latter, and conversed with me through the open 
 door, keeping all the while such a clattering with jugs, basins, 
 and other apparatus of ablution, that I had some difficulty 
 in understanding what he was saying. I made out, however, 
 that he had this morning written to his brother, the steuer- 
 rath, requesting him to apprise my father where I was now 
 staying. My father certainly would not be sorry to hear that 
 I had found shelter in the house of a friend, at least until 
 some arrangement could be effected. In similar circum- 
 stances, he said, a temporary separation often prevented a 
 perpetual one. And even should this not be the case here, 
 at all events — here his head dipped into the water, and I 
 lost the remainder of the sentence. Under any circum- 
 
62 Hammer and Anvil. ' 
 
 stances — he was saying when he became again intelligible — 
 it would be as well if I mentioned to no one where it was 
 that we had happened to meet. We might have met upon 
 the road, as I was about to be ferried over to the island. 
 What was to prevent a young man, whose father had just 
 driven him from his house, from going, if he pleased, as far 
 as the blue sky spread overhead .-• and why should he not 
 meet a gentleman who has a vacant place in his carriage, 
 and asks the young man if he will not get in ? This was all 
 very simple and natural. And in fact this was the way he 
 had stated the circumstances in his letter to his brother this 
 morning. He had given old Pinnow his cue yesterday even- 
 ing. And besides, the question of where and how was really 
 nobody's affair. He added some further remarks with his 
 head inside his wardrobe, but I only caught the word " in- 
 conveniences." 
 
 I felt relieved from a load of anxiety. My frightful dream 
 of the morning, of which I had not thought during the whole 
 day, had recurred to my memory in the dusk of the evening 
 twilight. For a moment an apprehension seized me that my 
 father might think I had made away with myself ; but it was 
 but for a moment, for youth finds it so unlikely that others 
 will take things more seriously than it does itself One 
 point, however, was clear : that I must give some account 
 of myself to my father. But at this thought the old misery 
 came back ; I could, in any event, no longer stay here. And 
 now I suddenly saw a way of escape ftom this labyrinth. 
 The steuerrath, being his immediate chief, was, as I well 
 knew, looked upon by my loyal and zealous father as a kind 
 of superior being ; indeed he knew upon earth but four other 
 beings higher than himself ; the Provincial Excise-Director, 
 the General Excise-Director, His Excellency the Minister of 
 Commerce, next to whom came His Majesty the King 
 — which latter, however, was a being of distinct and 
 peculiar kind, and separated, even from an excellency, 
 by a vast chasm. If, therefore, Herr von Zehren wished 
 to keep me with him, and the steuerrath would use 
 his influence with my father — but would he ? The steuerrath 
 had never liked me much ; and besides, the evening before, 
 I had deeply offended him. I expressed my doubts on this 
 point to Herr von Zehren. " I will make that all right," he 
 
Hammer and Anvil. ^■^ 
 
 said, as, rubbing his freshly washed hands, he came out of 
 his chamber. 
 
 " And now then," he went on, stretching himself luxuri- 
 ously in an easy-chair, " how have you spent the day ? 
 Have you seen my daughter ? Yes ? Then you may boast 
 of your luck — many a time I do not see her for days to- 
 gether. And have you had something to eat ? Poor fare 
 enough, I warrant ; the provision is but indifferent when I 
 am at home, but execrable when I am away. Moonshine 
 and beefsteak are two things that do not suit together. When 
 I want good fare, I must go from home. Yesterday evening, 
 for example, at old Pinnow's — wasn't it capital ? Romantic 
 too, eh } Friar Tuck and the Black Knight, and you besides 
 as the Disinherited Knight. I love such little adventures 
 above everything." 
 
 And he stretched himself at ease in his great chair, and 
 laughed so joyously that I mentally asked his pardon for 
 my suspicions, and pronounced myself a complete fool to 
 have had such an idea enter my brain. 
 
 He went on chatting : asked me many questions about my 
 father, my family, the past events of my life, all in a tone of 
 such friendly interest that no one could have taken it amiss. 
 He seemed to be much pleased with my answers ; nor did I 
 take offence again when, as he had done the evening before, 
 he broke into loud laughter at some of my remarks. But 
 when this happened, he was always careful to soothe my sen- 
 sitiveness with a kind word or two. I felt assured that he 
 meant well towards me ; and to this day I have remained in 
 the conviction that from the first moment he had conceived 
 a hearty liking for me, and that if it was a mere caprice that 
 drew him towards a young man who needed assistance, it 
 was one of those caprices of which none but naturally gen- 
 erous hearts are capable. 
 
 " But what keeps our supper so long ? " he cried, spring- 
 ing up impatiently and looking into the dining-room. " Ah ! 
 there you are, Constance ! " 
 
 He went in ; through the half-open door I heard him 
 speaking in a low tone with his daughter ; my heart beat^ I 
 could not tell why. 
 
 " Well, why do you not come ? " he called to me from the 
 dining-room. I went in ; by the table, that to my unaccus- 
 
€4 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 tomed eye seemed richly spread, stood Constance. The 
 light of the hanging lamp fell upon her from above. Whether 
 it was the different light, or the different arrangement of her 
 hair, which was now combed upwards, so as to rest upon her 
 head like a dark crown, with a golden ribbon interwoven in 
 it, or her different attire — now a plain blue close-fitting 
 dress, cut low at the neck, which was covered by a wide lace 
 collar, worn somewhat like a handkerchief — whether it was 
 all these together, and in addition the changed expression 
 of her face, which had now something indescribably childlike 
 about it, I cannot say ; but I scarcely recognized her again ; 
 I could have believed that the Constance I had seen in the 
 morning was the older, more impassioned sister of this fair 
 maidenly creature. 
 
 " Last half of the previous century," said Herr von Zehren 
 — " Lotte, eh ? You only want a sash, and perhaps a Wer- 
 ther — otherwise superb ! " 
 
 A shadow passed over the face of Constance, and her 
 brows contracted. I had not entirely understood the allu- 
 sion, but it pained me. Constance seemed so fair to me ; 
 how could any one who saw her say aught else but that she 
 was fair t 
 
 Gladly would I have said it, but I had scarcely the cour- 
 age to look at her, let alone speak to her ; and she, for her 
 part, was silent and abstracted ; the dishes she hardly 
 touched ; and indeed now I cannot remember ever to have 
 seen her eat. In truth, the meal, composed of fish and pheas- 
 ants which Herr von Zehren had brought in from his day's 
 shooting, was of a kind only suited to his own appetite, which 
 was as keen as a sportsman's usually is. During supper he 
 drank freely of the excellent red wine, and often challenged 
 me to pledge him ; and indeed he directed his vivacious and 
 genial conversation almost exclusively to me. I was fairly 
 dazzled by it ; and as there was much that I only half un- 
 derstood, arid much that I did not understand at all, it 
 sometimes happened that I laughed in the wrong place, 
 which only increased his mirth. One thing, however, I saw 
 clearly ; the constrained, not to say hostile, relations between 
 father and daughter. Things of this kind are easily per- 
 ceived, especially when the observer is as well prepared as 
 was I to catch the meaning lurking under the apparent in- 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 65 
 
 difference of a hasty question, and to mark the unnecessarily 
 prolonged pause which preceded the answer, and the irritated 
 tone in which it followed. For it had not been so long since 
 my father and I had sat together in the same way ; when I 
 used to thank heaven in my heart if any lucky chance re- 
 lieved us sooner than usual of each other's presence. Here 
 I should have been a disinterested spectator had I not been 
 so inordinately in love with the daughter, and had not the 
 father, by his brilliancy and amiability, obtained such a mas- 
 tery over me. So my heart, shared between them both, was 
 torn asunder by their division ; and if a few hours before I 
 had formed the heroic resolution to protect the lovely and 
 unhappy daughter from her terrible father, I was now fixed 
 like a rock in my conviction that to me had fallen the sub- 
 lime mission to join these two glorious beings again in an 
 indissoluble bond of love. That it would have better be- 
 come me to go back to the door of a certain small house 
 in Uselin, where dwelt an old man whom I had so deeply 
 wounded — of that I never for a moment thought. 
 
 I breathed quick with expectation as a carriage came 
 rattling over the broken pavement of the court and stopped 
 at the door. It was a visitor whom Herr von Zehren had 
 said he was expecting ; a fellow-sportsman and the owner 
 of an adjoining estate, who brought with him a friend who 
 was staying at his house, and who had been out with them 
 shooting. Constance had at once arisen from the table, and 
 was about to leave the room, in spite of her father's request, 
 uttered in a tone that almost made it a command, " I beg 
 that you will remain ! " when the gentlemen entered. One 
 was a tall, broad-shouldered, fair young man, with handsome, 
 regular features, and a pair of large, prominent blue eyes 
 that stared out into the world with a sort of good-natured 
 astonishment. My host introduced him to me as Herr 
 Hans von Trantow. The other, a short, round figure, whose 
 head, with its sloping brow, and almost deficient occiput, 
 was so small as to leave scarce a hand's breadth of room 
 for his close-cropped, stiff brown hair, and whose short 
 turned-up nose, and immense mouth, always open, and fur- 
 nished with large white teeth, gave their possessor a more 
 than passing resemblance to a bull-dog — was called Herr 
 Joachim von Granow. He had been an officer in the army , 
 
66 Hammer and Anvil. ' ' 
 
 and on his succession, a few months before, to a handsome 
 fortune, had purchased an estate in the neighborhood. 
 
 Constance had found herself compelled to remain, for the 
 little Herr von Granow had at once turned upon her with an 
 apparently inexhaustible flood of talk, and the bulky Herr 
 von Trantow remained standing immovable so near the 
 open door that it was not easy to pass him. From the first 
 moment of seeing them I felt a strong antipathy to them 
 both : to the little one because he ventured to approach so 
 near to Constance, and to talk so much ; and to the large 
 one, who did not speak, indeed, but stared steadily at her 
 with his glassy eyes, which seemed to me a still more offen- 
 sive proceeding. 
 
 " We have had but a poor day's sport," said the little one 
 in a squeaking voice to Constance ; " but day before yester- 
 day, at Count Griebenow's, we had an uncommonly splendid 
 time. Whenever a covey rose I was right among them ; three 
 times I brought down a brace — right and left barrels ; and 
 that I call shooting. They were as jealous of me — I expected 
 to be torn to pieces. Even the prince lost his temper. 
 * You have the devil's own luck, Granow,' he kept saying. 
 'Young men must have some luck,' I answered. 'But I am 
 younger than you,' said he. ' Your highness does not need 
 any luck,' said I. ' Why not ? ' ' To be a Prince of Prora- 
 Wiek is luck enough of itself Wasn't that a capital hit ?" 
 and he shook with laughter at his own wit, and shrugged his 
 round shoulders until they nearly swallowed his little head. 
 
 " The prince was there, then 1 " Constance said. 
 
 It was the first word she had uttered in reply to the small 
 man's chatter. Perhaps this was the reason that I, who had 
 been standing by, taking no interest in what was said — Herr 
 von Zehren had left the room, and Herr von Trantow still 
 held his post at the door — suddenly gave all my attention to 
 the conversation. 
 
 " Yes indeed ; did you not know it ? " said the little man. 
 ■ " To be sure, your father does not come to the shooting at 
 Griebenow's ; but I supposed Trantow would have told 
 you." 
 
 " Herr von Trantow and I are not accustomed to keep 
 each other au courant of our adventures," answered Con- 
 stance. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 67 
 
 *' Indeed ! " said Herr von Granow, " is it possible ? Yes ; 
 as I was going on to say, the prince was there : he is going 
 to be betrothed to the young Countess Griebenow, they say. 
 At all events, he has fixed his quarters at Rossow ; the only 
 one of his estates in this part of the country, you know, that 
 has anything like a suitable residence;^ and then besides it 
 lies very handy to Griebenow. A capital opportunity — if a 
 prince ever needs an opportunity. But that is only for us 
 poor devils — ha ! ha ! ha ! " — and the little fellow's head 
 again nearly disappeared into his shoulders. 
 
 I was standing near enough to hear every word and ob- 
 serve every look, and I had clearly perceived that as Herr 
 von Granow mentioned the young prince, Constance, who 
 had been standing half-turned away from the speaker, with an 
 inattentive, rather annoyed expression, suddenly turned and 
 fixed her eyes upon him, while a deep blush suffused her 
 cheeks. I had afterwards sufficient reason to remember 
 this fact, but at the moment had not time to ponder over it, 
 as Herr von Zehren now returned with the cigars for which 
 he had gone ; and Constance, after offering Herr von Granow 
 the tips of her fingers, giving me her hand with great appa- 
 rent cordiality, and saluting Herr von Trantow, who stood, as 
 ever, silent and motionless at the door, with a distant, 
 scarcely perceptible bow, at once left the room. 
 
 As the door closed behind her, Herr von Trantow passed 
 his hand over his brow, and then turned his large eyes on 
 me, as he slowly approached me. I returned, as defiantly as 
 I was able, his look, in which I fancied I read a dark men- 
 ace, and stood prepared for whatever might happen, when he 
 suddenly stopped before me, his staring eyes still fixed upon 
 my face. 
 
 " This is my young friend of whom I was speaking to you,- 
 Hans," said Herr von Zehren, coming up to us. " Do you 
 think you can manage him ? " 
 
 Von Trantow shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " You see I have laid a wager with Hans that you are the 
 stronger of the two," our host continued. " He is counted 
 the strongest man in all this part of the country ; so I held 
 it my duty to bring so formidable a rival to his notice." 
 
 " But not this evening," said BLans, offering me his hand. 
 It was just as when a great mastiff, of whom we are not sure 
 
68 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 whether he will bite or not, suddenly sits on his haunches 
 before us, and lays his great paw on our knees. I took it 
 without an instant's hesitation. 
 
 " Heaven forbid ! " said Herr von Zehren to Trantow's re- 
 mark. " My young friend will make a long stay with me, I 
 trust. He wishes to learn the management of a country 
 place ; and where could he sooner attain his object than upon 
 such a model estate as mine ? " 
 
 He laughed as he said it. Von Granow exclaimed, "Very 
 good ! " the silent Hans, said nothing, and I stood confused. 
 Von Zehren, in our previous conversation, had made no al- 
 lusion to my staying with him as a pupil. Why had he not 
 done so ? It was one of the happiest of ideas, I thought, 
 and one that at once cleared away all the difficulties of my 
 position. As for his " model estate," why might I not suc- 
 ceed in changing this ironical phrase to a real description ? 
 Yes ; here I had a new mission, which went hand in hand 
 with the other : to reconcile father and daughter, to reclaim 
 the ruined estate, to rebuild the castle of their ancestors — 
 in a word, to be the good genius, the guardian angel of the 
 family. 
 
 All this passed through my mind as the gentlemen took 
 their seats at the card-table ; and with my brain still busy 
 with the thought, I left the room, under the pretext of want- 
 ing a little fresh air, and strolled about the now familiar paths 
 among the dark shrubbery of the park. The moon was not 
 yet up, but a glimmer on the eastern horizon showed that 
 she was rising. The stars twinkled through the warm air 
 that was ascending from the earth. There was a rustling 
 and whispering in bush and copse, and a screech-owl at in- 
 tervals broke the silence with her cry. From one of the 
 windows on the ground-floor of the castle came a faint light, 
 and the breeze brought to my ear the notes of a guitar. I 
 could not withstand the temptation, and crept with hushed 
 breath, startled at the least noise that my footsteps made, 
 nearer and nearer, until I reached the stone balustrade which 
 surrounded the wide, low terrace. I now perceived that the 
 light came from an open casement, through which I could 
 see into a dimly-lighted room. Thick curtains were dropped 
 before the two windows to the right and left. From the 
 place where I stood I could not see the occupant, and I was 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 69 
 
 hesitating, with a beating heart, whether I should venture to 
 advance, when she suddenly appeared at the open casement. 
 Not to be discovered, I crouched close behind a great stone 
 vase. 
 
 Her fingers glided over the strings of her guitar, trp.n% 
 first one note and then another, then striking an uncertain 
 chord or two, as if she were trying to catch a melody. Pres- 
 ently the chords were struck more firmly, and she sang : 
 
 / " All day long the bright sun loves me, \ \ 
 
 Woos me with his glowing light ; 
 , But I better love the gentle 
 ; ■ Stars of night. 
 
 From the boundless deep above me 
 
 Come their calm and tender beams, 
 Bringing to my wayward fancy 
 Sweetest dreams. 
 
 Sweetest dreams of love unending, 
 
 Bitter tears for love undone ; 
 For the dearest, for the fairest, 
 Only one. 
 
 Falsest-hearted, only chosen — 
 'I Soon the short-lived dream was o'er — 
 
 He is gone, and 1 am lonely 
 Evermore." 
 
 The last words were sung in a broken voice, and she now 
 leaned her head against the casement-frame, and I heard her 
 sobbing. My agitation was so great that I forgot the pre- 
 caution which my situation demanded, and a stone which 
 I had dislodged from the crumbling edge of the terrace 
 rolled down the slope. Constance started, and called with 
 an unsteady voice, " Who is there ? " I judged it more 
 prudent to discover myself, and approached her, saying that 
 it was I. 
 
 " Ah, it is you, then," she said. 
 
 " I entreat you to forgive me. The music of your guitar 
 attracted me. • I know I ought not to have come : pray for- 
 give me." 
 
 I stood near her ; the light from the room fell brightly 
 upon her face and her eyes, which were lifted to mine. 
 
 " How kind you are," she said in a soft voice ; " or are 
 you not dealing truly with me ? " 
 
70 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 I could not trust myself to answer, but she knew how to 
 interpret my silence aright. 
 
 "Yes," she said, "you are my trusty squire, my faithful 
 George, If I were to say to you : watch this terrace to- 
 night until the break of day, you would do it, would you 
 not ? " 
 
 " Yes," I answered. 
 
 She looked in my face and smiled. " How sweet it is — 
 how sweet to know that there is one creature upon earth 
 that is true to us ! " 
 
 She gave me her hand ; my own trembled as I took it. 
 
 " But I do not ask anything of the kind," she said ; 
 " only this one thing, that you will not go away except by 
 your own determination, and not without my permission. 
 You promise ? That is so kind of you ! And now go ; 
 good-night ! " 
 
 She lightly pressed my hand before letting it go, and then 
 re-entered her room. As I turned away I heard the case- 
 ment close. 
 
 I stood under one of the great trees of the park and 
 looked back towards the house. The moon had risen above 
 the trees, and the great mass of buildings stood out in bolder 
 relief against the dark background ; a faint light occasion- 
 ally appeared and vanished in one of the windows of the 
 upper story. The light from Constance's window came to- 
 wards me with that magic lustre which shines upon us once in 
 our lives, and only once. 
 
 The lawn before me lay in deep shadow ; but just as the ' 
 first rays of the moon began to illuminate it, I thought I 
 perceived a figure, which, coming from the other side, was 
 slowly approaching Constance's window. In this there was 
 nothing to excite suspicion, for it might be one of the labor- 
 ers ; but it is the duty of a faithful squire to make sure in 
 any case ; so without a moment's hesitation I started across 
 the lawn to meet the figure. Unluckily I stepped upon a dry 
 twig and it snapped. The figure stopped instantly, and 
 began to retreat with swift, stealthy steps. He had but little 
 start of me, but the thick coppice which closed in the lawn 
 on that side, and was the limit of the park, was so near that 
 he reached it a few moments before me. I distinctly heard 
 some one pushing through the branches, but with my utmost 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 71 
 
 exertions I could not reach him. I began to think that my 
 ear had led me in a wrong direction, when suddenly a loud 
 crashing and clattering close at hand proved that I was on 
 the right track. The man was evidently clambering over 
 the rotten paling which fenced in the park on this side. 
 Now I knew he could not escape me. On the other side lay 
 a wide open space, and I had never yet met the man whom 
 I could not overtake in a fair race. But at the instant that 
 I reached the paling, I heard a horse's feet, and looking up 
 saw a rider galloping across the open in the clear moonlight. 
 The horse was evidently one of great power and speed. At 
 each stride he cleared such a stretch of ground, that in less 
 than half a minute horse and rider were lost to sight ; for a 
 brief space I still heard the sound of the hoofs, and then 
 that also ceased. The whole adventure passed , in so little 
 time, that I might have fancied I had dreamed it all, but for 
 the evidence of my heart beating violently with excitement 
 and the exertion of the chase, and the smarting of my hands, 
 which Were torn by the thorns and briers. 
 
 Who could the audacious intruder be ? Certainly not an 
 ordinary thief ; doubtless some one who had been attracted 
 by the light from Constance's window, and not to-night for 
 the first time ; it was plain that he had often followed that 
 path in the dark. 
 
 That it was a favored lover, I did not for a moment sup- 
 pose. Such a surmise would have seemed to me an outrage, 
 and upon one, too, whose dreamy eyes, whose melancholy 
 song, and whose tears rather told of an unhappy than of a 
 requited attachment. But they surely told of love. Not 
 that I was presumptuous enough to indulge in any hope, or 
 even wish ; how could I dare to lift my eyes to her .'' I could 
 only live and die for her, and perhaps another time break 
 the neck of the rash mortal who had dared under cover of 
 the night to approach her sanctuary. 
 
 This idea somewhat solaced my dejection, but my former 
 happiness had departed never to return. It was with a 
 heavy sense of anxiety and apprehension that I re-entered 
 the room where the gentlemen were still at the card-table. 
 
 They had commenced with whist, but were now engaged 
 at faro. Von Zehren held the bank, and seemed to have 
 been winning largely. In a plate before him lay a great 
 
72 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 heap of silver, with some gold, and this plate lay on another 
 which was filled with crumpled treasury notes. The two 
 guests had already lost their ready money, and from time to 
 time they handed over bills, which went to swell the pile of 
 notes, and received in exchange larger or smaller sums, 
 which evinced a strong proclivity to return to the source from 
 which they sprang. Herr von Trantow appeared to bear his 
 ill-luck with great equanimity. His good-natured handsome 
 face was as passionless as before, only perhaps a shade or 
 two deeper in color, and his great blue eyes rather more 
 staring. But this might very well be the effect of the wine 
 he had been drinking, of which they had already emptied at 
 least half-a-dozen bottles. Herr von Granow's nerves were 
 less fitted to bear the slings and arrows of outrageous for- 
 tune. He would at times start up from his chair, then fall 
 back into it ; swore sometimes aloud, sometimes softly to 
 himself, and was plainly in the very worst of humors, to the 
 secret delight, as I thought, of Herr von Zehren, whose 
 brown eyes twinkled with amusement as he politely expressed 
 his regret whenever he was compelled to gather in the little 
 man's money. 
 
 I had taken my seat near the players, in order better to 
 watch the chances of the game, of which I had sufficient 
 knowledge from furtive school-boy experiences, when Herr 
 von Zehren pushed over to me a pile of bank-notes which he 
 had just won, saying, " You must join us." ;]• 
 
 " Excuse me," I stammered. 
 
 " Why so punctilious about a trifle ? " he asked. " There 
 is no need for you to go to your room for money ; here is 
 enough." 
 
 He knew that my whole stock of cash did not amount to 
 quite a thaler, for I had told him so the previous evening. 
 I blushed crimson, but had not the courage to contradict my 
 kind host's generous falsehood. I drew up my chair with 
 the air of a man who has no wish to spoil sport, and began 
 to play. 
 
 Cautiously at first, with small stakes, and with the firm 
 determination to remain perfectly cool ; but before long the 
 fever of gaming began to fire my brain. My heart beat 
 ever quicker and quicker, my head and my eyes seemed 
 burning. While the cards were dealing I poured down glass 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 73 
 
 after glass of wine to moisten my parched throat, and it was 
 with a shaking hand that I gathered up my winnings. And 
 I won almost incessantly ; if a card was turned against me, 
 the next few turns brought me in a three-fold or a five-fold 
 gain. My agitation almost suffocated me as the money 
 before me increased to a larger sum than I had ever before 
 seen in a heap — two or three hundred thalers, as I estimated 
 it in my mind. 
 
 Presently my luck came to a pause. I ceased winning, 
 but did not lose ; and then I began to lose slowly at first, 
 then faster and faster. Cold chills ran over me, as one 
 after another of the large notes passed into the banker's 
 hands ; but I took care not to imitate the behavior of Herr 
 von Granow, which had struck me so repulsively. Like 
 Herr von Trantow, I lost without the slightest change of 
 countenance, and my calmness was praised by my host, 
 who continued encouraging me. My stock of money had 
 melted away to one-half, when Hans von Trantow declared 
 with a yawn that he was too tired to play any longer. Von 
 Granow said it was not late ; but the candles burnt to the 
 sockets, and the great clock on the wall, which pointed to 
 three, told a different story. The two guests lighted fresh 
 cigars, and drove off in their carriages, which had long been 
 waiting at the door, after having arranged a shooting expe- 
 dition, in which I was to join, for the following day. 
 
 My host and I returned to the room, which reeked with 
 the fumes of wine and the smoke of cigars, where old Chris- 
 tian, for whom the difference between night and day seemed 
 to have no existence, was busy clearing up. Von Zehren 
 threw open the window and looked out. I joined him ; he 
 laid his hand upon my shoulder and said : " How glori- 
 ously the stars are shining, and how delicious the air is 1 
 And there " — he pointed back into the room, " how hor- 
 rible — disgusting — stifling ! Why cannot one play faro by 
 starlight, inhaling the perfume of wall-flowers and migno- 
 nette ? And why, after every merry night, must repentance 
 come in the form of an old man shaking his head as he 
 counts the emptied bottles and sweeps up the ashes ? How 
 stupid it is ; but we must not give ourselves gray hairs fret- 
 ting about it — they will come soon enough of themselves. 
 And now do you go to bed. I see you have a hundred 
 
 4 . ■ 
 
74 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 things on your mina, but to-morrow is a new clay, and if not 
 — so much the better. Good-night, and pleasant rest." 
 
 But it was long ere my host's kind wish was accomplished. 
 A real witch-sabbath of beautiful and hideous figures danced 
 in the wildest gyrations before my feverish, half-sleeping, 
 half-waking eyes: Constance, her father, his guests, the 
 dark form in the park, my father. Professor Lederer, and 
 Smith Pinnow — and all appealing to me to save them from 
 some danger or other ; — Professor Lederer especially from 
 two thick lexicons, which were really two great oysters that 
 gaped with open shells at the lean professor, while the com- 
 merzienrath stood in the background, nearly dying with 
 laughter : — and all whirling and swarming together, and 
 caressing and threatening, and charming and terrifying me, 
 until at last, as the gray dawn began to light the ragged 
 hangings of the chamber, a profound slumber dispersed the 
 phantoms. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 IF, according to the unanimous report of travellers by that 
 route, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, I 
 am convinced that several square rods of it are my 
 work, and that the greater part of it was laid down in the 
 first fortnight of my stay at Zehrendorf, There could, in- 
 deed, scarcely have been a place where everything essential 
 to this easy and pleasant occupation was provided in ampler 
 abundance. Wherever one went, or stood, or turned the 
 eyes, there lay the materials ready to hand ; and I was too 
 young, too inexperienced, and I will venture to add, too 
 good-hearted, not to fall to work with all my energy. Of 
 what unspeakable folly I was guilty in undertaking to set 
 right the disordered and disjointed world in which I was 
 now moving, after I had already shown that I could not ad- 
 just myself to the correct and orderly world from which I 
 came — this thought did not seize me till long afterwards. 
 
 No ; I was thoroughly convinced of my sublime mission ; 
 and I thanked my propitious star that had so gloriously 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 75 
 
 brought me from the harsh slavery of the school and of my 
 father's house, where I was pining away ; from the oppres- 
 sive bonds of Philistine associations which hampered the free 
 flight of my heroic soul, into this freedom of the desert which 
 seemed to have no bounds, and behind which must lie a 
 Canaan which I was gallantly resolved to conquer — a land 
 flowing with the milk of friendship and with the honey of 
 love. 
 
 True, the letter which soon arrived, with a great box con- 
 taining my personal chattels, from my father to Herr von 
 Zehren, for a while gave me pause. The letter comprised 
 but very few lines, to the effect that he — my father — ^was 
 fully convinced of the impossibility of ever leading me by 
 his road to any good end, and that he was compelled to give 
 me over, for weal or woe, to my own devices ; only hoping 
 that my disobedience and my obstinacy might not be visited 
 upon me too heavily. Herr von Zehren showed me the 
 letter, and as he observed my grave look upon reading it, 
 asked me, " Do you wish to go back ? " adding immediately, 
 " Do not do it. That is no place for you. The old gentle- 
 man wanted to make a draught-horse out of you, but, tall 
 and strong as you are, that is not your vocation. You are a 
 hunter, for whom no ditch is too wide, and no hedge too 
 high. Come along ! I saw a covey of some two dozen over 
 in the croft ; we will have them before dinner." 
 
 He was right, I thought. I felt that my father had given 
 me up too soon, that he might have allowed me one chance 
 more, and that, as it was, he had forfeited the right to 
 threaten me in addition with the retribution of heaven. 
 And yet it pained me, when an hour or so later Herr von 
 Zehren, who had used up all his wads, took my father's let- 
 ter from his pocket, and tearing it up, rammed it down both 
 barrels of his gun, with the jesting phrase that necessity 
 knows no law. I could not help feeling as if some misfor- 
 tune would happen. But the gun did not burst, the birds 
 dropped, and nothing remained of the letter but a smoulder- 
 ing scrap which fell in some dry stubble, and upon which 
 Herr von Zehren set his foot as he thrust the birds into his 
 game-bag. 
 
 If I had any doubt left whether I was right in setting my- 
 self upon my own feet, as I phrased it, a letter which I re- 
 
76 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 ceived from Arthur was only too well adapted to confirm me 
 in my notions of my finally-won liberty. 
 
 " A lucky dog you always were," he wrote. " You run away 
 from school, and they let you go, as if it was a matter of course ; 
 while me they catch as if I were a runaway slave, cram me 
 in the dungeon for three days, every hour cast up to me my 
 disgraceful conduct, and in every way make my life a per- 
 fect misery to me. Even my father carries on as if I was 
 guilty of heaven knows what ; only mamma is sensible, and 
 says I mustn't take it too much to heart, and that papa will 
 have to come round, or the professor will not let me go into 
 the upper class, and there will be more botherations. It is 
 really a shame that I, just because my uncle, the commer- 
 zienrath, wills it so, must go through the final examination, 
 while Albert von Zitzewitz, no older than I, is at the cadets' 
 school, and has a pair of colors already. What has my 
 uncle to do with me, anyhow ? Papa says that he will not 
 be able to support me during my lieutenancy without the 
 help he expects from my uncle ; and that is likely too, for 
 things get tighter with us every day, and papa went quite 
 wild yesterday when he had to pay sixteen thalers for a glove- 
 bill of mine. If mamma did not help me now and then, I 
 don't know what I should do ; but she has nothing, and said 
 to me only yesterday that she did not know what would hap- 
 pen at New Year, when all the bills came in. 
 
 " Now you might help me out of all this trouble. Papa 
 says that Uncle Make never looks at money when he hap- 
 pens to have any, and anybody that would hit the lucky mo- 
 ment might get as much from him as they pleased. You, 
 lucky fellow, are now with him all the time, and you might 
 watch your chance, for the sake of an old friend, and slip in 
 a good word for me. Or better, tell him that you have some 
 old debts that you are worried about, and wouldn't he lend 
 you fifty or a hundred thalers., and then do you send it to me, 
 for you can't want it, you know. You'll never come back 
 here, whatever happens, for you cannot imagine the way peo- 
 ple here talk about you. Lederer prays an extra five min- 
 utes every day for the strayed lamb — that's what he calls you, 
 you old sinner. Justizrath Heckepfennig said that if ever it 
 was written in a mortal's face that he would die in his shoes, 
 it is in yours. In Emilie's coterie it was resolved to tear out 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 77 
 
 of all their albums the leaves on which you had immortal- 
 ized yourself ; and at my uncle's, day before yesterday, there 
 was a regular scene about you. Uncle said at the table that 
 you must take powerfully long strides if you meant to out- 
 run the and here he made a sign, you understand, at 
 
 which Hermine began to cry terribly, and Fraulein Duff said 
 it was a shame to talk that way before a child. So you see 
 you have a pair of firm friends among the females. You al- 
 ways did have, and have still, the most unaccountable luck 
 in that quarter. Don't break my pretty cousin's heart, you 
 lucky dog ! 
 
 " P. S. — Papa once told me that Constance gets a small 
 sum of money every year from an old Spanish aunt of hers. 
 She certainly has no use for it. Maybe you could coax 
 something from her — at all events, you might look into the 
 matter a little." 
 
 As soon as I had read this letter, which offered me such 
 an opportunity of heaping coals of fire on the head of my 
 still-loved friend, I resolved to help him out of his difficul- 
 ties with a part of the money I had won on that first eve- 
 ning ; but this intention, which I cannot maintain to have 
 been in any sense a good one, was destined never to be car- 
 ried into execution. For the same evening Herr von Zehren 
 gave his guests their revenge at Hans von Trantow's, and I 
 lost not only all the money I had won with such palpitations, 
 to the very last thaler, but a considerable sum besides, which 
 my obliging host, who was again the winner, had forced 
 upon me. This ill fortune, which I might have foreseen if 
 I had had a grain more sense, struck me as a heavy blow. 
 In spite of my frivolity, I had always been scrupulously 
 conscientious in my small money-matters ; had always paid 
 my insignificant debts cheerfully and as promptly as possi- 
 ble ; and as we were driving home at daybreak after this un- 
 lucky evening, I felt more wretched than I had ever done 
 before. How could I ever be in a position to pay such a 
 sum — especially now that I had resolved never again to 
 touch a card ? How could I venture in broad daylight to 
 look into the face of the man to whom I was already under 
 so many obligations "i 
 
 Herr von Zehren, who was in the best of humors, laughed 
 aloud when, after some urging on his part, I confessed to 
 
78 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 him my trouble. " My dear George," said he — he had taken 
 to calling me George altogether — " don't take it amiss, but you 
 really are too absurd. Why, man, do you really think that 
 I would for one instant hold you responsible for what you 
 did at my express request ? Whoever lends money to min- 
 ors, does it, as everybody knows, at his own risk, and you 
 certainly remember that I forced the money upon you. And 
 why did I do it ? Simply because it gave me pleasure, and 
 because I liked to see your honest, glowing face across the 
 table, and to compare it with Granow's hang-dog look and 
 Trantow's stony stare. And when a young fellow that is my 
 valued guest, to please me, accompanies me out shooting, or 
 to the faro-table, and he has no money and no gun, it is 
 right and fair and a matter of course that I should place mj' 
 gun-room and purse at his disposal. And now say no more 
 about the trifle, and give me a cigar if we have any left." 
 
 I gave him his cigar-case, which he had handed over to 
 my keeping, and murmured that his kindness crushed me to 
 the earth, and that my only consolation was in the trust that 
 an opportunity might yet offer of my repaying the obligation 
 in some way or other. He laughed again at this, and said 
 I was as proud as Lucifer, but he liked me all the better for 
 it ; and as for the possibility of my repaying the obligation, 
 as I called it, he was a man in whose life accidents and lucky 
 hits and mishaps and chances of all kinds had played so im- 
 portant a part, that it would be a wonder if, among all the 
 rest, the chance I so longed for did not turn up. So until 
 then we would let the matter rest. 
 
 In this airy way he tried to quiet the twinges of my con- 
 science, but he only succeeded in part ; and I went to sleep, 
 and awaked a couple of hours later, with the resolution to 
 set decisively about the execution of another resolution, 
 namely, in my capacity of pupil to devote myself to the neg- 
 lected estate ; to acquire, with the utmost possible dispatch, 
 a complete insight into all matters of rural economy, and by 
 the help of this knowledge and of untiring diligence, and 
 the exertion of all my faculties, to change this ruined place 
 in the shortest possible time — say one or two years — into a 
 paradise, and so relieve my kind host from the necessity of 
 winning at the card-table the resources which he could not 
 win from his fields. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. ' 79 
 
 I at once devoted my attention to the forlorn-looking sta- 
 bles, to the cattle-sheds, only tenanted by a few wretched 
 specimens of the bovine genus, and to a score of melancholy 
 sheep ; so that Herr von Zehren, who had an acute sense of 
 the comic, could never get done laughing at me, until an in- 
 cident occurred which gave him an opportunity of speaking 
 a serious word with me, which to a certain extent damped 
 the ardor of my economical studies. 
 
 That old man whom I met in the park on the first day 
 after my arrival (whose real name was Christian Halter- 
 man, though he always went by the name of Old Christian), 
 in his capacity of under-bailiff, and in default of a master 
 who paid any attention to the management, and of a head- 
 bailiff, a post that was not filled — was the wretched chief of 
 the whole wretched establishment. Such orders as were 
 given emanated from him ; though it required no extraordi- 
 nary perspicuity of vision to see that of the whole bandit- 
 looking gang that called themselves laborers, every man did 
 just what pleased him. When the old man, as I had once 
 or twice seen, fell into an impotent rage, and more to relieve 
 his wrath than in the hope of any effectual result, scolded 
 and stormed in his singular, creaking, parrot-like voice, they 
 laughed in his wrinkled face and kept on their own way, or 
 sometimes even openly insulted him. Their ringleader in 
 this insolence was a certain John Swart, commonly called 
 " Long Jock," a great, tall, broad-shouldered fellow, with long 
 arms like an ape's, whose physiognomy would probably have 
 appeared to Justizrath Heckepfennig more unprepossessing 
 even than mine, and of whose matchless strength the others 
 told all sorts of wonderful stories. 
 
 I came one morning upon this man, quarrelling again with 
 Old Christian. The subject of dispute was a load of com 
 which the old man wanted thrown off, and which the other 
 refused to touch. The scene was the straw-littered space 
 before the barn-door, and the spectators a half-dozen fellows 
 who openly sided with Long Jock, and applauded every 
 coarse jeer of his with whinnying laughter. 
 
 I had observed the whole affair from a distance, and my 
 blood Was already boiling with indignation when I reached 
 the spot. Thrusting a couple of the laughers roughly aside, 
 I confronted Long Jock and asked him if he intended to 
 
8o Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 obey Old Christian's order or not. Jock answered me with 
 an insolent laugh and a coarse word. In a moment we were 
 both rolling in the trampled straw, and in the next I was 
 kneeling upon the breast of my vanquished antagonist, and 
 made the unpleasantness of his position so apparent, that he 
 first cried aloud for help, and then, seeing that the rest 
 stood scared and motionless, and that none could deliver 
 him out of my hand, begged for mercy like a craven. 
 
 I had just allowed him to rise, badly bruised and half 
 strangled, when Herr von Zehren, who from his chamber- 
 window had been a witness of the whole scene, came hurry- 
 ing up. He told Long Jock that he had got no more than 
 he richly deserved, and that he would do well to take a les- 
 son from it for the future ; reproved the others, but as I 
 thought by no means so severely as their conduct demanded, 
 then took my arm and led me a little aside, until we were 
 out of hearing of the men, when he said, " It is all very well, 
 George, that these fellows should know how strong you are ; 
 but I do not want to turn them against me by any repetition 
 of the proof." , 
 
 I looked at him in surprise. 
 
 " Yes," he went on, " you would have to repeat the pro- 
 cess on a thousand other occasions, and not even your 
 strength would suffice for such Herculean labor." 
 
 " Let us try that," I said. I 
 
 " No ; let us by no means try that," he answered. 
 " But the whole estate is going to ruin in this way," I 
 cried, still under excitement. Herr von Zehren shrugged 
 his shoulders, and said, " Well, it has not very far to go — 
 two or three steps at the farthest. And now you understand, 
 George, the word is. Things as they are ! As for the men, 
 they are no bees in point of industry, but they have this 
 much of bees about them, that when they are meddled with 
 they are very apt to sting. So be a little more cautious in 
 future." 
 
 He said it with a smile, but I perceived very clearly that 
 he was thoroughly in earnest, and that the paradise I had I 
 
 been planning must be renounced. A paradise in which these 
 brigand-looking malingerers slouched about at their pleasure, 
 presented too glaring a contradiction to escape even my in- 
 experienced eyes. 
 
 m 
 
 A.; 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 8i 
 
 I cannot say that it cost me much to give up my plans of 
 radical reformation. I had chiefly thrown myself into them 
 because I hoped thus to free myself of my load of obligation 
 to my host. If he did not choose to be paid in this way, it 
 was clearly no fault of mine ; and when he reiterated to me 
 every day that he wanted nothing of me but myself, that my 
 company was inexpressibly delightful to him, and, so to 
 speak, a godsend, whose value he could not sufficiently 
 prize — how could I help believing assurances that were so 
 flattering to me, and how could I withstand the allurements 
 of a life that so exactly corresponded with my inclinations ? 
 
 Fishing and bird-catching — ^there is associated with these 
 words an ominous warning, whose justice I was destined 
 to have a long time and a desperately serious occasion to 
 verify ; but even now I cannot condemn the fascination that 
 clings to those occupations at which the proverb is aimed. 
 Fish cannot be caught without gazing at the water, nor birds 
 without gazing into the sky ; and then the gliding waves and 
 the flying clouds get a mysterious hold of us — or at all 
 events did of me, from my very earliest youth. How often 
 as a boy, coming home from school, did I go out of my way 
 to sit for half an hour on the outermost end of the pier, and 
 yield to the lulling influence of the light lapping of the waves 
 at my feet. How often at my garret-window have I stood 
 gazing over my wearisome books at the blue sky, where our 
 neighbor's white pigeons were wheeling in ethereal circles. 
 And I had always longed just for once to be able to listenl 
 to my fill to the plashing waves, and gaze rhy fill at the ■ 
 drifting clouds. Then as I grew older, and could extend 
 the range of my excursions, I enjoyed many a happy hour^ 
 many a boating-trip, many a ramble into the forest, many 
 an expedition after water-fowl on the beach with one of 
 Smith Pinnow's rusty fowling-pieces ; but these at best were 
 only for a few hours at a time, which were far from sufficient 
 for the exuberant energies of youth, and were bought at the 
 price of too much incarceration at home and at school, too 
 much care, trouble, vexation, and anger. 
 
 Now for the first time in my life I enjoyed in full measure 
 
 all that I had longed for all my life : forest and field and 
 
 sea-shore, unlimited space, and freedom to wander through 
 
 all these at my pleasure from the earliest dawn until far in 
 
 4* ' 
 
82 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 the night, and a companion besides than whom no fitter 
 could be desired by a youth whose ambition it was to excel 
 in these profitless, ruinous arts. The " Wild Zehren's " eye 
 was perhaps not so keen nor his hand so steady as they had 
 been ten or twenty years before, but he was still an excel- 
 lent shot, and a master in everything belonging to field- 
 sports. No one knew better than he where to find the 
 game ; no one had such well-trained dogs, or could handle 
 them so well as he ; no one could so skilfially take advantage 
 of all the chances of the chase ; and above all, no one was 
 so delightful a companion. If his ardor during the sport 
 carried all away with him, no one could so happily choose 
 the resting-place in the cool edge of the forest or under the 
 thin shade of a little copse by the side of a brook, or so 
 charmingly entertain the tired party with mirth and jest and 
 the most capitally-told stories. But he always seemed most 
 charming to me when we two together were on a long tramp. 
 If in a large company of sportsmen he could not conceal a 
 certain imperious manner, and the better success of another 
 filled him with envy which found vent in acrid sarcasms, ^ 
 
 there was no trace of all this when he was with me. He 
 taught me all the arts, adroit expedients, and minor dexteri- 
 ties of woodcraft, in which he was so well skilled, and was 
 delighted to find me so apt a scholar ; indeed he often 
 laughed heartily when I brought down a bird which he had 
 marked for his own gun. 
 
 And then his talk, to which I always listened with new 
 delight ! It was the strangest mingling of excellently-told 
 sporting stories and anecdotes, acute observations of nature, 
 and biting satire upon mankind, especially the fairer half of 
 it. In the life of the Wild Zehren, women had played an im- 
 portant and disastrous part. Like so many men of ardent 
 passions and fierce desires, he had probably never sought 
 for true love, and now he charged it as a crime upon the sex, 
 that he had never found it ; not even with that unhappy 
 lady whom he had carried off" from her home under such- 
 terrible circumstances, and who brought him nothing but her 
 parents' curse, beauty which faded but too soon, and a nar- 
 row, bigoted spirit, uncultured and perhaps incapable of cul- 
 ture, which already bore in itself the germs of madness. 
 
 That he, at that time in his fortieth year, who had seen so 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 83 
 
 much of the world, and had such wide experience, should 
 perceive and acknowledge that the whole was hi^s own fault, 
 that he had to attribute to himself all the misery and mis- 
 fortune ensuing upon so wicked and insensate a union — all 
 this never occurred to him for a moment. He was the man 
 more sinned against than sinning; he was the victim of 
 his generosity ; he had been cheated out of his life's happi- 
 ness. How could a man have domestic habits who never 
 had any enjoyment in his home ? How could he learn the 
 charm of a calm and peaceful life at the side of a woman 
 restlessly tormented night and day by madness and super- 
 stition ? 
 
 " Yes, yes, my dear George, I once had fine plans of my 
 own : I meant to restore the old castle, laid waste in the 
 time of the French invasion, to its ancient splendor ; I 
 thought to regain all the possessions that once belonged to 
 the Zehrens ; but it was not to be. It could not be, in the 
 years when I was still young and full of hope ; and do you 
 think now to make a careful, economical proprietor of me, 
 now that I am grown old and half savage .'' You buoyant, 
 hopeful young See ! there he goes ! That comes of talk- 
 ing. No ; don't shoot now, he is too far. To heel, Diana, 
 old girl ! So frivolous in your old days ? Be ashamed of 
 yourself ! Yes ; what I was going to say to you, George, 
 was — beware of the women. They are the cause of every 
 man's misfortunes, just as they have been of mine. Take 
 my brothers, for instance. There is the steuerrath, whom 
 you know : the man was predestined to a fine career, for he 
 is as fond of the shining things of this world as any thievish 
 magpie, cunning as a fox, smooth as an eel, and being a man 
 without passions of any sort, unpretentious, and so could 
 easily hold his own. If he absolutely must marry, then, at 
 a time when he made no pretensions, it should have been 
 some plain sensible girl, who would have helped him make 
 his way. Instead of this, when he was a mere penniless 
 barrister, he lets himself be caught by a Baroness Kippen- 
 reiter, the oldest of two surviving daughters of an army-con- 
 tractor, made a baron, I believe, by the King of Sweden, who 
 wasted in speculation the fortune that had ennobled him, to 
 the last farthing, and finally blew out his brains. And now 
 the steuerrath must take the consequences. A Baroness 
 
84 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 Kippenreiter will not seal her letters with a coat-of-arms 
 twenty years old, and have the richest man in the province 
 for a brother-in-law, for nothing. If such a thorough ple- 
 beian could rise to such distinction and to the dignity of 
 commerzienrath, her husband, sprung from the oldest family 
 in the province, must die prime minister at the very least. 
 The lithe fox with no pretensions would have found his way 
 into the poultry-house ; but when with hunger and debt he is 
 changed into a howling and ravenous wolf, he is hunted off 
 with kicks, clubs, and stones. One of these days they will 
 put him off with a pension, to be rid of him once for all. 
 
 "Then there is my younger brother Ernest. He is a 
 genius ; and like all geniuses, modest, magnanimous as Don 
 Quixote, full of philanthropic crotchets, unpractical to the 
 last degree, and helpless as a child. He should have taken 
 a wife of strong mind, who would have brought order into 
 his genial confusion, and had the ambition to make some- 
 thing out of him. He had the stuff in him, no doubt ; it 
 only wanted fashioning. And what does he do ? When a 
 first lieutenant, twenty years old — for already, when he was 
 little more than a boy, he had distinguished himself in the 
 war for freedom, and came back covered with orders, so that 
 attention was drawn to him, and he had a fine career before 
 him — ^what does he do .-* He falls in love with an orphan, 
 the daughter of a painter, I believe, or something of that 
 sort, who had served as a volunteer in his battalion, and on 
 his death-bed left her in his charge — the generous soul ! 
 He marries her ; farewell promotion ! They give our lieu- 
 tenant, who is bent on a mesalliance, an honorable discharge, 
 with the rank of captain ; make him superintendent of the 
 prison ; and there he sits now, for these twenty-five years, in 
 Z., with a half-blind wife and a swarm of children, old and 
 gray before his time, a wretched invalid — and all this for the 
 sake of a stupid young goose, whom the first tailor or cob- 
 bler would have suited just as well. Women ! women ! 
 Dear George, beware of women ! " I 
 
 Had Herr von Zehren, when he talked to me in this way, 
 any special object in view ? I do not think he had. I was 
 now so much with him, we often set out so early, so seldom 
 returned at noon, and usually came home so late at night — 
 as a consequence I saw so little of Constance, and that 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 85 
 
 almost invariably in his presence, when I felt so embarrassed 
 and ill at ease on account of the constant hostilities between 
 father and daughter, that I scarcely ventured to raise my 
 eyes to her face — it was not possible that he could know how 
 I admired the beautiful maiden, how I found her more lovely 
 every time I saw her, and how my heart beat when I merely 
 heard the rustle of her dress. 
 
 Then there was another reason which contributed to his 
 unsuspiciousness on this point. Fond as he was of having 
 me with him, and sincerely as he admired my aptness for 
 everything connected with sport, and my remarkable bodily 
 strength, which I liked to display before him, still he scarcely 
 looked upon me as a creature of his own kind. Poor as he 
 was, leading a problematical existence as he had done for 
 many years, he could never forget that he sprarig from a most 
 ancient race of nobles, who had once held s»way over the / jf 
 island before the princes of Prora-Wiek had been heard of, 
 and when Uselin, my native place, afterwards an important 
 Hanseatic town, was a mere collection of fishers' huts. I 
 am convinced that he, like a dethroned king, had in his heart 
 never renounced his pretensions to the power and wealth 
 which had once been his ancestors' ; that he considered that 
 Trantow, Granow, and a score of other titled or untitled 
 gentlemen who held estates in the neighborhood that had 
 once belonged to the Zehrens, had come to their so-called 
 possession of these estates by some absurd whimsy of for- 
 tune, but had no genuine title which he recognized, and that 
 wherever he hunted, it was still upon his own ground. This 
 mystical cultus of a long-vanished splendor, of which he still 
 fancied himself the upholder, gave his eye the haughty look, 
 his bearing the dignity, his speech the graciousness, which 
 belong to sovereign princes whose political impotence is so 
 absolute, and whose legitimacy is so unassailable, that they 
 can allow themselves to be perfectly amiable. 
 
 Herr von Zehren was an enthusiastic defender of the right 
 of primogeniture, and found it highly unreasonable that 
 younger brothers should bear and transmit the nobility that 
 they were not permitted to represent. " I have nothing 
 to say against a councillor of excise, nothing against a 
 prison superintendent," he said, "only they ought to be 
 called Mailer or Schultze, and not Zehren." For the 
 
86 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 nobility of the court, the public offices, or the army, he 
 cherished the profoundest contempt. They were only ser- 
 vants, in or out of livery, he maintained ; and he drew a 
 sharp distinction between the genuine old and the "new- 
 baked " nobility, to the former class of which, for example, 
 the Trantows belonged, who could trace back an unbroken 
 pedigree to the middle of the fourteenth century ; while Herr 
 von Granow had had a shepherd for great-grandfather, small 
 tenant-farmer for grandfather, and a land-owner, who had 
 purchased a patent of nobility, for his father. " And the 
 man often behaves as if he was of the same caste with my- 
 self '. The honor of being permitted to lose his contempti- 
 ble money to me, seems to have mounted into his foolish 
 brain. I think before long he will ask me if I am not wil- 
 ling to be the father-in-law of a shepherd-boy. Thank 
 heaven, in that point at least I can rely upon Constance ; 
 she had rather fling herself into the sea than marry the little 
 puffed-up oaf But it is foolish in her to treat poor Hans so 
 cavalierly. Trantow is a fellow that can show himself any- 
 where. He might be put under a glass-case for exhibition, 
 and nobody could find a fault in him. You laugh, you young 
 popinjay ! You mean that he was not the man that invented 
 gunpowder, and that if he keeps on as he is going, he will 
 soon have drunk away what little brains he has. Bah ! 
 The first fact qualifies him for a good husband ; and as for 
 the second, I know of a certainty that it is pure desperation 
 that makes him look into the glass so much with those star- 
 ing eyes of his. Poor devil : it makes one right heartily 
 sorry for him ; but that, you see, is the way with every man 
 that has anything to do with women. Beware of the women, 
 George ; beware of the women ! " 
 
 Was it possible that the man who held these views and 
 talked with me in this way, could have the least suspicion of 
 my feelings ? It could not be. I was in his eyes a young 
 fellow who had fallen in his way, and whom he had picked 
 up as a resource against ennui, whom he kept with him and 
 talked to, because he did not like to be alone and liked to 
 talk. Could I complain of this .'' Could I make any higher 
 pretensions ? Was I, or did I desire to be, anything else 
 than one of my knight's retinue, even if for the time I hap- 
 pened to be the only one ? Could I have any other concern 
 
Hammer and Anvil. Sy 
 
 than for the fact that I could not at the same time devote 
 the same reverential service to my knight's lovely daughter ? 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 SINCE that memorable walk with her through the wood to 
 the ruins on the promontory, I had not again been alone 
 with Constance for a long time. During the three 
 rainy days I saw her at the dinner table, and perhaps about 
 as often at supper when we returned from shooting; but 
 always in the presence of her father, and usually of Herren 
 von Trantow and Granow, our companions of the field and 
 the card-table. On these occasions she scarcely lifted her 
 lovely eyes from her untouched plate, while the tall Hans 
 stared at her after his fashion, the short Granow chattered 
 away as usual, undisturbed by her chilling silence, and Herr 
 von Zehren, who in his daughter's presence always seemed 
 in a singularly irritated mood, loosed at her more than one 
 of his keen sarcastic shafts. These were for me sad and 
 bitter hours, and all the bitterer as I, with all my desire to 
 be of service, felt myself s.o utterly helpless, and what was 
 worst of all, thought I observed that she no longer excepted 
 me from the aversion which she openly manifested towards 
 her father's friends. In the first days of my stay at the 
 castle it was entirely different. In those days she had 
 always for me a ready friendly glance, a kind word occasion- 
 ally whispered, a cordial if hasty pressure of the hand. This 
 was all now at an end. She spoke to me no more, she 
 looked at me no more, except at times with a look in which 
 indignation seemed mingled with contempt, and which cut 
 me to the heart. 
 
 And had I been short-sighted enough to mistake the 
 meaning of these looks, a word dropped by old Pahlen 
 would have opened my eyes. 
 
 I hit upon the idea of asking permission to occupy, 
 instead of my present room in the front of the house, one of 
 the empty apartments looking on the park. Into this I car- 
 
88 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 ried from time to time various articles of furniture, most of 
 them still valuable, which were lying about in the dilapidated 
 regions of the upper story, until I had brought together an 
 accumulation which presented a very singular appearance. 
 Herr von Zehren laughed heartily when one day coming to 
 call me to dinner, as I in my new occupation had forgotten 
 the hour, he caught me hard at work arranging my worm- 
 eaten and tarnished treasures. 
 
 " Your furniture does not lack variety, at all events," he 
 said ; " for an antiquary the rubbish would not be without in- 
 terest. Really, it is like a chapter out of one of Scott's 
 novels. There, in that high-backed chair, Dr. Dryasdust 
 might have sat ; you must set that here, if the old fellow 
 does not tumble over as soon as you take him from the wall. 
 So ! a little nearer to the window. Isn't that a splendid 
 piece ! It comes down from my great-grandfathfer's time. 
 He was ambassador at the court of Augustus the Strong, 
 and the only one of our family, so far as I know, who as 
 head of the house ever entered public service. He brought 
 from Dresden the handsome vases of which you see a pot- 
 sherd there, and a decided taste for Moorish servants, par- 
 rots, and ladies. But de mortuis — Really the old chair is 
 still right comfortable. And what a magnificent view of the 
 park, just from this place ! I shall often come to see you, 
 for it is really charming." 
 
 In fact he did come once or twice in the next few days, 
 while a heavy rain kept us all in the house, to smoke his 
 cigar and have a chat ; but when the weather cleared up, he 
 thought no more about it, and I was careful enough, on my 
 part, not to recall my museum to his recollection. For I 
 had only arranged it in order to be nearer to Constance, and 
 to have a view of the park, about whose neglected walks she 
 loved to wander. I could also see a strip of the terrace 
 that lay under her windows, but unfortunately only the outer 
 margin, as the part of the castle in which she lived fell back 
 from the main-building about the breadth of the terrace. 
 But still it was something : the faint light which in the eve- 
 ning fell upon the balustrade came from her room, and once 
 or twice I caught an indistinct glimpse of her form, as she 
 paced up and down the terrace, or leaning upon the balus- 
 trade gazed into the park, over which night had already 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 89 
 
 spread her dusky veil. And when I did not see her, I 
 heard her music and her songs, among which there was 
 none I loved better than that which I had heard the first 
 evening, and now knew by heart : 
 
 " All day long the bright sun loves me, 
 Woos me with his glowing light j 
 But I better love the gentle 
 Stars of night." 
 
 In truth I also loved them well, the stars of night, for often 
 and often when the pale light had vanished from the balus- 
 trade, and the song I so loved had long ceased, I still sat at 
 my open window gazing at the stars, which shone in all the 
 splendor of a September night, and listening to the solemn 
 music of the wind in the ancient trees of the park. 
 
 In the meantime the happiness which only young hearts, 
 or such as have long retained their youth, can appreciate, 
 was, as I have said, but of brief duration. The singular 
 change in Constance's manner towards me, plucked me from 
 my heaven ; and I tortured my brain in the effort to discover 
 what cause had brought me into her disfavor. But think as 
 I might, I could find no key to the mystery ; and at last I 
 resolved — though a foreboding of evil warned me against it 
 — to have recourse to Pahlen, who, if any one, could solve me 
 the enigma that weighed so heavily upon my foolish head. 
 
 This ugly old woman had lately been rather more oblig- 
 ing. I had soon discovered that she was extremely fond of 
 money, and I did not hesitate now and then, under one 
 pretence or another, to slip into her wrinkled brown hands 
 two or three of the thalers that I won at the card-table — for 
 naturally enough I had abandoned my resolution to play no 
 more. The glitter of the silver softened her stony old heart ; 
 she no longer growled and grumbled when I ventured to 
 speak to her, and once or twice actually brought coffee to 
 my room with her own hands. When I thought that the 
 taming process was sufficiently advanced, I ventured to ask 
 her about the subject nearest my heart — her young mistress. 
 She threw me one of her suspicious looks, and finally, as I 
 repeated my question, puckered her ugly old face into a repul- 
 sive grin, and said : 
 
 " Yes ; catch mice with cheese ; but you need not try that 
 game ; old Pahlen is too sharp for you." 
 
Qo Hammer and Ativil. 
 
 What was the game that I need not try ? 
 
 As I could not find a satisfactory answer to this question, 
 I asked the old woman on the following day. 
 
 "You need not make as if you did not know," she said, 
 with a kind of respect, inspired probably by my innocent 
 manner, which she naturally took for a masterpiece of de- 
 ception ; " I am not going to betray my young lady for a 
 couple of thalers. I have been sorry enough, I can tell you, 
 that I helped to clear up this room for you, and she has 
 complained bitterly enough about it." 
 
 " But, good heaven," I said, " I will cheerfully go back to 
 my old room if the young lady wishes it. I never thought 
 it would be so extremely disagreeable to her if I caught a 
 sight of her now and then. I could not have supposed it." 
 
 " And that was all you wanted ? " asked the old woman. 
 
 I did not answer. I was half desperate to think that 
 — heaven knows how involuntarily — I had offended her 
 whom I so deeply loved ; and yet I was glad to learn at 
 last what my offence was. Like the young fool I was, I 
 strode up and down the great room, and cried : 
 
 " I will quit this room this very day ; I will not sleep 
 another night in it ; tell your young lady that ; and tell her 
 that I would leave the castle this very hour, only that I do 
 not know what to say to Herr von Zehren." 
 
 And I threw myself into the old worm-eaten, high-backed 
 chair, at imminent risk of its destruction, with the deepest 
 distress evident in my features. 
 
 The tone of my voice, the expression of my countenance, 
 probably joined with my words to convince the old woman 
 of my sincerity. 
 
 " Yes, yes," she said, " what could you say to him ? He 
 certainly would not let you go, although for my part I do 
 not know what he really wants with you. Do you stay here, 
 and I will speak with my young lady." 
 
 " Do, dear, good Mrs. Pahlen ! " I cried, springing up and 
 seizing one of the old woman's bony hands. " Speak with 
 her, tell her — "I turned suddenly red, stammered out 
 some awkward phrase or other, and once more adjured her 
 to speak with her young lady. 
 
 The old woman, who had been watching me all the while 
 with a curious, piercing look, remained thoughtful for a few 
 
Hammer and Anvil. gi 
 
 moments, then said curtly she would see what could be done, 
 and left me. 
 
 I remained, much disturbed. The consciousness that the 
 old woman had penetrated my secret, was very painful to 
 me j but I consoled myself with the reflection that if she was 
 really, as she seemed to be, Constance's confidante, I cer- 
 tainly need feel no shame to take her into my confidence 
 also ; and finally, what was done was done, and if Constance 
 now learned for the first time that I loved her, that I was 
 ready to do or to suffer anything for her sake, she would cer- 
 tainly forgive me what I had done. What had I done, then ? 
 How could she, who at first received me so kindly, who in 
 jest which seemed earnest chose me for her service, who on 
 that evening exacted of me the promise not to go until she 
 gave me permission — how could she feel offence at what at 
 the very worst she could but regard as a token of my love 
 and admiration ? 
 
 Thus, under my inexperienced hands, the threads of my 
 destiny were wound into an evermore inextricable clue ; and 
 with violent beatings of the heart I entered an hour later the 
 dining-room, where to-day, besides our usual guests, three or 
 four others were assembled. They were waiting for the 
 young lady's appearance to take their places at the table. 
 After dinner they were to go out for a little shooting. 
 
 As was usual with her, Constance subjected her father's 
 impatience to a severe trial ; but at last she appeared. 
 
 I do not know how it happened that this time I, who al- 
 ways, when guests were present, took my seat at the foot of 
 the table, happened to be placed next to her. It was cer- 
 tainly not intentional on my part, for in the frame of mind 
 in which I was, I would have done anything rather than ob- 
 trude my presence upon my fair enemy. So I scarcely dared 
 to raise my eyes, and in my excessive confusion loaded my 
 plate with viands of which every morsel seemed about to 
 choke me. How joyfully then was I surprised, when Con- 
 stance, after sitting for a few minutes in her accustomed 
 silence, suddenly asked me, in a low friendly tone, if I had 
 not time to fill her a glass of wine. 
 
 " Why did you not ask me, meine Gnddigstel " * cried Herr 
 von Granow, who sat on the other side of her. 
 
 -Kli 
 
 Gnidigste," most gracious. A form of address to ladies of rank. — Ta. 
 
92 Hammer and Anvil. I 
 
 " I prefer to be served in my own way," answered Con- 
 stance, almost turning her back upon the little man, and con- 
 tinuing to speak with me. I answered as well as I could, 
 and as she continued speaking in a low tone, I imitated her 
 example, and leaned towards her in order better to catch her 
 words ; and thus, as I looked into her dark eyes, I forgot 
 what she had asked me, or answered at a venture, at which 
 she laughed ; and because she laughed I laughed also, and 
 all this together made up the most charming little confiden- 
 tial Ute-drUte, although we were speaking of the most indif- 
 ferent things in the world. I took no notice of anything 
 else that was passing ; only once I observed that Hans von 
 Trantow, who sat opposite us, was staring at us with wide- 
 open eyes ; but I thought nothing of it, for the good fellow's 
 eyes usually wore that expression. 
 
 Much sooner than I could have wished, Herr von Zehren 
 rose from the table. Before the house were waiting a lot of 
 barefooted, bareheaded boys, with creels on their backs ; 
 the dogs were barking and leaping about the men, who were 
 arranging their accoutrements and loading their guns. Con- 
 stance came out with us, which she had never before done, 
 and called to me as we were about starting, " I cannot wish 
 them good luck, and would not v^'x^ you bad." Then, after 
 including the rest in a general salutation, she gave me a 
 friendly wave of the hand and re-entered the house. 
 
 " Which way are we going to-day ? " I asked Herr von 
 Zehren, as I came to his side, 
 
 " It was long enough discussed at dinner. Your atten- 
 tion seems to have been wandering." 
 
 It was the first time that he had ever spoken to me in an 
 unfriendly tone, and my countenance probably expressed the 
 surprise that I felt, for he quickly added : 
 
 " I did not mean to wound you j and besides it was no 
 fault of yours." 
 
 We had reached a stubble-field, and the shooting began. 
 Herr von Zehren posted me on the left wing, while he kept 
 upon the right ; thus I was separated from him and did not 
 once come near him during the rest of the day. This also 
 had never before occurred. He had hitherto always kept me 
 by him, and was delighted when, as often happened, more 
 game fell to our two guns than to those of all the rest. My 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 95 
 
 shooting was this day poor enough. The happiness which 
 Constance's unexpected friendliness had given me, was 
 embittered by her father's unexpected unkindness. The 
 birds which my dog Caro put up — Herr von Zehren had 
 given me one of his best dogs — flew off untouched while I 
 was pondering over the unhappy relations between father 
 and daughter, and how I could not show my affection for the 
 one without offending the other, and what was to become of 
 my favorite scheme of reconciling the two. 
 
 I was quite lost in these melancholy reflections when 
 Herr von Granow joined me. It was already growing dusk, 
 and the day's sport was virtually over, only now and then we 
 heard a distant shot among the bushes of the heath. No 
 order was now kept, and I soon found myself alone with the 
 little man as we ascended a slight hill. 
 
 " What has happened between you and the old man ? " he 
 asked, hanging his gun across his shoulders and coming to 
 my side. 
 
 " What do you mean ? " I inquired. 
 
 " Well, it struck me in that light, and not me only ; the 
 others noticed it too. I can assure you that he looked once 
 or twice across the table at ycai as if he would eat you." 
 
 " I have done nothing to oflisnd him," I ^said. 
 
 " That I can well believe," continued the little man. 
 " And this afternoon he scarcely spoke a word with you." 
 
 I was silent, for I did not know what to say. 
 
 " Yes, yes," pursued my companion ; " but do not hurry 
 so, nobody can keep up with you. You are in an ugly posi- 
 tion." 
 
 "How so?" I asked. 
 
 " Don't you really know 
 
 " No." 
 
 Herr von Granow was so convinced of his superior acute- 
 ness, that it never occurred to him that my ignorance might 
 be feigned in order to draw him out. 
 
 " Yes, yes," he said. " You are still young, and at your 
 years one is often deaf and blind to things which we who 
 know the world seize at the first glance. The old man and 
 the young lady live together like cat and dog ; but really, 
 when one thinks of it, neither has such great cause to love 
 the other. She leads a wretched life through his fault. He 
 
94 Hammer and Anvil. ' 
 
 would gladly be rid of her, but who is going to take her off 
 his hands ? I have considered the matter from all sides ; 
 hta it can't be managed — it really can't." 
 
 I was in doubt, when my companion began to talk in this 
 way, whether I should strike him to the earth for his impu- 
 dence, or burst into loud laughter. I took a side-look at 
 him ; the little man with his short trotting legs, his foolish 
 face scarlet from his exertions, and his half-open mouth — I 
 could not resist, but fairl}*^ shook with laughter. 
 
 " I do not see what you are laughing about," he said, 
 rather surprised than offended. " The little comedy which 
 she played for you and the rest of us this afternoon, can 
 hardly have turned your brain, if I may so express myself. 
 And it is just upon that subject that I would like to give you 
 some information. 
 
 " What can you mean ? " I asked. I 
 
 My merriment was at an end, and I was serious enough 
 now. A comedy which she had played for me ? " What 
 can you mean ? " I asked again more urgently than before. 
 
 Herr von Granow, who had been walking at a little dis- 
 tance from me, trotted up close to my side, and said in a 
 confidential tone: 
 
 " After all, I cannot think hard of you about it. You are 
 still so young ; and I often do not know myself on what 
 footing I am standing with the girl. But this much is clear : 
 out of pure obstinacy against her father, and perhaps a little 
 calculation to raise her own value, and perhaps, too, because 
 she thinks it will make no difference anyhow, but mainly 
 out of mere stubbornness and self-will, has she put on these 
 airs of a princess, and behaves as if for her I and the rest 
 had no existence. If she suddenly began to coquet with 
 you in my — I should say in our presence, that really signi- 
 fies nothing ; it is but a little pleasantry that she allows 
 herself with you, and which has no further consequences ; 
 but it must provoke the old man, and it did provoke him. You 
 did not observe it, you say, but I can assure you he bit his 
 lip and stroked his beard as he always does when anything 
 vexes him." 
 
 The little man had no notion what a tumult he was stirring 
 up in my breast ; he took my silence for acquiescence and 
 for acknowledgement of his superior wisdom, and so pro- 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 95 
 
 ceeded, in delight at being able to speak of such interesting 
 topics and to have secured such an attentive listener. 
 
 " I fancy that the whole conduct of the young lady put#» 
 spoke in his wheel. Do you know how much I have lost to 
 him during the six months that I have been here ? Over 
 eight hundred thalers. And Trantow nearly twice as much ; 
 and all the rest are cursing their ill-fortune. He has had a 
 wonderful run of luck, it is true ; it is not always so ; but 
 then when he loses one must take it out in his wine and his 
 cognac, and you can imagine the prices he rates them at. 
 Well, one wants something at least foF one's mone)'^ ; for the 
 sake. of such a pretty girl one lets a couple of hundreds go, 
 and does not watch the old man's hands too closely. But it 
 used to be all quite different ; she used to join in the play, 
 and smoke cigars with the gentlemen, and go out shooting 
 and riding — the wilder the horses the better she liked it. It 
 used to be a heathenish life, Sylow says, and he ought to 
 know. But since last summer, and that affair with the 
 prince " 
 
 " What affair was that ? " I asked. I was consumed with 
 the desire to hear everything that Herr von Granow had to 
 tell. I no longer felt the contumely which this man was 
 heaping upon my kind host and upon the maiden I adored ; 
 or if I did, I thought that the reckoning should come after- 
 wards, but first I must hear all. 
 
 " You don't know that .-• " he inquired, eagerly. " But, to 
 be sure, who could have told you ? Trantow is mute as a 
 fish, and the others don't know what to think of you. I hold 
 you for an honest fellow, and do not believe that you are a 
 spy, or leagued with the old man ; his looks at dinner were 
 too queer for that. You won't tell him what I have been 
 saying to you, will you > " 
 
 " Not a word," I said. 
 
 " Well then, this is the story. Last summer the old man 
 
 was at D , and she was with him. At a watering-place 
 
 people are not so particular ; any one who chose might go 
 about with him. The young Prince Prora was there too j he 
 had persuaded his physicians that he was unwell and needed 
 sea-bathing, so he was sent there with his tutor. The old 
 prince was at the Residence, just as he is now, and the young 
 one made good use of his liberty. I had just bought my 
 
g6 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 place here, was no sooner on it than I caught a devilish 
 rheumatism on these infernal moors ; and so I went there 
 for a week or so and saw something of it, but the most was 
 told me by others. Naturally enough there was high play ; 
 but the highest was in private circles, for at the Spieisaal 
 they only allow moderate stakes. The prince kept con- 
 stantly in the old man's company, some said for the sake of 
 the play, others, to pay his court to the young lady ; and 
 probably both were right. I have often enough seen them 
 sitting and walking together in the park of an evening ; and 
 they were gay enough, I can testify. Now they say that the 
 old man had bad luck, and lost twenty thousand thalers to 
 the prince, which he had to pay in two days. Where was he 
 to get the money ? So, as they say, he offered the prince 
 his daughter instead. Others say he asked fifty thousand, 
 and others again a hundred thousand for the bargain. Well, 
 for any one who had the money, it may be that was not too 
 much ; but unluckily the young prince did not have the 
 money. It will be two years before he is of age, and then, 
 if the old prince is still alive, he will only get the property 
 of his deceased mother, of which not much is ready cash, I 
 take it. In a word, the affair hung fire ; and one fine day 
 here comes the old prince, who had got some wind of the 
 matter, tearing over from the Residence, read the youngster 
 a terrible lecture, and offered Zehren a handsome sum to go 
 out of the country with Constance until the young prince 
 was married. Now the thing might have been all arranged, 
 for all that Zehren wanted was to make a good hit of it, if 
 he and the prince could have kept from personally appearing 
 in the business. But Zehren, who, when he takes the notion, 
 can be as proud as Lucifer, insisted upon arranging the affair 
 with the prince in person, and so the scandal broke out. 
 There was a terrible scene, they say, and the prince was 
 carried for dead to his hotel. What happened, nobody 
 exactly knows. But this much is certain : the late princess, 
 who was born Countess Sylow — I have the facts from young 
 Sylow, who is related to the count — fell in love with Zehren 
 when he was a young man staying with the prince at the 
 Residence and attending the court balls, and only married 
 the prince because she was compelled to it. The prince 
 either knew it then, or found it out soon afterwards, and 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 97 
 
 they led a miserable life together. It is probable that Zeh- 
 ren and he, in their dispute, raked up some of these old sto- 
 ries ; one word led to another, as always happens. Zehren 
 is like a madman when he gets into a rage, and the prince 
 has none of the coolest of tempers — in a word, the thing 
 came to an explosion. Zehren left the place ; and the 
 prince a day or two later, with a pair of blue marks on his 
 throat left there by Zehren's fingers, they said." 
 
 " And the young prince 1 " 
 
 " What did he care ? All pretty girls are the same to 
 him ; he knows how to enjoy life. I wonder if he holds fast 
 this time. He has already been over three weeks at Rossow. 
 I should feel rather queer about staying in this part of the 
 country after what has happened. I would not for my life 
 meet Herr von Zehren if J knew that my father had given 
 him deadly offence." 
 
 " What does he look like ? " 
 
 " Oh, he is a handsome young fellow ; very slender, ele- 
 gant, and amiable. I fancy Fraulein von Zehren owes her 
 father small thanks for having broken off the affair, for I ' 
 will say for her honor that she does not know what the 
 scheme really was. True, others say that she knew it very 
 well, and was perfectly satisfied with the arrangement." 
 
 I listened with intensest interest to this narrative of my 
 companion's, as if my life depended upon its result. This 
 then was the mystery : it was the young Prince of Prora who 
 was the " chosen one " of her song. Now I remembered 
 how she blushed when Granow that evening alluded to the 
 prince, and at the same time I recalled the dark figure in 
 the park. Had I only got him in my hands ! 
 
 I groaned aloud with grief and anger. 
 
 " You are tired," said the little man, " and besides I see 
 we have strayed considerably out of our way. We must 
 keep to the right ; but there are two or three ugly places in 
 the moor, and in the dusk I am afraid we shall not be able 
 to get through. Let us rather go round a little. Heaven 
 knows how little you big fellows can stand ; there was a Herr 
 von Westen-Taschen in my regiment, a fellow, if anything, 
 bigger than you, only perhaps not quite so broad across the 
 shoulders. * Westen,' I said to him one day, ' I'll bet you 
 that I can run ' — but, good heavens, what is that ? " 
 
 I 
 
98 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 It was a man who suddenly arose out of a little hollow, in 
 which we had not noticed him — probably could not have 
 seen him in the dusk — about twenty paces from us, and dis- 
 appeared again instantly. 
 
 " Let us go nearer," I said. 
 
 " For heaven's sake no," whispered my companion, hold- 
 ing me fast by my game-pouch. 
 
 " Perhaps the man has met with an accident," I said. 
 
 " God forbid," said the little man. " But we might, if we 
 did not keep out of his way. I beg you come along." 
 
 Herr von Granow was so urgent, and evinced so much 
 anxiety, that I did as he entreated me ; but after we had 
 gone a short distance I could not refrain from stopping and 
 looking round as I heard a low whistle behind me. The 
 man was going across the heath with long strides, another 
 rose from the same spot and followed him, then another and 
 another, until I had counted eight. They had all great 
 packs upon their backs, but went, notwithstanding, at a rapid 
 pace, keeping accurate distance. In a few minutes their 
 dark figures had vanished, as if the black moor over which 
 they were striding had swallowed them up. 
 
 Herr von Granow drew a deep breath. " Do you see ? " 
 said he, " I was right. Infernal rascals that run like rats 
 over places where any honest Christian would sink. I'll 
 wager they were some of Zehren's men." . j 
 
 " How do yoii mean ? " I asked. 
 
 " Oh, well," he went on, " we all dabble in it a little about 
 here, or at least make our profit of it. In the short time 
 that I have been here, I have found out that there is no help 
 for it, and that the rascals would burn the house over your 
 head if you did not look through your fingers and stand by 
 them in every way. Only the day before yesterday, as I was 
 standing by my garden-wall, a fellow comes running across 
 the lawn and says that I must hide him, the patrol is after 
 him. I give you my word I made him creep into the oven, 
 as there was no other hiding-place handy, and with my own 
 hands heaped a pile of straw before the door ; and when the 
 patrol came up, five minutes later, said I had seen the fellow 
 making for the wood. Upon my honor I was ashamed of 
 myself ; but what is one to do ? And so I would not say 
 anything against the old man, if he only would not carry 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 99 
 
 things to such extremes. But he drives it too far, I tell you, 
 he drives it too far ; it must take a bad turn ; there is but 
 one opinion about that." 
 
 " But," said I, taking the greatest pains to speak as calmly 
 as possible, " I have been already about three weeks here, 
 and I give you my honor " (this phrase I had lately caught) 
 " that as yet I have not seen the slightest thing to confirm 
 the evil repute in which, as I hear to my great uneasiness, 
 Herr von Zehren stands, even with his friends. Yes, I will 
 admit that when I first came here, some such fancies came 
 into my head, I cannot tell how, but I have long driven so 
 disgraceful a suspicion from n\y mind." 
 
 " Suspicion ' " said the old man, speaking with even greater 
 vivacity, and takmg shorter and quicker steps ; " who talks of 
 suspicion ? The thing is as clear as amen in the church. 
 If you have observed nothing — which really surprises me, 
 but your word of course is sufficient — the reason is because 
 the weather has been so bad Still, the business is not alto- 
 gether at a stand-still, as you have yourself just now seen. I 
 declare, one feels very queer to think one is sitting in the Very 
 middle of it all. And last Thursday I had to take a lot of 
 wine and cognac from him, and Trantow as much more a 
 couple of days before, and Sylow still more, but he, I believe, 
 divides with somebody else." 
 
 " And why should not Herr von Zehren dispose of his 
 surplus stock to his friends ? " I asked, incredulously. 
 
 " His surplus stock ? " cried Herr von Granow. " Yes, 
 to be sure there was a great deal left over from the last vin- 
 tage ; he has enough in his cellars, they say, to supply half 
 the island. And that is a heavy load for him to carry ; for he 
 has to pay the smuggler captains in cash, and the market at 
 Uselin has grown very poor, as I hear. Lately they have 
 got very shy there. Since so many have taken to dabbling 
 in the business, no one thoroughly trusts another. For- 
 merly, I am told, the whole trade was in the hands of a pair 
 of respectable firms. But all that you must know much bet- 
 ter than I ; your father is an officer of the customs." 
 
 " True," I answered, " and I am so much the more sur- 
 prised that, among so many, I have never heard Herr von 
 Zehren's name mentioned — supposing your suspicion to-be 
 founded on fact." 
 
loo • Hammer and Anvil. j 
 
 " But don't keep always talking about * suspicion,' " cried 
 the little man, peevishly. " It is there just as it is every- 
 where else, they hang the little thieves and let the big ones 
 go. The gentlemen of the custom-house know what they are 
 about. A couple of thalers or louis-d'ors at the right time 
 will make many things smooth ; and when one has, like the 
 old man, a brother councillor of excise, Mr. Inspector will 
 probably not be so impolite as to interfere with the council- 
 lor's brother." 
 
 " That is an insult, Herr von Granow," I cried in a fury ; 
 " I have already told you that my own father is an officer in 
 the customs." 
 
 " Well, but then I thought that you and your father were 
 not on the best terms," said Herr von Granow. " And if 
 your father has driven you off, why " 
 
 " That concerns nobody ! " I exclaimed, " unless it be 
 Herr von Zehren, who has received me into his house, and 
 been kind and friendly to me always. If my father has sent 
 me away, or driven me off, as you call it, I gave him cause 
 enobgh ; but that has nothing to do with his integrity, and I 
 will strike any man dead, like a dog, who asperses my 
 father's honor." 
 
 As Herr von Granow did not and could not know in how 
 many ways all that he had said had lacerated my tenderest 
 feelings, my sudden wrath, which had been only waiting an 
 opportunity to burst forth, must have appeared to him terri- 
 ble and incomprehensible. A young man, who had prob- 
 ably always appeared to him suspicious, and now doubly so, 
 of whose bodily strength he had seen more than one surpris- 
 ing proof, speaking in such a voice of striking dead— and 
 then the desolate heath, the growing darkness — the little 
 man muttered some unintelligible words, while he cautiously 
 widened the distance between us, and then, probably in fear 
 of my loaded gun, came up again and very meekly declared 
 that he had not the slightest intention to offend me ; that it 
 was not to be supposed that a respectable officer like my 
 father had knowingly placed his son with a notorious smug- 
 gler. And that, on the other side, the suspicion that I was 
 a spy in the pay of the authorities, could not possibly be rec- 
 onciled with my honest face and my straightforward con- 
 duct, and was indeed perfectly ridiculous ; that he would 
 
Hammer and Anvil. loi 
 
 with all his heart admit that everything that was said about 
 Herr von Zehren was pure fabrication — ^people talked so 
 much just for the sake of talking. Besides, he, who had 
 only recently come into the neighborhood, could least of all 
 judge what there might be in it ; and he would be extremely 
 delighted, and account it an especial honor, to receive me as 
 a guest at his house, there where we could now see the lights 
 shining, and where the others must have arrived long ago, 
 and to drown all unpleasantness in a bottle of wine, 
 
 I scarcely comprehended what he said, my agitation was 
 so extreme. I replied curtly that it was all right, that I did 
 not believe he intended to offend me. Then asking him to 
 excuse me to Herr von Zehren, I strode across the heath to- 
 wards the road which I knew so well, which led from Mel- 
 chow, Granow's estate, to 2^hrendorf. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE following morning was so fine that it might well 
 have cheered even a gloomier spirit than mine. And 
 in my fatigue I had fallen so promptly asleep when 
 I laid my tired head upon the pillow, and had slept so 
 soundly, that it required some consideration upon awaking 
 to recall the circumstances that had caused me so much 
 agitation the previous evening. Gradually they recurred to 
 my memory, and once more my cheeks burned, and I felt, 
 as I always did when under excitement, that I must rush out 
 into the free air and under the blue sky ; so I hurried down 
 the steep back-stair into the park. 
 
 Here I wandered about under the tall trees, which waved 
 their light sprays in the morning breeze, along the wild paths, 
 and among the bushes brightened with the sunlight, at inter- 
 vals listening to some bird piping incessantly his monoto- 
 nous autumn song, or marking some caterpillar swinging by 
 a fathom-long filament from a twig overhead, while I bent 
 my thoughts to the task, so difficult for a young man, of ob- 
 taining a clear view of my situation. 
 
102 Hammer and Anvil. \ 
 
 I had told Granow the evening before but the simple 
 truth : so long as I had been upon the estate nothing had 
 occurred to confirm his suspicion. During the whole of this 
 time I had scarcely left the side of Herr von ZeTiren. No 
 strangers had come about the place ; there had been no sus- 
 picious meetings ; no goods had been received, and none 
 sent out, except a barrel or two of wine to the neighbors. 
 To be sure, the people on the estate looked as if they were 
 accustomed to anything rather than honest industry, and es- 
 pecially my tall friend Jock could not possibly have a clear 
 conscience ; but the cotters on the various estates around 
 were all a rough, uncouth, piratical-looking crew, as indeed 
 many of them had been fishermen and sailors, and were so 
 still when occasion offered. That the gang which we had 
 seen crossing the heath did not belong to our people, I was 
 convinced when I passed the laborer's cottages, and saw 
 Jock with two or three others lounging about the doors as 
 usual. 
 
 And then, granting that Herr von Zehren was really all 
 that evil tongues called him, still he did nothing more or 
 worse than his neighbors. They all dabbled a little in it, 
 Granow had said ; and if all these aristocratic gentlemen 
 made no scruple of filling their cellars with wine that they 
 knew to be smuggled, the receiver was as bad as the thief, 
 and Herr von Zehren was here, as always and everywhere, 
 only the bolder man who had the courage to do what the 
 others would willingly have done if they dared. 
 
 And, after all, I was bound to him by the firmest ties of 
 gratitude. Should I go away for a mere suspicion, the silly 
 gossip of a prating tongue, and abandon him who had always 
 been so kind, so friendly to ^e .'' — who had given me his 
 best — no, his second-best gun and dog ; whose purse and 
 cigar-case — and ah, what exquisite cigars he had ! — were at 
 all times at my service ? Never ! And even if he really 
 were a smuggler, a professional smuggler — but how could I 
 find out once for all whether he was or not ? 
 
 Most simply, by going directly to himself. I had justifi- 
 cation for doing so. My honesty was questioned by his 
 friends ; they did not know what to think of me. I could 
 not allow this to go on unnoticed. Herr von Zehren could 
 not expect that I should, on his account, incur the dishon- 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 103 
 
 oring suspicion of being either a spy or an accomplice. But 
 suppose he were to say : " Very well ; then go. I do not 
 detain you." 
 
 I seated myself upon a stone-bench under a spreading 
 maple at the edge of the park, and resting my elbow upon 
 the half-fallen table, and leaning my head upon my hand, 
 gazed at the castle which threw its shadow far over the 
 lawn, now golden in the morning sun. 
 
 Never had the ruinous old pile seemed so dear to me. 
 How well I knew each tall chimney, each tuft of grass grow- 
 ing upon the gray moss-covered roof of tiles, the three bal- 
 conies, two small ones to the right and left, and in the mid- 
 dle the great one upon which the three glass doors opened 
 from the upper hall, resting upon its massive pillars with the 
 fantastic voluted capitals. How well I knew each window, 
 with the weather-beaten wooden shutters that were never 
 closed, and the most of which, indeed, were past closing. 
 Some were hanging by a single hinge, and one belonging to 
 the third window to the right always slammed at night when 
 the wind was from the west. I had a dozen times resolved 
 to secure it, but always forgot it again. The two windows at 
 the corner to the left were those of my room, my poetic room 
 with the precious old furniture, which to my eye had such 
 an imposing effect that I felt like a young prince in the 
 midst of all this magnificence. What happy hours had I 
 already passed in this room ! Early mornings, when, joyous 
 in the anticipation of the day's sport, I sang as I dressed 
 myself and arranged my ammunition ; late evenings when 
 I returned home with my friend, heated with wine and play 
 and jovial discourse, and sitting at the window, inhaled the 
 fragrant aroma of my cigar, or drank in large draughts the 
 pure, cool night-air, while thoughts crowded one another in 
 my mind, foolish and sentimental thoughts, all turning to 
 the fair maiden who doubtless had been slumbering for 
 hours in her chamber by the terrace. 
 
 What was it that the shameless slanderer had said of her ? 
 I scarcely dared to recall his words to my mind. I could 
 not comprehend how I could have borne to listen to them, 
 or how it was that I let him escape unchastized after so des- 
 ecrating the object of my idolatry. The miserable creature ! 
 The conceited, upstart, envious little oaf ! Little blame to 
 
I04 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 her that she would have nothing to do with such a lover as 
 he, or the rest of her country squires. And for this they 
 now breathed their venomous slanders against her: said that 
 she would have sold herself — she, the lovely, the noble, the 
 pure, for whom a king's throne would have been too low ! 
 Was there any head more worthy of a diadem — any form 
 more fit to be folded in the mantle of purple ? Oh, I desired 
 nothing for myself; it was enough for me if I might touch 
 the hem of her vesture. But the others should honor her as 
 well as I. No one, not if he were prince or king, should dare 
 to approach her without her permission. If she would only, 
 as she had jestingly said that night, let me keep watch at her 
 threshold ! 
 
 Thus humbly I thought of her in my full, young heart, 
 that was breaking with love and longing. And I did it in 
 the most assured conviction, in the firmest faith, of the no- 
 bility and purify of her I loved so dearly. I can truly say 
 there was no drop of blood in my veins that did not belong 
 to her. I would have given my life for her had she asked it 
 of me, had she taken me for the true heart that I was, had 
 she dealt honestly with me. Was it a presentiment of the 
 brief space of time that I was still to cherish the simple 
 faith that there is a spark of virtue in every human breast 
 that nothing can entirely extinguish, that made me now bow 
 my head upon my hands and shed hot tears ? 
 
 I suddenly lifted my head, for I fancied I heard a rustling 
 close behind me, and I was not mistaken. It was Con- 
 stance, who came through the bushes hedging the path to the 
 beech-wood. I sprang suddenly in confusion to my feet, and 
 stood before her, ere I had time to wipe the traces of my 
 tears from my cheeks. 
 
 " My good George," she said, offering me her hand with a 
 gentle smile, " you are my true friend, are you not ? " 
 
 I murmured some indistinct reply. 
 / / "Let me sit here by you a little while," she said ; "I feel 
 ^ somewhat tired ; I have been up so long. Do you know 
 where I have been ? In the forest by the tarn, and after- 
 wards up at the ruin. Do you know that we have never 
 again gone there together ? I was thinking of it this morn- 
 ing, and was sorry ; it is so beautiful up on the cliffs, and 
 walking with you is so pleasant. Why do you never come 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 105 
 
 there to bring me home ? Don't you remember what you 
 promised me : to be my faithful George, and kill all the 
 dragons in my path ? How many have you killed ? " ' 
 
 She glanced at me from under her long lashes with her 
 unfathomable brown eyes, and abashed I looked upon the 
 ground. " Why do you not answer ? " she asked. " Has 
 my father forbidden you ? " 
 
 " No," I replied, " but I do not know whether you are 
 not mocking me. You have shown me lately so little kind- 
 ness, that at last I have hardly dared to speak to you or even 
 to look at you." 
 
 " And yOu really do not know why I have lately been less 
 friendly towards you } " 
 
 " No," I answered, and added softly, " unless it be because 
 I am so much attached to your father ; and how can I be 
 otherwise ? " 
 
 Her looks darkened, " And if that were the reason," she 
 said, " could you blame me ? My father does not love me ; 
 he has given me too many proofs of that. How can any 
 one love me who is ' so much attached to my father ? ' " — she 
 spoke the last words with bitterness — " who perhaps reports 
 to him every word that I say, and to the watchers and tale- 
 bearers by whom I am surrounded adds another, so much 
 the more dangerous as I should have expected from him 
 anything but treachery." 
 
 " Treachery — ^treachery from me ? " I exclaimed with hor- 
 ror. 
 
 " Yes, treachery," she answered, speaking in a lower tone, 
 but more rapidly and passionately. " I know that Sophie, 
 my maid, is bribed ; I know that old Christian, who skulks 
 about, day and night, watches me like a prisoner. I am not 
 at all sure that old Pahlen, who shows some devotion to me, 
 would not sell me for a handful of thalers. Yes, I am be- 
 trayed, betrayed on all sides. Whether by you — no ; I will 
 trust your honest blue eyes, although I had really good rea- 
 son for suspecting you." 
 
 I was half distracted to hear Constance speaking thus ; 
 and I implored hei:, I adjured her, to tell me what horrible 
 delusion had deceived her, for that it was a delusion I was 
 ready to prove. She should, she must tell me all. 
 
 " Well then." she said. " is it delusion or truth that on 
 
io6 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 the very first evening of your stay here, by order of my 
 father, who brought you here for that purpose, you kept 
 watch under my window, when afterwards you pretended to 
 me that it was my music that had attracted you ? " 
 
 I started at these last words, which were accompanied 
 with a dark suspicious look. That dark figure then had 
 really been stealing to a rendezvous ; and he had been there 
 since, else how could she know what had happened ? 
 
 " You need make no further confession," said Constance, 
 bitterly. " You have not yet sufficiently learned your lesson 
 of dissimulation. And I, good-natured fool, believed that 
 you were my faithful George." 
 
 I was near weeping with grief and indignation. 
 
 " For heaven's sake," I cried, *' do not condemn me with- 
 out a hearing. I went into the park without any special 
 intention ; without an idea that I should meet him — any one. 
 If I had known that the man whom I saw from this point 
 come out of the shrubbery yonder, came with your permis- 
 sion, I should never have intercepted him, but would have 
 let him go unmolested where, as it seems, he was expected." 
 
 " Who says that he came by my permission, and that he 
 was expected ? " she asked. 
 
 " Yourself," I promptly answered. " The fact that you 
 are informed of what none but he and I could know." 
 
 Constance glanced at me, and a smile passed across her 
 features. " Indeed ! ". she said, " how skilful we are at com- 
 binations ! Who would have believed it of us ? But you 
 are mistaken. I know of it from him, that is true ; but I 
 did not expect him, nor had he my permission. More than 
 this : I solemnly assure you that I had no idea that he was 
 so near. ' And now ? ' your look seems to inquire. Now 
 he is as far as he ever was. He Wrote to me by a medium — 
 no matter how — that he made an attempt to see me on that 
 evening, in order to communicate something which he did 
 not wish me to learn from another. I answered him by the 
 same way that I had already learned it through another, and 
 that for the sake both of his peace and my own, I entreated 
 him to make no attempt to approach me. This is all, nor 
 will there ever be more. It is not my custom to ask of 
 those that love me, to sacrifice for me their futures and their 
 lives. And that would be the case here. That person can 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 107 
 
 enter into no engagements without his father's consent, and 
 my father has taken care that this consent shall never be 
 given. He will only be free after his father's death. Before 
 this happens years may pass. He shall not sacrifice those 
 years to me." 
 
 " And he consents to this," I cried, indignantly ; " he does 
 not rather renounce his title and inheritance than give you 
 up ? He does not rather allow himself to be torn to pieces 
 than renounce you ? And this man possesses millions, and 
 calls himself a prince .-' " 
 
 " You know, then, who it was ? " asked Constance, appar- 
 ently alarmed, adding with bitterness : " To be sure, why 
 should you not ? Of course you are my father's confidant, 
 and told him the whole adventure at once, as in duty bound." 
 
 " I never breathed a word of it to any living creature," I 
 answered, " nor has Herr von Zehren ever in my presence 
 uttered the name of the prince." 
 
 "What need of the name ? " she retorted. "Things can 
 be plainly told without mentioning names. But, whatever 
 he may have told you, he never told you that Carl is my be- 
 trothed ; that our union was prevented by his fault alone ; 
 that he has ruthlessly sacrificed my happiness to a haughty 
 caprice, to revenge himself upon the father of my betrothed 
 at the cost of us both ; and that far from offering me an at 
 least tolerable existence in requital for the brilliant future 
 out of which he has cheated me, makes my life a daily and 
 hourly torment. He killed my mother, and he will kill 
 me." 
 
 " For God's sake, do not talk in that way," I cried. 
 
 " This life is no life ; it is death — worse than death," she 
 murmured, letting her head sink upon the table. 
 
 " Then you still love him who has abandoned you ? " I 
 said. 
 
 " No," she replied, raising her head ; " no ! I have al- 
 ready told you that as it is, so it must remain. I have 
 freely and entirely renounced him. I am too proud to give 
 my heart — which is all I have to give — to one who does not 
 give me all in return. And, George, can one give more 
 than his heart ? " 
 
 I would have answered, " Then, Constance, you have my 
 all ; " but my voice failed me. I could but gaze at her with 
 
io8 HamTticr and Anvil. 
 
 I 
 a look in which lay my whole heart — the full heart of a 
 youth, overflowing with foolish, faithful love. 
 
 She pressed my hand, and said, " My good George, I 
 will — yes, I must believe that you are true to me. And now 
 that we have had our talk out, and are good friends again, 
 let us go to the house, where old Pahlen will be expecting 
 me to breakfast," 
 
 She had fallen at once into the tone in which we had com- 
 menced the conversation, and continued : 
 
 " Do you go shooting to-day } Are you fond of shooting ? 
 I used to go sometimes ; but that is long ago — so long ago ! 
 I used to be a good rider, and now I think I could not keep 
 my seat in the saddle. I have unlearned everything ; but 
 chiefly how to be gay. Are you always cheerful, George ? 
 I often hear you singing in the morning such charming 
 merry songs ; you have a fine voice. You should teach me 
 your songs ; I know none but sad ones." | 
 
 How enchanting this prattle was to me ! But as her re- 
 cent unkindness had made me silent and reserved, so now 
 the unlooked-for kindness she showed me produced the same 
 effect. I went by her side, with a half confused, half happy 
 smile upon my face, across the wide lawn to the house, 
 where, on reaching her terrace, we separated, after exchang- 
 ing another pressure of the hand. 
 
 In three bounds I had ascended the steep stair, flung open 
 violently the door of my room, but stopped upon the thresh- 
 old with some surprise, as I saw Herr von Zehren sitting in 
 the great high-backed chair at the window. * . . 
 
 He half turned his head, and said : ' ' 
 
 " You have kept me waiting long ; I have been sitting 
 here fully an hour." 
 
 This did not tend to restore my composure ; from his chair 
 one could see across the lawn directly to the seat under the 
 maple. If Herr von Zehren had been sitting here an hour, 
 he had certainly seen with his keen eyes much more than I 
 could have wished. I returned his salutation with great em- 
 barrassment, which certainly did not diminish when he said, 
 with a gesture towards the seat : " Mary Stuart, George, eh ? 
 Sir Paulet the cruel jailor with the great bunch of keys ? 
 Enthusiastic Mortimer — ' Life is but a moment, and death 
 but another ' — eh ? Faithless Lord Leicester, who has the 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 109 
 
 convenient habit of taking ship for France as soon as heads 
 are in danger ! " 
 
 He filliped the ash from his cigar, and then with one of 
 those instantaneous changes of humor to which I had grown 
 accustomed, began to laugh aloud, and said : 
 
 " No, my dear George, you must not turn such a look of 
 indignation upon me. I am really your friend ; and, as I 
 said to you yesterday, it is no fault of yours, and I frankly 
 ask you to forgive me if I yesterday for a moment made you 
 suffer for what you are entirely innocent of She has to play 
 her comedies ; she has done it from a child. I have indeed 
 often feared that she gets it from her unhappy mother. 
 Many a one has suffered from it, and I not the least ; but 
 you I would willingly save. I have often enough warned 
 you indirectly, and now do it plainly. What are you about ? " 
 
 I had, at his last words, hurried across the room and 
 seized my hat, which hung by the door. " What are you 
 about ? " he cried again, springing from his chair, and catch- 
 ing me by the arm. 
 
 '* I am going," I stammered, while my eyes filled with 
 tears that I vainly endeavored to repress, " away from here. 
 I cannot bear to hear Fraulein Constance thus spoken of" 
 
 " And then it would be such a happy opportunity to get 
 away from me too," said he, fixing his large dark eyes upon 
 mine with a piercing look ; " is it not so ? " 
 
 " Yes," I answered, collecting all my firmness, " and from 
 you too." 
 
 " Go then," he said. 
 
 I moved towards the door, and was feeling for the latch, 
 for my eyes were blinded with tears. 
 
 " George," he cried, " George ! " 
 
 The tone cut me to the heart ; I turned, and seizing both 
 his hands, exclaimed : 
 
 " No ; I cannot do it. You have been so good to me ; I 
 cannot leave you of my own will." 
 
 Herr von Zehren led me gently to the great chair, and 
 paced several times up and down the room, while I buried 
 my head in my hands. Then he stood before me and said : 
 
 " What did Granow say to you yesterday ? Did he slan- 
 der me to you as he has slandered you to me ? Did he warn 
 you against me, as he has warned me against you ? No ; 
 
no Hammer and Anvil. i 
 
 do not answer ; I do not want to know. It is just as if I 
 had been there and heard it all. Every one knows how 
 double-tongued old women talk." 4 
 
 " Then it is not true .'' " I exclaimed, starting from the 
 chair. " Certainly, certainly, it is not true ; I never be- 
 lieved it. I did not believe that miserable creature yesterday 
 — not for one moment." 
 
 " And now only, for the first time ? " said he, turning his 
 piercing look again upon me. But I did not again lower 
 my eyes ; I met his gaze firmly, and calmly answered : 
 
 " I will not believe it until I hear it from your own lips." 
 
 " And if I confirm it, what then ? " ' 
 
 " Then I will implore you to have nothing more to do 
 with it. It cannot end well, and it fills me with horror to 
 think that it might end terribly." 
 
 " You think," he said, and a bitter smile contracted his 
 features, " that it would not be a pleasant thing to read in 
 the papers : ' To-day Malte von Zehren of Zehrendorf was 
 condemned to twenty years' hard labor, and in pursuance 
 of his sentence was conveyed to the penitentiary at S., the 
 director of which, as is well known, is the brother of the 
 criminal } ' Well, it would not be the first time that a Zeh- 
 ren was an inmate of a prison." | 
 
 He laughed, and began to speak with vehemence, some- 
 times pacing the room, and then stopping before me. 
 
 " Not the first time. When I was young — it may now be 
 thirty years ago, or more — there stood in their cursed nest, 
 in a waste place between the town wall and the ramparts, an 
 old half-rotten gallows, and on the gallows were nailed two 
 rusty iron plates, upon which there stood half-defaced names, 
 and one of these names was Malte von Zehren, with the date 
 1436. I recognized it by the date ; and one night, with the 
 friend of my youth, Hans von Trantow — the father of our 
 Hans — I wrenched it ofi", cut down the gallows, and pitched 
 it over the rampart into the fosse. Do you know how my 
 ancestor's name came there .'' He had a feud with the Pep- 
 persacks there in the town, and they had sworn, if they 
 caught him, to hang him on the gallows. And though he 
 heard of it, and knew that there would be no mercy for him, 
 he slipped into the town in disguise, during the carnival, for 
 the love of a townsman's pretty daughter. You see, my 
 
Hammer and Anvil. in 
 
 dear George, the women — they are at the bottom of all mis- 
 chief. And they caught him too, early next morning, as he 
 was stealing away, flung him into the dungeon, and the next 
 day he was to be hanged, to the delight of all the good 
 townsfolk. But a page who accompanied him, and who had 
 escaped, carried the news to Hans von Trantow, and Hans 
 sent off a score of riders to all cousins and kinsfolk over 
 the whole island, and that night they crossed over in twenty 
 boats, two hundred of them, with Hans at their head, forced 
 their way into the town, broke into the dungeon and rescued 
 my ancestor, the good fellows, and then set the old nest on 
 fire at its four corners and burned it down. So as the towns- 
 men had lost Malte von Zehren, they contented themselves 
 with nailing his name upon the gallows. 
 
 " And what was the origin of the feud ? The Sound-dues, 
 which the Lords of Zehren had levied for centuries, and 
 which the Peppersacks now laid claim to. By what right ? 
 I ask you now, by what right ? At a time when their ped- 
 lars' nest was a mere cluster of hovels inhabited by wretched 
 fishermen, the Zehrens were living as lords and masters in a 
 block-house surrounded by a rampart, as men used to do in 
 the earliest times ; then irt a castle of stone, with towers and 
 battlements, and as far as the eye can reach from up yonder 
 over forests and coves into the island, no hearth smoked in 
 house or hut at which vassals and retainers of the castle did 
 not warm themselves ; and as far as the eye can reach from 
 up there over the sea, no sail swelled and no pennon flew 
 that did not pay tribute to the castle. Do you think, young 
 man, that things like these can be forgotten ? Do you sup- 
 pose that I can learn to feel myself under one law with a 
 crew that crawled before my ancestors in the dust ? or to 
 acknowledge any master over me ? By the grace of God — 
 and what is that ? Where were these fellows ' by the grace 
 of God ' four or five hundred years ago ? I could sit where 
 they sit now, with just as good a right ; my escutcheon in- 
 stead of theirs would flaunt on every gate and guard-house, 
 and in my name would tolls and taxes be levied. And now 
 'sdeath ! here 1 sit, a Lord Lack-all, in this box of stone, 
 which before long will fall in over my head, and not a foot 
 of the soil on which I tread can I call my own. See 
 there — " he stepped to the open window, and pointed out 
 
112 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 with a hand trembling with emotion — " you once asked me 
 why I did not turn those into money. There are thousands 
 upon thousands in the forest, and I answered that I had not 
 the heart to have the old trees hewn down. It was the truth ; 
 I could not do it ; and the only right that I have over them 
 is that I can keep them from being cut down as long as I 
 live. Not a tree belongs to me — not a sapling — not enough 
 to serve for my coffin ; every twig belongs to that mounte- 
 bank, your Croesus, who calls himself commerzienrath, and 
 is well named Streber [Striver.] I see the stockfish still, 
 distorting his crooked mouth as he counted down the pittance 
 on the table and crammed the contract into his pocket. He 
 thought : * It will not last him long, and then he will blow 
 out his brains.' It has not lasted long; and he may have 
 been as correct in his other anticipation. 
 
 " But I cannot imagine what talkative demon possesses 
 me this morning ; I believe that I have been infected by 
 that old washerwoman, Granow. Or perhaps it is because 
 I have to make up for yesterday evening. In truth, George, 
 I missed you exceedingly. Trantow, the good fellow, brought 
 me home out of pure compassion, because he saw what a 
 trial it would be to me to smoke my last cigar alone. And 
 I tell you it cost me dearly that you were not with me. It 
 went hard with me, George, terribly hard. Old hawk as I 
 am, they plucked me until the feathers flew ; but we will pay 
 them back this evening. We shall meet at Trantow's, where 
 I have always been lucky ; but you are not to quit my side. 
 And now drink your coffee, and come down in half an hour ; 
 I have a letter or two to write ; the steuerrath wants to be 
 once more delivered from his thousand-and-one embarrass- 
 ments ; but this time I cannot help him, at all events not to- 
 day ; he must wait awhile yet. In half an hour then, and 
 afterwards we will go down to the beach. I feel a little 
 \ feverish to-day, and the sea-breeze will do me good." 
 
 He went, and left me in a singular frame of mind. I felt 
 as if he had told me everything, and yet, when I thought it 
 over, it was no more than what he had often said to me 
 before. I felt as if I had bound myself to him body and 
 soul, and yet he had taken no promise from me. But this 
 was just the thing which made me feel more than ever 
 attached to this singular man. If he was magnanimous 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 113 
 
 enough not to take me with him upon his ship, which he 
 saw was driving to destruction, could I stand calmly on the 
 safe shore and watch him struggling and sinking in the 
 waves ? 
 
 My youthful fancy kindled at his romantic story of the 
 knight who had been at feud with my native town. I wished 
 that I had been there ; I fancied myself playing the part of 
 the page who made his way out at risk of his life to bring 
 help and rescue to his beloved lord. Should my thoughts 
 be more mean, my actions more craven than those of that 
 boy ? And were we not in similar circumstances ? Was not 
 my knight at the last extremity ? Had not the Peppersacks 
 taken his all ? — left him nothing of all the heritage of his 
 ancestors — him, that kingly man ? How he had stood be- 
 fore me, the tall noble form with flashing eyes, and anguish 
 imprinted in his pale, deeply-furrowed face with its flowing 
 beard. This man to have planned to sell his daughter ! 
 And a creature like the commerzienrath should one day be 
 lord here in his stead ! The creature with his close-shaven 
 fox-face, his blinking, thievish eyes, and his clumsy, greedy 
 hands ; the man who had foredoomed me to the gallows. 
 Yes, they had dealt with me no better than with my knight. 
 They had driven me out of the town, and now, thank heaven, 
 I had a right to hate them as I had always despised. 
 
 Thus my foolish brain was heated more and more. The 
 charm of adventure, the inward delight in this uncontrolled 
 life, which I called liberty, a monstrous confusion of the con- 
 ceptions of right and duty, gratitude, hot blood of youth, 
 passionate first-love — all held me spell-bound in this charmed 
 circle, which was a world to me. All drew me with irresisti- 
 ble force to the man who seemed to me the perfect ideal of 
 a knight and a hero, to the lovely maiden who so far exceeded 
 my wildest dreams. And the fact that these two, to whom 
 I clung with equal love, stood opposed to each other, only 
 tended to confirm the dream of my own indispensability. In 
 their several ways, each had been equally kind to me, had 
 shown me equal confidence. The fulfilment of my most ar- • 
 dent wish, that of seeing them reconciled, had never appeared 
 so near as this morning, when I paced my room and looked 
 out of the windows at the blue sky, in which great white mo- 
 tionless clouds were standing, and upon the park whose ma- 
 
114 Hammer and Anvil. . .f 
 
 jestic groups of trees and broad expanses of grass were 
 magically lighted by the splendor of the sun. 
 
 How could I have believed that these white clouds would 
 so soon spread into a sable pall and obscure that sun — that 
 I had seen my paradise in its magic radiance for the last 
 time? 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE confidence with which Herr von Zehren had looked 
 forward to that evening, which at the very least was 
 to repair his former ill-fortune, was after all a deceit- 
 ful one. It may be that an incident which occurred just pre- 
 viously, deprived him of that coolness which this evening he 
 more than ever needed. For on our way up from the beach, 
 where we had shot a brace of rabbits among the dunes, as 
 crossing the heath we drew near to Trantowitz, a cavalcade 
 of ladies and gentlemen, attended by a couple of liveried 
 servants, came galloping by. My attention was entirely 
 attracted by a slender young man riding a superb English 
 horse, who, at the moment he passed me, was leaning over 
 to one of the ladies with a charming smile on his pale face, 
 on which a downy moustache just darkened the upper lip. 
 The lady gave her horse a sudden cut with the whip, and 
 they shot on in advance. I gazed for a moment after the 
 company, and was turning to Herr von Zehren with the 
 question : " Who are they ? " when I checked myself in sur- 
 prise at the change in his countenance. We had just been 
 chatting pleasantly together, and there now lay in his looks 
 an expression of the blackest wrath, and he had unslung his 
 gun and half raised it to his shoulder, as if he would send a 
 shot after the retreating party. Then he flung it hastily 
 over his shoulder again, and walked a short distance silent 
 at my side, until he suddenly broke out into the most furi- 
 ous execrations, which I had never before heard from him, 
 though he could be angry enough upon occasion. " The 
 hound ! " he exclaimed, " he dares to come here upon the 
 soil that belongs to my friend Trantow ! And I stand qui; 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 "5 
 
 etly here and do not drive a charge of shot through him ! 
 Do you know who that was, George ? The villain who will 
 one day be lord of a hundred manors which by right are all 
 mine, whose ancestors were my ancestors' vassals, and whose 
 scoundrelly father came to me to tell me in my own apartment 
 that he desired to marry his son according to his rank, and that 
 he trusted we could come to some satisfactory arrangement. 
 I clutched him by his accursed throat, and would have stran- 
 gled him if others had not come between us. The thing has 
 been gnawing at my heart incessantly, ever since I heard 
 that the villain was going about the neighborhood here. And 
 now you know why Constance and I are upon so unfortu- 
 nate a footing. Heaven knows what fancies she is nursing ; 
 and it drives me mad to see that her thoughts still cling to 
 the miscreant who has offered her the grossest insult that 
 man can offer to woman ; who has tarnished my ancestral 
 escutcheon, and should fight me to the death, but for " 
 
 He checked himself suddenly, and walked silently by my 
 side, gnawing his lip. Not noticing the irregularities of the 
 wretched road, he stumbled once or twice, and this stum- 
 bling, combined with the expression of his face, in which the 
 wrinkles deepened to furrows whenever he was under strong 
 emotion, gave him the appearance of a broken old man con- 
 sumed by impotent anger. Never before had he appeared 
 so much in need of help, so worthy of compassion, and never 
 before had I pitied him so, or so yearned to assist him. At 
 the same time I thought that so favorable an opportunity to 
 clear up the misunderstanding that evidently existed between 
 father and daughter in reference to their relations with the 
 prince, would not easily again occur. So I plucked up a 
 heart and asked : 
 
 " Does Fraulein Constance know how much she has been 
 insulted ? " 
 
 " How ? What do you mean ? " he asked in return. 
 
 I told him what I had been speaking oif with Constance 
 that morning ; how little suspicion she seemed to have of the 
 outrage that had been offered her ; that on the contrary she 
 had expressly told me that she had been betrothed to the 
 prince, that their predetermined union had been prevented 
 by Herr von Zehren's fault alone, and that she had renounced 
 freely and utterly all thought of the possibility of their marriage. 
 
ii6 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 But the audacity with which he had attempted to approach her, 
 the correspondence which had taken place between them, I 
 kept to myself, feeling that this would only awaken anew the 
 wrath of the Wild Zehren, and render him deaf to all reason. 
 
 But it was all to no purpose. He listened to me with 
 every sign of impatience, and when I paused for breath in 
 my eagerness, he broke out : 
 
 " Does she say that ? What will she not say ? And that 
 too now, after I have told her not once, but a hundred times, 
 what was asked of me, how my honor and my name were 
 trampled in the mire ! She will next asseverate that the 
 Emperor of China has been a suitor for her hand, and that 
 it is my fault that she is not now enthroned in Pekin ! Why 
 not ? Turandot is as pretty a part as Mary Stuart. Prepare 
 yourself soon to see her in Chinese attire." 
 
 It was easy to perceive how little mirth lay in these mock- 
 ing words, and I did not venture to press further so painful 
 a theme. We came, besides, in a few minutes to Trantowitz, 
 where Hans received us at the door with his good-natured 
 laugh, and led us into his living-room, (which, besides his 
 chamber, was the sole habitable apartment in the great 
 house,) where the other guests were assembled. 
 
 The evening passed like so many others. Play began 
 before supper, and was resumed after that meal, during which 
 the bottle had circulated freely. I had resolved not to play, 
 and could the more easily keep this resolution, as all the 
 rest, with the exception of our host, whom nothing could 
 move from his accustomed equanimity, were entirely absorbed 
 by the unusually high play, and had not time to pay any 
 attention to me. 
 
 So there I sat, in the recess of a window, at a little dis- 
 tance from the table, and watched the company, whose be- 
 havior now, when I was not a participant in it, seemed 
 strange enough. The fiery eyes in the flushed faces ; the 
 silence only broken by the monotonous phrases of the bank- 
 er, or a hoarse laugh or muttered curse from the players ; 
 the avidity with which they poured down the flasks of wine ; 
 the whole scene wrapped in a gray cloud of cigar-smoke 
 which grew denser every moment ; — it was far from a plea- 
 sant sight, and strange, confused, painful thoughts whirled 
 through my weary brain, as I sat watching the fortunes of 
 
 !_■ 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 117 
 
 the play, and listening at intervals to the rustling of the 
 night-wind that bent the old poplars before the house, and 
 drove a few rain-drops against the windows. Suddenly I 
 was aroused from a half doze by a loud uproar that broke 
 out among the players. They sprang from their chairs and 
 vociferated at each other with wild looks and threatening 
 gestures ; but the tumult subsided as quickly as it had arisen, 
 and they sat again bending in silence over their cards, and 
 once more I listened to the wind in the poplars, and the dash- 
 ing of the rain against the panes, until at last I fell asleep. 
 
 A hand upon my shoulder aroused me. It was Herr von 
 Zehren. The first look at his pale face, from which his eyes 
 were flashing wildly, told me that he had been losing again, 
 and he confirmed it as we walked back the short distance to 
 Zehrendorf through the black tempestuous night. 
 
 " It is all over with me," he said ; " my old luck has 
 abandoned me ; the sooner I blow out my brains the better. 
 To be sure, I have a week yet Sylow, who is a good fel- 
 low, has given me so much time. In a week perhaps all 
 may be managed ; only to-morrow the draft falls due, and of 
 course my brother cannot pay it. I must see about it, I 
 must see about it.'' 
 
 He spoke more to himself than to me. Suddenly he 
 stopped, looked up at the black lowering clouds, then walked 
 on, muttering between his teeth : 
 
 " I knew it, I knew it, as soon as I saw the villain. It 
 could not but bring me ill-luck ; his accursed face has always 
 brought me misfortune. And now to have to see how they 
 quaff the foam from the beaker of life, while they leave us 
 the bitter dregs ! And I cannot have revenge — cannot take 
 his life ! "• 
 
 We had reached a piece of woods near the house, which 
 was really a projecting corner of the forest, but was consid- 
 ered as part of the park. The road here divided ; the 
 broader fork led along the edge of the wood ; and the nar- 
 rower, which was only a foot-path, ran directly through the 
 trees. This was the nearer way, but also the rougher and 
 darker, and Herr von Zehren, who in his present ill-humor 
 had more than once grumbled at the darkness and the bad 
 road, proposed that we should not take our usual path 
 through the park. 
 
ii8 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 " I should like to find out," I said, " if the buck whose 
 tracks we saw day before yesterday, is belling in the south 
 forest again. We cannot hear it from here, but in there we 
 ought to hear it." 
 
 " You go through, then," he said, " but do not stay too 
 long." 
 
 "I expect I shall be at the other side before you." I 
 
 It was not so dark in the woods as I had feared ; at times 
 the moon shone pretty bright through the scudding clouds. 
 I reproached myself for leaving Herr von Zehren alone at 
 this hour, and had thoughts of turning back ; but, impelled 
 by the hunter's ardor, I pushed on, slowly and cautiously, 
 often stopping and listening, while I held my breath, to see 
 if I could catch any sound of the buck in the woods. Once 
 I thought I heard a faint bellow, but I was not quite sure. 
 If so, it must be very distant, and in a different quarter from 
 where we expected the buck to be at this hour. It might be 
 another. I was anxious to find out, and stood still again to 
 listen. Suddenly I heard a noise behind me like the trot of 
 a horse coming along the path in which I was. My heart 
 stopped for an instant, and then began to beat violently. 
 Who could be the rider, in the dead of night, upon a path 
 lying alongside the main road to the castle ? 
 
 The sound of the horse's hoofs, at first faint, had grown 
 louder, and then suddenly ceased. In its place I now dis- 
 tinctly heard the steps of a man coming through the woods 
 towards the place where I was standing, a little out of the 
 path, in the dark shadow of some high trees. It could be 
 no one but he. My heart, that was violently beating, cried to 
 me that it could be no one but he. I tore the gun from my 
 shoulder, as Herr von Zehren had done at the sight of the 
 man he hated. Then, as he had done, I threw it back over 
 my shoulder, so that I had both arms free. What did I 
 need for such a fellow but those two arms of mine ? 
 
 And just then I saw him plainly before me, as the moon 
 slipped from behind a black cloud, and threw through the 
 trees a clear light exactly upon the place where he was pass- 
 ing: the same slender form, and even in the same riding- 
 dress — a low-crowned hat, close-fitting coat, trimmed with 
 fur, and boots of soft leather reaching half-way up the thigh 
 — one bound, one clutch — I had him in my hands ! 
 
Hatntner and Anvil. 
 
 119 
 
 The surprise must have paralyzed him at the moment, for 
 he uttered no cry, and scarcely made a movement. But this 
 was only for a moment, and then with an exertion of strength 
 for which I had not given him credit, he strove to free him- 
 self from my grasp. So might a leopard, caught in the hun- 
 ter's net, struggle frantically, leap, rend with his claws, and 
 waste his strength in convulsive efforts. The struggle lasted 
 perhaps a minute, during which time no word was spoken on 
 either side, nor was any sound audible but our panting. At 
 last his struggles grew weaker and weaker, his breath began 
 to fail, and finally, yielding, he panted : 
 
 " Let me go ! " 
 
 " Not so soon ! " 
 
 " In my breast pocket is a pocket-book, with probably a 
 hundred thalers in it ; take them, but let me go ! " 
 
 " Not for a million ! " I said, forcing him, as his strength 
 was utterly exhausted, down to his knees. 
 
 " What do you want ? Do you mean to murder me ? " he 
 panted. 
 
 " Only to give you a lesson," I said, and picked up his 
 riding-whip, which had fallen while we were struggling, the 
 silver handle of which caught my eye as it glittered in the 
 moonlight. 
 
 " For Grod's sake, do not do that," he said, grasping con- 
 vulsively the hand in which I held the whip. " Kill me on 
 the spot ; I will not move nor utter a cry ; but do not strike 
 me ! " 
 
 Such a request in such a tone could not fail to make a 
 powerful impression upon a heart like mine. I no longer 
 beheld in my antagonist the enemy of the Wild Zehren — 
 his daughter's lover. I saw in him only a boy who was 
 in my power, and who would rather die than undergo dis- 
 grace. Involuntarily the hand with which I grasped him 
 by the breast unclosed ; indeed I believe I lifted him to his 
 feet. 
 
 Scarcely did he feel himself free, when he hastily stepped 
 back a few paces, and in a tone the lightness of which was 
 in strong contrast with the terror he had fixst felt, said : 
 
 " If you were a nobleman, you should give me satisfaction ; 
 but as you are not, I warn you to be on your guard : I do 
 not always travel without arms." 
 
120 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 He slightly touched his hat, turned upon his heel, and 
 walked back by the way he had come. 
 
 I stood as if rooted to the spot, and gazed after the slen- 
 der figure, which soon vanished in the dark shadows of the 
 forest. I knew that with a bound or two I could overtake 
 hira, but I felt not the slightest impulse to attempt it. The 
 young prince had rightly judged the young plebeian. I 
 would as lief have hewn off my hand as to raise it again 
 against a man whom I had in a manner pardoned. And 
 then I thought of what Granow had said, that were he the 
 prince, he would not like to meet Herr von Zehren, and how 
 very nearly this meeting had taken place, and that too at a 
 noment when it would have given the Wild Zehren delight 
 to shed his enemy's blood, and his own afterwards. 
 
 And now I heard a slight neigh, and then the gallop of a 
 horse. 
 
 "Thank heaven ! " I cried, drawing a deep breath, "it is 
 better so, and it will be a lesson to him." 
 
 I thought no more of the buck. I scarcely listened when 
 he began to bellow, at no great distance from me. I hurried 
 on at a run to make up for the time I had lost, and in deep 
 anxiety lest Herr von Zehren should have heard the gallop 
 of the horse, for it was not possible that he could have heard 
 anything that had happened in the wood. 
 
 But my anxiety was without cause. The Wild Zehren was 
 too safely plunged in reflections over his misfortune for his 
 senses to be as acute as they usually were. He did not even 
 ask me about the buck ; and I was glad that I was under no 
 necessity of speaking. Thus we walked silently on until 
 we reached the castle. 
 
 In the hall we were met as usual by the sleepless old 
 Christian. Letters had come by express : he had laid them 
 on his master's writing-table. 
 
 " Come in," said Herr von Zehren, " while I see what they 
 are about." 
 
 We entered. " This one is for you, and so is this," he 
 said, handing me two of the letters from the table. 
 
 The first letter was from my friend Arthur. It read : 
 
 " You have not sent me the money I asked you for ; but 
 that is the way : when we have anything, our friends may 
 look out for themselves. I only write to you now, in order 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 121 
 
 through you to entreat my uncle to do something to help 
 papa. Our afifiiirs must be in an awful state, for the mer- 
 chant G. — you know whom I mean — from whom I borrowed 
 twenty-five, saw papa about it to-day, and I did not get the 
 smallest scolding. Mamma howls all day long. I wish I 
 was a thousand miles away. , 
 
 " P. S. — Papa has just come from Uncle Commerzienrath 
 with a terribly long face. It is plain that the old Philistine 
 will do nothing for us. I tell you Uncle Malte must help 
 us, for we are in a terrible strait." 
 
 The second letter was from my father. 
 
 " My Son : — In renouncing your filial obedience to me, 
 you compelled me to abandon all control over you. I have 
 vowed not to restore you to your place as my son, until you 
 acknowledge your misconduct and entreat me to do so ; and 
 this vow I will keep. To the choice that you have made for 
 yourself, I have offered no opposition, have allowed you per- 
 fect freedom of action, for which you have always hankered, 
 and am resolved to do this for the future. But all this can- 
 not prevent me from wishing, with all my heart, that it may 
 be well with you in the path that you have chosen for yourself, 
 though I doubt it much ; nor can it keep me from warning 
 you where warning seems necessary. And this is now the 
 case. Things have reached my ears concerning Herr von 
 Zehren, which I trust in heaven may be founded upon error, 
 but which are of such a nature that I think with horror of 
 my son being in the house of a man under such suspicions, 
 even if false. What I have heard I cannot reveal to you, 
 as the information has reached me in the line of my official 
 duties. 
 
 " I know that notwithstanding your disobedience, you are 
 incapable of a base action, and that therefore you are so far 
 safe, even if those suspicions are true, which God forbid. 
 Still I entreat you, if you have any regard left for my peace, 
 to leave the house of Herr von Zehren at once. I add what 
 is scarcely necessary, that for the obedient son I shall be, 
 what I have always been, his strict but just father." 
 
 I had read this letter twice through, and sat still gazing at 
 the writing, incapable of clear reflection, when Herr von 
 Zehren aroused me by asking : " Well, George, and what 
 have you there >. " I handed him both letters. He read 
 
 4 
 
132 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 them, paced the room a while, and then stopping before me 
 said : 
 
 " And what do you propose to do ? " 
 
 " The opportunity is a good one," he went on, seeing that 
 I hesitated to answer. " I have a letter from the steuerrath 
 which compels me.to start for the town within the hour. I 
 will take you with me ; it is now twelve o'clock, and in three 
 hours we can be there ; you can ring up the old gentleman ; 
 sleep an hour or two in the garret of which you have so 
 often told me ; thank God to-morrow morning that you are 
 clear of the Wild Zehren, and — ^go back again to school." 
 
 He spoke the last words with a slight contempt, which 
 galled the most sensitive part in the heart of a young man, 
 that of false pride. 
 
 " I will go with you wherever you go ! " I exclaimed, 
 starting up. " I said so this morning, and I now repeat it. 
 Tell me what I shall do." 
 
 Herr von Zehren again paced the room for a few moments, 
 and then paused before me and said in an agitated voice : 
 
 " Remain here — for a day or two at all events, until I re- 
 turn. You will do me a service." 
 
 I looked at him interrogatively. 
 
 " If you return now to-day," he continued, " that will only 
 have the effect of confirming the rumors of which your father 
 writes. The rats are leaving the house, they will say, and 
 justly. And just now it is of importance to me that people 
 shall say nothing, that as little attention as possible shall be 
 directed to me. Do you understand, George ? " 
 
 " No," I answered ; " why now especially ? " 
 
 I looked fixedly at him ; he bore the scrutiny, and after a 
 while answered, speaking slowly and in a low voice : 
 
 " Ask no further, George. Perhaps I would tell you if you 
 could help me ; perhaps I would not. They say of me that 
 I use men and then throw them away when they can be of 
 no further service to me. It may be so ; I do not know that 
 the most deserve any better treatment. With you, at all 
 events, I would not thus deal, for I like you. And now go 
 to bed, and let the Wild Zehren play out the game. Per- 
 haps he will break the bank, and then I promise you it will 
 be the last of his playing." 
 
 At this moment the wagon drove up ; while reading my 
 
c 
 
 4 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 123 
 
 father's letter, I had not heard the order to old Christian to 
 have the horses put to. Herr von Zehren looked through 
 his papers, put some in his pocket, and locked others in his 
 cabinet. Then old Christian helped him on with his furred 
 cloak, he put on his hat, and stepping up to me, offered me 
 his hand. 
 
 I had watched all his movements in a sort of stupefaction. 
 
 " And I cannot help you ? " I now asked. 
 
 " No," he replied, " or only by waiting quietly here until I 
 return. Your hand is cold as ice; go to bed." 
 
 I accompanied him to the door. His hunting-wagon was 
 waiting, and long Jock, who usually filled the office of coach- 
 man, was on the front seat. 
 
 " The wagon will only take me to the ferry, and then re- 
 turn," said Herr von Zehren. 
 
 " And Jock ? " I asked in a whisper. 
 
 " Goes with me." 
 
 " Take me in his place," I asked, imploringly. 
 
 " It cannot be," he said, with his foot upon the step. 
 
 " I entreat you," I urged, holding him by the cloak. 
 
 " It cannot be," he repeated. " We have not a minute to 
 spare. Good-night ! Drive on ! " 
 
 The wagon drove off; the dogs yelped and barked, and 
 then all was still again. Old Christian hobbled across the 
 yard with his lantern, and vanished into one of the old build- 
 ings. I stood alone before the house, under the trees, in 
 which the wind roared. The rain began to fall in torrents ; 
 shivering I returned to the house and carefully secured the 
 door. 
 
 The light was still burning in Herr von Zehren's room. 
 I went to get it and also my letters that were lying upon his 
 table. As I took them I espied a paper on the floor, and 
 picked it up to see what it was. A few words were written 
 upon it, and I had read them before I thought what I was 
 doing. The words were these : 
 
 " I am ruined if you do not save me. G. will give me no 
 more time ; St. is immovable ; the draft will be protested. 
 I put myself in your hands. You have held me above water 
 too long to let me drown now. The moment, too, is as favora- 
 ble as possible for the matter you know of I can and will 
 take care that no one sees our cards. But whatever is done, 
 
124 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 must be done at once. I have not always the game in my 
 hand. Come at once, I adjure you, by what is most sacred 
 to you — by our ancient name ! Burn this at once." 
 
 The paper was not signed, but I recognized the writing 
 immediately. I had seen it often enough in the documents 
 on my father's table, and I could at once have affixed the sig- 
 nature with its pretentious flourish, which I had often enough 
 tried to imitate. 
 
 This paper Herr von Zehren must have dropped while 
 hastily thrusting it with the others into his pocket. 
 
 I looked at it again, and was once more trying to unriddle 
 its enigmatical contents, when the candle, already burned to 
 the socket, gave signs of going out. " Burn this at once ! " — 
 it was as if a voice had uttered this command close to my 
 ear. I held the paper in the flame ; it blazed up ; the candle 
 went out at the same moment ; a glowing scrap of tinder 
 fluttered to mv feet, and then all around me was thickest 
 darkness. 
 
 I groped my way from the room, through the dining-room 
 to the hall, up the narrow stairway to my chamber, and after 
 searching in vain for a match, threw myself dressed upon 
 my bed. 
 
 But in vain did I, tossing restlessly upon my couch, 
 endeavor to sleep. Every moment I started up in terror, 
 fancying in my excitement that I heard a voice calling for 
 help, or a step hurrying towards my door, while I kept rack- 
 ing my brain in the vain attempt to devise some plan for res- 
 cuing the two so dear to me from the ruin which I had a 
 presentiment was impending over them, whose coming the 
 elements themselves seemed to announce in thunder ; and 
 execrated my cowardice, my indecision, my helplessness. 
 
 It was a fearful night. I 
 
 A terrible storm had arisen ; the wind raved about the old 
 pile, which shook to its foundations. The tiles came clatter- 
 ing down from the roofs ; the rusted weather-cocks groaned 
 and creaked ; the shutters banged, and the third shutter to 
 the right made frantic efforts now or never to get loose from 
 the single hinge by which it had hung for years. The 
 screech-owls in the crevices of the walls hooted dismally, 
 and the dogs howled, while the gusts of wind dashed tor- 
 rents of rain against the windows. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 125 
 
 It seemed as if the ancient mansion of Zehrendorf knew 
 what fate was awaiting its possessor and itself. 
 
 M' 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 'Y first sensation, as I awaked late, was a feeling of 
 thankfulness that it was day ; my second was one 
 of shame at having been so powerfully affected by 
 the terrors of the night. When but a small boy, I used to 
 think that I cast the most odious reproach upon an adversary 
 when I termed him a coward, and this morning I felt that 
 the same stigma might be justly affixed to myself. But that 
 
 I comes, I said to myself while dressing, from not looking 
 
 ^ things in the face and telling people the truth. Why did I 
 
 not frankly say to Herr von Zehren, I know the object of 
 your journey ? He would then have taken me with him, and 
 I should not have to sit here like a child that is kept in the 
 
 j house when it rains. 
 
 I opened a window and looked out, in a gloomy frame of 
 mind, and the scene that met my eyes was far from cheerful. 
 The wind, which blew from the west, drove swirling masses of 
 ' ■ gray mist through the gigantic trees, which tossed their mighty 
 
 arms about, as if in torment, above the wide lawn which had 
 so often charmed me with its long waving grass, and which 
 now was a mere morass. A flock of crows flew up with 
 
 j harsh cawings into the stormy air, which hurled them about 
 
 f I at its pleasure. At this moment the wind flung to a shutter 
 
 with so much violence that fragments of the rotten wood flew 
 about my head. I tore away from the hinge what was left 
 of it, and threw it down. " I'll not be troubled by you to- 
 night, at all events," I said, fastening the window again, and 
 then I determined to take the rest in hand. Leaving my 
 own room, I made the round of the upper story. As I 
 opened the door of the room where the pile of books lay, a 
 dozen rats sprang down from the window-sills and dived into 
 their hiding-places. The rain had driven in through some 
 broken panes, and the gray rascals had been enjoying the 
 
126 Hammer and Anvil. - j 
 
 welcome refreshment. " You have not quitted the house yet, 
 it seems," I said, recalling Herr von Zehren's words ; 
 " should I be more cowardly than you, you thievish crew ? " 
 
 I climbed over the pile of books to the nearest door, and 
 wandered through the empty rooms, securing all the shutters 
 that had any fastenings left, and lifting from their hinges 
 and throwing down those that were past securing. The one 
 belonging to the third window, which had been the principal 
 object of my expedition, had terminated its afflicted exist- 
 ence in the night. 
 
 On my way back I entered the hall with the great stair- 
 case, where in the dim light that fell through the dull panes 
 covered with dust and cobwebs, it looked more ghostly than 
 ever. A suit of armor which was fastened to the wall at 
 some height from the floor, it required no great stretch of 
 fancy to turn into the corpse of a hanged man. I wondered 
 if it was the armor of that Malte von Zehren whose name, 
 in default of himself, the honest burghers of my native town 
 had affixed to their gallows. 
 
 I do not know what put it into my head to descend the 
 staircase and wander about the narrow passages of the lower 
 story. My footsteps sounded eerily hollow in the vacant 
 corridors; and the chilly damp from the bare walls, like 
 those of a vault, seemed to strike doubly cold to my fever- 
 ish frame. Perhaps I had an idea of punishing myself for my 
 terrors of the past night, and of demonstrating to myself the 
 childishness of my apprehensions. Still it was not without 
 a start and a decidedly uncomfortable feeling that I sud- 
 denly came upon an opening in rhe wall at a spot which I 
 had often before passed without perceiving any sign of a 
 door, through which opening I caught sight of a yawning 
 black chasm, at the bottom of which a faint glimmer of light 
 was perceptible. Peering more closely into it, I could make 
 out the commencement of a flight of steps. Without a mo- 
 ment's hesitation I began, at peril of my neck, to descend a 
 narrow and very steep stair, slowly groping my way with 
 both hands touching the wall on each side of me, until the 
 faint glimmer at the bottom suddenly disappeared. As I 
 reached the floor of the cellar it became visible again, but 
 not now an uncertain glimmer, but a distinct light moving 
 about a short distance from me, and apparently proceeding 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 127 
 
 from a lantern in the hand of a man who was exploring the 
 cellar. As I moved faster than the man, whose shuffling 
 footsteps probably covered the sound of mine, I speedily 
 overtook him, and laid my hand upon the shoulder of — old 
 Christian, for he it was. He stopped with a half cry, luckily 
 without dropping his lantern, and looked round at me with 
 the utmost terror in his old wrinkled face. 
 
 " What are you doing here. Christian ? " I asked. 
 
 He still stared at me in silence. " You need not be afraid 
 of me," I said : " you know I am your friend." 
 
 "It is not for myself," the old man answered at last. " I 
 dare not bring any one down here ; he would kill me." 
 
 " You did not bring me down here," I said. 
 
 Christian, whose feeble old limbs were yet trembling from 
 his first fright, now sat down upon a chest, and placed the 
 lantern by him. While he was recovering himself, I took a 
 survey of the cellar. It had a low vaulted ceiling, supported 
 at various points by strong columns, and was evidently of 
 considerable extent, though how considerable I could not 
 determine, as the extremities were lost in darkness. 
 
 Against one of these columns not far off stood a desk with 
 a great lantern over it, and on the desk lay a large thick book, 
 like a merchant's "blotter." Near this were chests of tea, 
 with Chinese figures marked on them — evidently original 
 packages — piled up to a great height, and everywhere that 
 I looked were empty boxes and casks, piled in a certain 
 business-like order. Many a year must have passed ere all 
 these boxes were emptied and all these casks drained ; 
 many a dollar must have been lost and won in the process, 
 and many a human life must have been risked, and proba- 
 bly lost too. At that time not a year passed that the smug- 
 gling in this region by land and water did not cost more 
 than one life ; and how many did it cost whose loss was not 
 known ? Peter, for instance, who was shot by the coast- 
 guard in the woods, and dragged himself, mortally wounded, 
 to his hut ; or Claas, who, flying hastily across the morass, 
 missed his footing and sank ; whose kindred found it pru- 
 dent to say as little about the matter as possible. 
 
 Many things of this sort I had heard from my father and his 
 colleagues, and they recurred to my mind as I looked around 
 this vast cellar, which wore in the pale light from the old 
 
128 Hammer and Aimil. 
 
 man's lantern much the appearance of a gigantic church- 
 vault, in which mouldering coffins that had done their ser- 
 vice were piled up around, and the damp chilly vapor in 
 which might be fancied to proceed from fresh graves dug in 
 lightless space beyond the columns. 
 
 This then was the foundation of the house of the Von 
 Zehrens. That high-born race had dwelt over this vault, 
 and lived upon these heaps of decay. No wonder the fields 
 lay fallow, and the barns were tumbling to ruin. Here was 
 the sowing and the harvest — an evil sowing, which could 
 bring no other than an evil harvest. 
 
 I will not maintain that precisely these thoughts passed 
 through my mind in precisely this order, while I stood by 
 the old man and let my gaze wander through the recesses of 
 the cellar. I only know that my old feeling of horror for 
 that traffic into whose secret adyta I had penetrated, returned 
 upon me with full force, and with the clearly defined sensa- 
 tion that I now pertained to it and was one of the initiated, 
 and that it was foolish and to a certain extent offensive in 
 the old man to wish to make any secret to me of matters 
 and relations which I so thoroughly fathomed and so well 
 understood. 
 
 " Well, Christian," said I, taking a seat opposite the old 
 man, and lighting a cigar at his lantern as a mark of my per- 
 fect composure, " what will we get this time ? " 
 
 " Tea or silk," muttered he ; " if it were wine, brandy, or 
 salt, he would have ordered the wagons." ' 
 
 " To be sure, he would then have ordered the wagons," I 
 repeated, as if this were a mere matter of course. " And 
 when do you expect him back .'' He told me to-night that 
 he could not possibly determine." 
 
 " Most likely to-morrow ; but I will open the great door 
 anyhow, as we cannot be certain." 
 
 " Of course we cannot be certain," I said. The old man 
 had arisen and taken up his lantern, and I arose also. 
 
 We kept on, and came into another space filled with the 
 scent of wine, where casks were piled on casks, as the old 
 man showed me by holding up his lantern as high as he 
 could reach. 
 
 " This all lies here from last year," he said. 
 
 " Yes," I answered, repeating what Granow had said ; 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 129 
 
 " the business is bad just now ; the people in Uselin have 
 grown shy since so many have taken to dabbling in it." 
 
 The old man, who was taciturnity itself, did not answer, 
 but it seemed that I had attained my aim of gaining his con- 
 fidence. He nodded and muttered an assent to my words, 
 as he shuffled along. 
 
 The cellar seemed to have no end ; but at last Christian 
 stopped and placed the lantern upon the ground. Before 
 us was a broad staircase, above which was an apparatus of 
 strong beams, such as is used for lowering casks and heavy 
 boxes. The staircase was closed above by a large and mas- 
 sive trap-door, covered with plates of iron, and secured by 
 immense bolts. These the old man pushed back with my 
 help. 
 
 " So," said he, " now they can come whenever they please. 
 
 " Whenever they please," I repeated. 
 
 We returned silently by the way we had come, and ascended 
 the steep stair at the entrance. The old man pressed a 
 spring, and the opening in the wall was closed by a sliding 
 door which was fitted so artistically, and was so exactly of 
 the same tint of dirty gray, that none but one of the initiated 
 could have discovered its existence, to say nothing of open- 
 ing it. 
 
 Old Christian extinguished his lantern, and went before 
 me to the end of the corridor, after which we separated in 
 the smaller court-yard. He passed through a small gate 
 into the main court ; I remained behind and looked cau- 
 tiously around to see if any one was observing me ; but there 
 were only the crows, who, perched upon one of the low roofs, 
 with heads on one side, were scrutinizing all my movements. 
 This little court had looked poorly enough in the sunshine, 
 but now in the rain its appearance was inexpressibly forlorn. 
 The buildings huddled together as if trying to shelter them- 
 selves as well as they could from the wind and the rain, and 
 yet seemed every moment in danger of tumbling down from 
 sheer dilapidation. Who would look here for the entrance 
 to the secret cellar ? And yet here somewhere it must be. 
 I had noticed the direction and extent of the subterranean 
 space, for I wanted to know all, since I already knew so 
 much. I wished to be no longer kept in the dark as to 
 what was going on around me. 
 
 6* . :v.-. - ^ - 
 
 ' ^' -'■■:- 
 
130 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 My conclusion was verified : in the miserable old servant's 
 kitchen, from which a wide door led to the inclosed space 
 with the heaps of refuse, under a pile of old barrels, boards, 
 half-rotten straw, heaped together, as I now perceived, with 
 a careful imitation of carelessness, I detected the same trap- 
 door which the old man had bolted in the cellar. Here 
 upon the outside it was secured with a massive iron bar, and 
 a lock, the key of which doubtless Herr von Zehren carried 
 about him. I replaced the rubbish, and stole away as fur- 
 tively as a thief, for the proverb says truly that " the con- 
 cealer is as bad as the stealer," not only before the law, but 
 even more surely before his own conscience. 
 
 I turned into the park and strolled about the walks. A 
 heavy drizzle was still falling, but the fog had lifted a little, 
 and was rolling away in heavy gray masses over the tops of 
 the trees. I stood at the stone table under the maple whose 
 spreading boughs afforded me some shelter, and gazed stead- 
 fastly at the great melancholy house, that to-day, since it had 
 disclosed to me its secret, wore quite another look in my 
 eyes. Could she know what I now knew ? Impossible ! It 
 was a thought not to be harbored for a moment. But she must 
 learn it as soon as possible — or no ! she must rather leave 
 this place, where ruin was threatening her. Away — but 
 whither ? to whom .-' with whom ? What a wretched, pitiful 
 creature was I, who could offer her nothing but this heart 
 that beat for her, these arms which were strong enough to 
 bear her away as easily as a child, and with which I could 
 do nothing but fold them over my breast in impotent despair. 
 Happen what might, she must, must be saved. Her father 
 might sacrifice me to his vengeance, but she must escape 
 free ! 
 
 Some one came from the terrace — it was old Pahlen. She 
 appeared to be looking for me, for she beckoned to me from 
 a distance with her bony hands, while her gray hair, flying 
 loose in the wind from under her dirty cap, would have given 
 her to any one else the appearance of the witch that had 
 brewed the bad weather. But to me she was a most welcome 
 apparition, for from whom could she come but from her ? I 
 ran to meet her, and scarcely gave her time to deliver her 
 message. A few moments later, with a heart beating high, 
 I entered Constance's apartment through the casement-door. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 131 
 
 It was the first, and was to be the last time that I entered 
 it, and I can scarcely give an accurate description of its ap- 
 pearance. I have only a very dim recollection of large- 
 leaved plants, an open piano, music, books, articles of dress, 
 all scattered about, of two or three portraits on the walls, 
 and that the entire floor was covered with a carpet. This 
 last feature particularly struck me. Carpets covering an 
 entire room were a rarity at that time, especially in the good 
 town of Uselin. I had only heard of such luxury by report, 
 and I hardly knew where to place my foot, although the car- 
 pet, I believe, was extremely threadbare, and in places even 
 torn and worn into holes. 
 
 But these, as I have said, are but dim recollections, from 
 which stands out, clearly and ineffaceably, the picture of 
 Constance. She sat upon a divan near the window, and at 
 my entrance dropped a piece of embroidery into her lap, at 
 the same time extending her hand with her peculiar sweet 
 melancholy smile. 
 
 " You are not angry that I sent for you ? " she asked, mo- 
 tioning me to take my place by her side — thereby placing 
 me in no slight embarrassment, for the divan was low, and 
 my boots not as clean as a young man could wish who is for 
 the first time received in a carpeted chamber by the lady of 
 his heart. " I wished to make a request of you. Pahlen, 
 you can go j I have something to speak of with Herr George 
 alone." 
 
 The old woman gave me one of her suspicious looks, lin- 
 gered, and only went after Constance had repeated her order 
 in a sharper tone. 
 1 1 " See, this is the reason I sent for you," Constance began, 
 
 with a gesture of the hand towards the door by which the old 
 woman had departed. " I know how good you are, and how 
 true a friend to me ; since yesterday I have new proof of it, 
 though for a while I was weak enough to hold you no better 
 than the others. But these others ! They do not know, 
 and cannot, and must not know. Such treasures must be 
 kept secret ; they are too precious for the coarse world. Do 
 you not think so ? " 
 
 As I had no idea on what it was that she desired my 
 opinion, I contented myself with fixing my eyes upon her 
 with a look of respectful inquiry. She dropped her eyes 
 
 •I 
 
132 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 again to her work, and continued in a voice not quite so 
 steady : *' My father has gone away, I am told ; do you know 
 whither, and for how long a time ? But even if he had told 
 you, it would make no difference ; my father is not accus- 
 tomed to bind himself by any such announcements. He will 
 go for a stay of three weeks and be back in three days ; he 
 will start to be gone three days, and I will look for him in 
 vain for as many weeks. There is no probability that he 
 will this time make any exception to his rule ; and whether he 
 really makes a long or short stay, we must take measures 
 accordingly. It is not cheerful to be all alone in this deso- 
 late and comfortless house, especially when there is such a 
 terrible storm as there was last night. It is so pleasant to 
 know that there is some one near at hand in whose faith and 
 strong arm — they say you are so very strong, George — we 
 can always trust ; but still, so it must be. You feel that as 
 well as I do, do you not, George .'"' i 
 
 This time I knew what she meant : I must go away from 
 here, must leave her alone, just now, at the very time when 
 I was tormenting myself to devise some plan to get her 
 away ; at the very time when my mind, not yet recovered 
 from the effects of the terrible night and the adventures of 
 the morning, was filled with a gloomy presentiment that 
 calamity was impending over both the house and its inhabi- 
 tants. I neither knew how nor what to answer, and looked 
 at Constance in helpless confusion. 
 
 " You think it very unfriendly, very inhospitable of me," 
 she said, after a pause, as if awaiting my answer ; " it 
 would be both more hospitable and more friendly if I my- 
 self went away for the time to visit some female friend ; and 
 I admit that any other lady would do so ; but I am so poor 
 as to have no female friend. My father has taken good care 
 of that. So long as you have been here, has a solitary lady 
 entered this house .'' Have you ever heard me speak of a 
 friend, of an acquaintance of my own sex ? ' Constance von 
 Zehren only associates with men ; ' that is the way I am 
 spoken of ; but heaven knows how entirely without fault of 
 mine. Do you wish, my good faithful George, to give evil 
 tongues the opportunity to make my reputation worse than 
 it already is ? Or do you think, with the others, that it can- 
 not be worse ? No ; sit still. Why should not friends, as 
 
 ■iSviii-',- 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 133 
 
 we are, speak calmly of such things, and calmly consider 
 what is to be done on such an occasion ? Now, what I have 
 thought, is this : You have friends. There is Herr von 
 Granow, who regularly pays court to you ; there is Herr von 
 Trantow, our good neighbor, who would be so glad to have 
 you with him for a few days. And then you are quite near 
 me ; I can send for you if I want you ; and you know that 
 if ever I need a friend I will turn to no one sooner that to 
 the only friend I have." 
 
 She offered me her hand with an enchanting smile, as if 
 to say : " So that matter is settled, is it not .'' " 
 
 Her smile and the touch of her dear hand completed the 
 confusion into which her words had thrown me ; but I col- 
 lected myself with a desperate effort and stammered : 
 
 " I do not know what you will think of me for allowing 
 you to speak so long on a subject which of course I could 
 not but understand at once ; but I cannot tell you how hard 
 it is for me just now to go away from you — to leave you just 
 now. Herr von Zehern expressly charged me to remain 
 here and wait his return, which would happen in a few days, 
 perhaps to-morrow. He no doubt did that — even though 
 he did not say as much — with the best intentions ; that you 
 might have some one near you, and might not be left alone 
 in the desolate old house ; that " 
 
 I did not know how to continue, Constance fixed her eyes 
 upon me with so peculiar an expression, and my talent for 
 fiction having always been of the poorest. 
 
 "My father has never shown this tender consideration 
 before," she said. " Perhaps he thinks that the older I 
 grow, the more I need watching. You understand me. Or 
 can you have forgotten our discourse of yesterday? " 
 
 " I have not forgotten it," I cried, springing hastily from 
 the divan. " I will not again become an object of your sus: 
 picion. I now leave you, and forever, if you wish it ; but 
 others who are assuredly no worthier than I, shall not enjoy 
 an advantage over me ; and if they still venture to thrust 
 themselves into your neighborhood, or lurk around like a fox 
 around a dove-cot, they do it at their own peril. I shall not 
 be so considerate as I was that evening." 
 
 " What do you mean ? Of whom are you speaking ? " 
 exclaimed Constance, who had also arisen at my last words. 
 
134 Ha7n7ncr and Anvil. ' 
 
 She had turned quite pale, and her features had assumed a 
 new expression. 
 
 " Of wliom am I speaking ? " I said ; " of him who, on 
 that evening when I kept watch at your window, ran from 
 me Uke a craven ; and who kist night, as I was coming with 
 your father from Trantowitz, and took the way through the 
 woods alone, tried to conceal himself under the trees ; whom 
 I spared out of pity, for I knew that had I betrayed the piti- 
 ful wretch, Herr von Zehren would have shot him dead like 
 a dog. Let him take care I do not meet him again in the 
 night or by day either : he will see how much I respect his 
 princeship ! " 
 
 Constance had turned away while I thus gave vent in 
 anger to the despair I felt at leaving the beloved maiden for- 
 ever. Suddenly she turned her pale face again upon me, 
 with eyes flashing with a strange light, and exclaimed, hold- 
 ing out her hands as if in supplication : 
 
 " That I should hear this from you ! — from you ! How 
 can I help it if that man — supposing you were not mistaken, 
 which yet is quite possible — is driven restlessly about by his 
 evil conscience ? It is unhappy enough for him, if it be so ; 
 but how does that concern me 1 And how can any danger 
 from that quarter threaten me .? And were he now — or at 
 any time and anywhere — to come before me, what would I, 
 what could I say, but ' We can be nothing to each other, you 
 and I, now nor at any future time.' I thought, George, you 
 knew all this without my telling you. How can I wonder that 
 the others so misjudge me, when your judgment of me is so 
 false, so cruelly false ? " 
 
 She resumed her seat upon the divan and buried her face 
 in her hands. I lost all control of myself, paced the room 
 in agitation, and finally, seeing her bosom heaving with her 
 emotion, threw myself in despair at her feet. 
 
 " My dear, good George," she said, laying her hands on my 
 shoulders. " I know well that you love me ; and I, too, am 
 very fond of you." 
 
 The tears rolled down my cheeks. I hid my face in her 
 dress, and covered her hands with kisses. 
 
 " Stand up, George," she whispered, " I hear old Pahlen 
 coming." 
 
 I sprang up. In truth the door opened slowly — I think it 
 
Hamtner and Anvil. 135 
 
 had never been entirely closed — and the ugly old woman 
 looked in and asked if she had been called. 
 
 Yes, she had been called. Herr George, who was going to 
 visit Herr von Trantow for a day or two, had probably some 
 orders to give. 
 
 " Farewell," she said, turning to me, " farewell, then, for a 
 few days." And then bringing her face nearer to mine, and 
 sending me a kiss by the movement of her lips, she softly 
 whispered, " Farewell, beloved." 
 
 I was standing outside the house ; the rain, that had 
 re-commenced, was beating into my burning face ; I did not 
 feel it. Rain and storm, driving clouds and roaring trees, 
 how lovely it all was ! How could it be possible that the 
 world should be so fair — that mortal could be so happy — 
 that she loved me ! 
 
 When I reached my own room, I gave vent to my rapture 
 in a thousand idiotic ways. I danced and sang, I threw my- 
 self into the old high-backed chair and wept, then sprang up 
 again, and at last remembered that I had all that I should 
 need for a stay of but a day or two, ready packed in my 
 game-bag, and that she would expect that her orders would 
 be promptly obeyed. Yes ; now — now I was ready to go. 
 
 And throwing my gun over my shoulder, and calling my 
 dog Caro, who lay moping under the table, I left the castle. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 STRIDING along the road to Trantowitz, under the rustl- 
 ing willows, scarcely seeing the way before me in my 
 excitement, I several times barely escaped falling from 
 the slippery path into the deep ditch in which the rain-water 
 was now running in a torrent. More than once I stopped to 
 look back to the castle where she was. Caro, who was 
 moodily trotting after me, also stopped on these occasions and 
 looked at me. I told him that she loved me, that wc were 
 all going to be happy, that all would turn out well, and that 
 when I was a great man I would lead a joyous life, and would 
 
136 Hammer and Anvil. I 
 
 take good care of him as long as he lived. Caro gave me to 
 understand, by a slight wag of his tail, that he was fully satis- 
 fied of my good intentions, and even to a certain extent moved ; 
 but his brown eyes looked very melancholy, as if on so dis- 
 mal a day he could not form a very clear picture of a joyous 
 future. " You are a stupid brute, Caro," I said ; " a good, 
 stupid brute ; and you have no notion of what has happened 
 to me." Caro made a desperate attempt to look at the mat- 
 ter from its brightest side, wagging his tail more violently, 
 and showing his white teeth ; then suddenly, as if to show 
 that his well-trained mind, usually occupied with hunting 
 matters alone, felt this to be a day when all discipline was 
 relaxed, ran, furiously barking, at a man who was just ap- 
 proaching around a plantation of willows on the left of the 
 road. 
 
 It was a man who had partly the appearance of a sailor, 
 and partly that of a working-man of the town, and whose 
 innocent broad face beamed with so friendly a smile as he 
 caught sight of me, that Caro became at once conscious of 
 the impropriety of his behavior, and came to heel ashamed, 
 with drooping ears, while I, who had recognized the trav- 
 eller, hastened towards him with extended hand. 
 
 " Why, Klaus, what in the name of wonder brings you 
 here ? " 
 
 " Yes, I thought I should surprise you," answered Klaus, 
 giving me a cordial grasp of his great hard hand, and show- 
 ing, as Caro had before done, two rows of teeth which ri- 
 valled the dog's in whiteness. 
 
 " Were you coming to see me ? " I asked. | 
 
 "Of course I was coming to see you," Klaus answered. 
 " I arrived in the cutter an hour ago. Christel is with me. 
 Our old grandmother is dead ; we buried her yesterday 
 morning. She has gone to a better place, I hope. She was 
 a good old woman, although she had grown very infirm of 
 late, and gave poor Christel a great deal of trouble. But 
 that is all over now. What I was going to say is this : my 
 father has been so good as to bring me over here himself, 
 and Christel is with me too ; she has come with me to Zano- 
 witz to take leave of Aunt Julchen [Julie], father's sister, 
 you know. My father is from Zanowitz, you know." 
 
 " To be sure," I said. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 137 
 
 " You have been there once or twice yourself," Klaus went 
 on. " Aunt Julchen always saw you, but you never took 
 notice of her. I suppose you did not recollect her ; she used 
 often to come to my father's. And then you have become 
 such a great man now" — and the honest fellow's admiring 
 looks wandered over my hunting-dress, my high boots, and 
 Caro, who pretended not to hear a word of this conversation, 
 and with pricked-up ears was staring into the ditch as if he 
 had never seen a water-rat dart into its hole before in all the 
 days of his life. 
 
 " Never mind about that, Klaus," I said, shifting the sling 
 of my gun a little higher on the shoulder. " So you are 
 going away ? And where are you going, then ? " 
 
 " I have got a place as locksmith in the machine-shops of 
 the Herr Commerzienrath at Berlin," said Klaus. " Herr 
 Schultz, the engineer on the Penguin^ you know, has given 
 me a first-rate recommendation, and I hope to do no dis- 
 credit to it." 
 
 " That I am sure you will not," I said in a cordial, friendly, 
 but rather patronizing tone, while I considered with some 
 embarrassment what I should do. Here was Klaus had 
 come to see me, and I could not keep him standing in the 
 open road, under the dripping willow. How the good fellow 
 would have stared if I had taken him into my poetical room ! 
 — ^but that was not possible now. My embarrassment was 
 increasing, and it was a great relief when Klaus, taking both 
 my hands, said : 
 
 " And now, good-by ; I must go back to Zanowitz. Karl 
 Peters, who has been loading corn for the Herr Commerzien- 
 rath, sails in half an hour, and takes me with him. I would 
 have liked to stay a little while with you, but you have some- 
 thing else on hand, and so I will not keep you any longer." 
 
 " I have nothing whatever on hand, Klaus," I answered, 
 " and if you have no objection I will go with you to Zano- 
 witz, and take the opportunity to say good-day to Christel. 
 When is the wedding to be, Klaus ? " 
 
 Klaus shook his head as we walked on together. " The 
 prospect is but a poor one," he said. " We are too young 
 yet, the old man thinks, although the proverb says : ' Early 
 wooed was never rued.' Don't you think so.'' " 
 
 " Decidedly I do ! " I cried, with an earnestness that ex- 
 
138 Ham7ner and Anvil. ! 
 
 tremely delighted Klaus ; " I am two years younger than 
 you, I believe, but 1 can tell you this : I would marry, if I 
 could, upon the spot ; but it all depends upon the circum- 
 stances, Klaus, upon the circumstances." 
 
 "Yes, of course ; '' answered he, with a sigh; " I could 
 very well support her now, for I shall work upon a fixed 
 contract, and can do well if I please, and Christel would not 
 sit with her hands in her lap ; but what good is all that if 
 the old man will not consent ? He is Christel's guardian, 
 and she owes him everything, even her life, for she would 
 have perished miserably on the beach, poor little creature, 
 had father not sent mother down to the strand to gather 
 drift-wood, and had mother not found her there and brought 
 her home. And vou see all this has to be taken into ac- 
 count ; and although he is not at all kind to her, and I can- 
 not tell why he has treated me so badly all these years, yet 
 still it is written : Honor thy father and thy mother. And 
 as I have no mother any more, I must honor my father 
 doubly. Don't you think so ? " 
 
 I did not answer him this time. In my coat-pocket lay 
 the letter of my father, in which he commanded me to leave 
 Herr von Zehren at once and return home. I had not 
 obeyed his orders, because I could not leave until Herr von 
 Zehren's return ; but now I could go — oh yes, I could go 
 now ! I cast a glance back at the castle, which loomed 
 darkly through its dark masses of trees, over the heath, and 
 sighed deeply. 
 
 Klaus crossed the wet road to my side, and said to me in 
 a low mysterious tone, although over the whole heath, as 
 far as the eye could reach, there was no human being in 
 sight : 
 
 " I beg your pardon ; I did not mean to hurt your feel- 
 ings." 
 
 " That I am sure of, Klaus," I answered. 
 
 " For you see," he continued, " I know that you and your 
 father are not on good terms, but he is such an excellent 
 man, that he certainly wishes no harm to any human crea- 
 ture, and least of all to his own son ; and as for what people 
 say about you, that you are leading so wild a life here, and 
 — and — I don't believe a word of it. I know you better. Oh 
 yes, you might be a little wild, of course, you always were 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 139 
 
 that ; but wicked ? God forbid ! I would sooner believe 
 them if they said I was wicked myself" 
 
 " Do they say that of me ? " I asked, contemptuously. 
 " And who says so, then ? " 
 
 Klaus took off his cap, and rubbed his sleek hair. 
 
 " That is hard to say," he answered, with some hesitation. 
 " If I must tell you hone.stly, they all say so, my Christel of 
 course excepted, who is your fast friend ; but the rest don't 
 leave a good hair on your head." 
 
 " Out with it," I said ; " I don't care for it, so let us hear 
 it all." 
 
 " Well, I can't tell you," answered Klaus. 
 
 It was some time before I could get it out of the good 
 fellow. It was quite terrible for him to be compelled to 
 admit that in my native town, where everybody knew every- , 
 body else, and took the greatest interest in his fortunes, I / 
 was unanimously considered a castaway. The firemen on ^ 
 board the Penguin had spoken of it, and the old pensioned- 
 ofif captains leaning over the parapet of the pier, and 
 meditatively chewing their quids, talked the matter over. 
 Wherever Klaus, whom all knew to be a great friend of 
 mine, came, everybody asked him if he had not heard what 
 had become of George Hartwig, how he was going about in 
 the very worst region of the whole island, and playing the 
 buffoon for noblemen with whom he was leading the most 
 shameless life ; that he would lose more money in gam- 
 bling in a single night, than his poor father made in a whole 
 year, and heaven only knew how he came by it. But the 
 worst of all was something which Klaus only mentioned 
 after again solemnly assuring me that he did not believe a 
 word of it. He had been the evening before to take leave 
 of Justizrath Heckepfennig, who was Christel's godfather, 
 and at whose hoi>se he was a frequent visitor. The family 
 were just at tea. Elise Kohl, Emilie's dearest friend, was 
 there too, and they had done Klaus the honor to offer him a 
 cup of tea, after he had said that next day he was going to 
 Zanowitz and meant to look me up. The justizrath urgently 
 dissuaded him from doing so, adding that his long-fixed con- 
 viction that I would die in my shoes, had recently received 
 a confirmation, which, however, he was not free to disclose. 
 That then the girls had sat in judgment upon me, and de- 
 
140 Hammer and Anvil. ' 
 
 cided that they could forgive me everything else, but could 
 never forgive me for being the lover of Fraulein von Zehren. 
 They had heard of it from Arthur, who of course knew ; and 
 Arthur had told such things about his cousin that a girl of 
 any self-respect could hardly listen to them, and which it 
 was quite impossible to repeat. 
 
 Klaus was terrified at the effect which his account pro- 
 duced upon me. In vain did he repeat that he did not be- 
 lieve a word of it, and had told the girls so at the time. I 
 vowed that I renounced now and forever so faithless and 
 treacherous a friend, and that I would sooner or later be 
 most bitterly avenged upon him. I gave vent to the most 
 terrible threats and maledictions. Never would I again, 
 with my own consent, set foot in my native . town ; I would 
 rather cause an earthquake to swallow it, if it stood in my 
 power. Up to this time I had felt twinges of conscience as 
 to whether I had not acted too rashly in leaving my father 
 for so trifling a cause ; but now should my father a hundred 
 times command me to return, I would not do it. And as 
 for Herr von Zehren and Fraulein von Zehren I valued a 
 hair of either of their heads more than the whole town of 
 Uselin, and I was ready to die for both of them here on the 
 spot in these water-boots of mine, and the devil might after- 
 wards beat the boots about the justizrath's old mop of a 
 head. 
 
 The good Klaus was stricken dumb with horror when he 
 heard me utter these frightful imprecations. It is quite 
 probable that the idea struck him that my soul was in a more 
 perilous state than he had hitherto supposed. He did not 
 say this, however, but presently remarked, in his simple way, 
 that disobedience to a father was a very serious thing ; that 
 I well knew how much he had always thought of me, in spite 
 of all that people said, and that he had always been disposed, 
 and was still disposed to agree with me in everything ; but 
 that here I was clearly in the wrong ; and that if my father 
 had really ordered me to return home, he could not see, for 
 his part, what should prevent me from obeying him ; that he 
 must confess to me that my disobedience to my father had 
 been troubling him ever since he heard of it, and that he 
 could go away with an easier mind, now that he had frankly 
 told me this. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 141 
 
 I made him no answer, and Klaus did not venture to 
 continue a conversation that had taken so unpleasant a turn. 
 He walked silently by my side, giving me a sorrowful look 
 from time to time, like Caro, who trotted with drooping ears 
 by my other side ; for the rain was falling still more heavily, 
 and my aimless wandering in such weather over the wet 
 dunes, was a mystery to Caro which grew darker the more 
 he pondered over it. 
 
 Thus we arrived at Zanowitz, where the poor mud-hovels 
 were scattered about over the undulating sandy dunes, as if 
 they were playing hide-and-seek. Between the dunes the 
 open sea was visible. This had always been a sight that I 
 loved, when the sun shone brightly on the white sand and the 
 blue water, and the white gulls wheeled in joyous circles 
 over the calm sea. But now all was of a uniform gray, 
 the sand, and the sky, and the sea that came rolling in in 
 heavy waves. Even the gulls, sweeping with harsh cries 
 over the stormy waters, seemed gray like the rest. It was a 
 dreary picture, the coloring of which harmonized with the 
 frame of mind in which my conversation with Klaus had 
 left me. 
 
 " I see Peters is getting ready to sail," said Klaus, point- 
 ing to one of the larger vessels that were rocking at anchor 
 a short distance from the beach. " I think we had better go 
 down ; father and Christel will be down there waiting for 
 me." 
 
 So we went down to the strand, where they were about 
 pushing off one of the numerous smaller boats drawn up 
 upon the sand. A crowd of persons were standing by, and 
 among them old Pinnow, Christel, and Klaus's Aunt Jul- 
 chen, a well-to-do fisherman's widow, whom I remembered 
 very well. 
 
 Poor Klaus was scarcely allowed a minute to say good-by. 
 Skipper Peters, who had to deliver in Uselin the same day 
 the corn he had shipped for the commerzienrath's account, 
 swore at the foolish waste of time ; Pinnow growled that the 
 stupid dolt would never have common sense ; Christel kept 
 her tearful eyes riveted on her Klaus, whom she was to lose 
 for so long a time ; Aunt Julchen wiped the tears and the 
 rain from her good fat face with her apron ; and the deaf 
 and dumb apprentice Jacob, who was among the rest, stared 
 
142 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 uninterruptedly at his master as if he now saw his red nose 
 and blue spectacles for the first time. Klaus, looking very 
 confused and very unhappy, said not a single word, but tak- 
 ing in his left hand a bundle which Christel had given him, 
 he offered his right to each in turn, and then springing into 
 the boat, seized one of the two oars. A couple of fishermen 
 waded out and pushed the boat off; the oars were laid in 
 the rowlocks, and the skiff danced over the waves to the 
 cutter, on which the mainsail was already hoisted. 
 
 When I turned again, Christel had gone, and the fat aunt 
 was just about following her. The poor thing no doubt 
 wished to shed her long pent-up tears in quiet, and I thought 
 that I should be doing her a kindness if I detained her 
 father awhile upon the beach. But Herr Pinnow was in 
 no haste to leave, as it seemed. With his blue spectacles 
 over his eyes, which I knew to be sharp as a hawk's, he gazed 
 into the foaming waters, and exchanged with the Zanowitz 
 sailors and fishermen such remarks as naturally fall from old 
 sea-rats on the beach watching the departure of a vessel. 
 
 These were in truth faces by no means adapted to inspire 
 confidence, these high-boned, lean, weather-beaten, sunburnt 
 visages, with light-blue blinking eyes, of the men of Zanowitz ; 
 but I had to say to myself, as I stood by and observed them 
 one by one, that the face of my old friend was the most un- 
 prepossessing of all. The wicked, cruel expression of his 
 wide mouth, with thick close-shut lips, that even when he 
 spoke scarcely moved, had never so struck me before ; per- 
 haps I saw him to-day with different eyes. For indeed, 
 since yesterday evening, the suspicion which had repeatedly 
 entered my mind, that old Pinnow was deeply implicated in 
 Herr von Zehren's hazardous undertakings, had been aroused 
 anew. In fact I had come to an almost positive conclusion 
 that he would take an active part in the expedition on hand ; 
 and I had been much surprised to hear Klaus say that his 
 father had ferried Christel and himself over. So, whatever 
 his connection with Herr von Zehren might be, he was not 
 with him this time, and that fact partially relieved my un- 
 easiness. 
 
 The smith seemed not to have forgotten our quarrel on 
 that evening. He steadily pretended not to see me, or turned 
 his broad back upon me while he told the others what a 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 143 
 
 quick passage he had made, and that he would not have ven- 
 tured out in such weather, and with his weak eyes that grew 
 weaker every day, had not Klaus been in such haste. And 
 even though it should blow less hard this evening, he would 
 rather not take back Christel with him ; she could stay at 
 his sister's, and in her place he would take some active young 
 fellow from here on board to help him, for ^s for that stupid 
 blockhead, Jacob, he could not be relied on. 
 
 The tobacco-chewing men of Zanowitz listened to him and 
 assented, or said nothing, and did their part in thinking. 
 
 To remain on the beach with the wind driving the rain 
 and spray into one's face, was by no means comfortable, so 
 I turned away from the group and walked up the shore. I 
 knew where Aunt Julchen's cottage stood, and I thought I 
 would look in and say a few friendly words to Christel if I 
 could. But as if he suspected my intention and was de- 
 termined to thwart it, old Pinnow, with a pair of fellows of 
 much the look of gallows-birds, came after me ; so I gave up 
 my design for the time and went through the town, and as- 
 cended the dunes, intending to cross the heath to Trantow. 
 
 I had just crossed the summit of the highest dune, which 
 was called the white one from "the peculiar brilliancy of its 
 sand, and from which one commanded an extensive prosjject 
 up and down the shore, when I heard my name called. I 
 turned and perceived a female figure crouching in a little 
 hollow under the sharp ridge of the dune, upon the side that 
 looked away from the village and the sea, and beckoning 
 eagerly to me. To my no little surprise I recognized Chris- 
 tel, and at once hastened to her. When I came up, she drew 
 me into the hollow, and intimated to me with gestures rather 
 than words that I must sit still and keep the dog quiet. 
 
 " What is all this for, Christel ? " I asked. 
 
 " There is no time to be lost," she answered, " and I 
 must tell you in two minutes. At three o'clock this morn- 
 ing Herr von Zehren came to see ' him ; ' they thought 
 I was asleep, but I was not, because I had been crying 
 about grandmother, and I heard everything. This evening 
 a Mecklenburg yacht laden with silk will arrive. Herr von 
 Zehren has gone by extra-post to R. to tell the captain, who 
 is waiting for him there, to set sail. He will return himself 
 with him on the yacht. Then they planned how to get the 
 
144 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 goods off the yacht; and *he' offered, as the coast was 
 clear, to take them off himself with his boat. Always before, 
 the goods have been concealed in Zanowitz, and he took off 
 such as were intended for Uselin from Zehrendorf, later, as 
 opportunity offered. When Herr von Zehren objected that 
 it might attract notice if he had his boat out without any ap- 
 parent reason, and in such bad weather, ' he ' said that Klaus 
 had been wanting to go see his aunt before he went away, so 
 he would take him over, and carry me along too, that there 
 might be no possibility of suspicion. Then they called in 
 Jock Swart, who had been waiting in the forge, and told him 
 to come over here at once and have ready for to-night 
 twelve of the surest men from Zehrendorf and Zanowitz, to ac- 
 company him on board — as carriers you know. Jock went, 
 and after about a quarter of an hour Herr von Zehren went 
 too, and then after another quarter of an hour, Jock came 
 back again. I wondered at this, for Herr von Zehren had 
 told him expressly and several times over, not to lose a min- 
 ute, but to set out at once ; but ' he ' must have given him a 
 sign, or had some previous understanding with him. Then 
 they put their heads together and talked so softly that I 
 could not make out what they said, but it must have been 
 something bad, for * he ' got up once or twice and came 
 and listened at my door to see if I was awake. Then he 
 went away, but Jock stayed. About an hour later, just as 
 day was beginning to break, he came back with another 
 man — the customs-inspector Blanck. He had not his 
 uniform on, but I knew him at once, and would have known 
 him anyhow by his voice. So now the three whispered to- 
 gether, and after a little while went away. About six ' he ' 
 came back alone, and knocked at my door, for I had been 
 afraid to come out, and asked if I was not going to get 
 up to-day ? Klaus would soon be there, he said, and we 
 were to come over here together, and I was to bring some 
 things with me, as very likely he would leave me here with 
 my aunt." . I 
 
 While Christel was telling me this, she looked cautiously 
 from time to time over the ridge of the dune to see if the 
 coast was clear. 
 
 " I did not know what to do," she went on, " for I could not 
 tell Klaus ; he is like a child, and knows nothing about it all, 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 145 
 
 and must not know ; and I thank God he is away. I put it 
 into his head to go and see you, for I thought very likely you 
 would come down with him, as you did, and I wanted to tell 
 you, if possible, to see if you could do anything. Herr von 
 Zehren has always been so good to me, and the last time he 
 was here said he would take care of Klaus and me, and 
 that I need not be afraid of * him,' for ' he ' knew very well, 
 and he had moreover told ' him,' that if he did me any harm 
 he would shoot him dead. And since then ' he ' has left me 
 in peace ; but he swears horribly at Herr von Zehren, and 
 vows that he will be even with him, and now his plan is to 
 bring him to the gallows." 
 
 She had begun to cry, but wiped away the tears with her 
 hand, and went on : 
 
 " I can do nothing more. See if you can do anything ; 
 and do not be uneasy on my account, even if ' he ' learns 
 that it was my doing." 
 
 Her face suddenly flushed to a deep crimson ; but the 
 brave girl was determined to say all that she had to say, and 
 she added : 
 
 *' I have been talking with my aunt, and my aunt will keep 
 me with her, and as she has a great number of friends here, 
 he will not venture to give her any trouble. And now I 
 must go back ; run quickly down the dune ; they cannot see 
 you below there ; and good-by ! " 
 
 I pressed her hand and hurried down the high bare dune, 
 which was surrounded by a number of other lesser ones con- 
 fusedly heaped together and overgrown with beach-grass 
 and broom, between which I was tolerably safe from observa- 
 tion. Still I kept on in a crouching attitude, and did not 
 raise myself to an erect posture until I had gone a hundred 
 paces or so over the heath, where concealment was no longer 
 possible. When I looked back to the white dune, Christel 
 was nowhere to be seen ; she had evidently seized a favora- 
 ble moment to slip back unobserved into the village. 
 
146 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 -^^ CHAPTER XV. 
 
 CARO probably saw no reason, as I rather ran than 
 walked along the narrow path leading over the heath 
 to Trantowitz, to be more satisfied than before with 
 his master's proceedings. I no longer spoke to him as I had 
 been doing. I had no eye for the unfortunate hares which 
 he routed out of their damp forms to relieve his extreme 
 dullness of spirits, nor for the flocks of gulls that had been 
 driven inland by the storm. I hurried on as if life and death 
 depended upon my reaching Trantowitz five minutes earlier 
 or later ; and yet it was but too certain that Hans, when I 
 had taken him into my confidence, would be as much at a 
 loss as myself. But Hans von Trantow was a good fellow, and 
 a devoted friend of Herr von Zehren, as I well knew. And 
 then he loved Constance ; for Constance's sake, even if he 
 had no other reason, he must help me to save Constance's 
 father, if any rescue was now possible. 
 
 And so I tore along. Under my steps jets of water sprang 
 from the marshy soil into which I often sank to the ankles ; 
 the rain dashed into my face, and the gulls screamed as they 
 wheeled above my head. 
 
 From Zanowitz to Trantow was a half-hour's journey, 
 but it seemed to me an age before I reached the house, a 
 bald and desolate-looking building even in the sunshine, and 
 now doubly forlorn and cheerless in the rain. In front of the 
 one-storied dwelling with its eight tall poplars, whose slen- 
 der summits were wildly swaying in the storm, stood Gran- 
 ow's hunting-wagon and horses. That detestable fellow was 
 there, then ; but no matter for that ; I must speak with Hans 
 von Trantow alone, if I had first to pitch Herr von Granow 
 out of the door. 
 
 Entering, I foimd the gentlemen at breakfast; a couple 
 of empty bottles on the table showed that they had been sit- 
 ting there some time already. Granow changed color at my 
 entrance. It is probable that with my heated and agitated 
 face, my clothes saturated with rain, and my hunting-boots 
 covered with the sand of the dunes and the mud of the moor, 
 I presented a rather startling appearance, and the little man 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 147 
 
 had not, in reference to me, the clearest conscience in the 
 world. Trantow, without rising at my entrance, reached a 
 chair and drew it up to the table, then gave me his hand, and 
 nodded his head towards the bottles and the dishes. His 
 good-natured face was already very red, and his great blue 
 eyes rather glassy ; it was plain that the empty bottles were 
 to be set chiefly to his account. 
 
 " You have certainly not been out shooting in this horrible 
 weather } " asked Herr von Granow, with sudden friendli- 
 ness, and politely placed bread, butter, and ham before me, 
 which, in spite of all my anxiety, I attacked with energy, 
 for I was nearly famished, and the hot air of the room had 
 given me a sensation of faintness. 
 
 " We have been sitting here these two hours," he went 
 on,- " and were just deliberating how we should spend the 
 day. I proposed cards, but Hans will not play ; he says he 
 means to give it up. Gambling is a vice, he says." 
 
 " So it is," muttered Hans. 
 
 " Only when he wins, you understand," said Granow, 
 laughing at his own wit. " He considers it vicious to take 
 from other people the money which they very likely need. 
 He has no need of money himself; have you Hans ? " 
 
 " Got no use for it," said Hans. 
 
 " There, you hear him yourself ; he has got no use for it. 
 He must marry, that's the thing for him ; then he will find 
 out a use for his money. We were just now talking about it." 
 
 Hans's red face took a somewhat deeper shade, and he 
 cast a shy look at me. It struck me that I had myself been 
 one of the subjects of their conversation. 
 
 " He will not find it so easy as you who have only to ask 
 and have," I said. 
 
 " I do not understand you," said the little man, with evi- 
 dent embarrassment. 
 
 " I mean that this is what you told me yourself the day 
 before yesterday," I answered. "You even mentioned 
 names ; but it can't be managed ; it really can't, although 
 Herr von Granow has considered the matter from every side." 
 
 I uttered the last words in an ironical tone, turning to 
 Hans as I spoke. Hans, whose head was never particularly 
 clear, could catch no glimpse of my meaning at all ; but 
 Herr von Granow understood me perfectly. 
 
148 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 ' " A jest should not be taken more seriously than it is 
 meant," he said, pouring himself out a glass of wine with a 
 hand that visibly shook. 
 
 "Or better, one should not venture to jest upon. certain 
 subjects at all," I retorted, following his example. 
 
 " I am old enough not to need any admonitions from you," 
 said the little man, with a pitiful attempt to assume an intimi- 
 dating tone. 
 
 " And yet you have not yet learned to bridle your tongue," 
 I replied, looking him steadily in the face. 
 
 *' It seems you intend to insult me, young man," he cried, 
 setting down hastily the glass of which he had only tasted. 
 
 " Shall I make that fact clear to you by throwing this glass 
 in your face .'' " 
 
 " Gentlemen ! gentlemen ! " cried Hans. 
 
 " Enough ! " exclaimed the little man, pushing back his 
 chair and rising ; " I will bear these insults no longer. I 
 will have satisfaction, if this gentleman is entitled to be 
 dealt with in that way." 
 
 " My father is a respectable officer in the customs," I an- 
 swered ; " my grandfather was a minister, and so was my 
 great-grandfather. Yours was a shepherd, was he not ? " 
 
 " We shall meet again," cried the little man, rushing out 
 of the room, banging the door after him. In another mo- 
 ment we heard his carriage rattling over the pavement of the 
 court. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 NOW, what is the meaning of all this? " asked Hans, 
 who had never moved from his chair during the 
 whole scene. 
 I broke into loud laughter. ' 
 
 " It means," I replied, " that Herr von Granow is a black- 
 guard who has had the audacity to defame a lady whom we 
 both respect, in a manner which deserves far more serious 
 treatment ; but besides this, I wanted to get him away — I 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 149 
 
 must speak to you. You must help me — ^you must help 
 him " 
 
 I did not know how to begin, and in my excitement I 
 strode wildly up and down the room. 
 
 " Drink off half a bottle at once," said Hans, meditatively ; 
 "that is a specific for clearing the brain." 
 
 But without having recourse to this specific, I was pres- 
 ently calm enough to tell him what it was that so agitated 
 me. I related to him everything from the beginning ; my 
 first suspicion of Herr von Zehren, which had been com- 
 pletely lulled until Granow's loquacity had aroused it again ; 
 then Herr von Zehren's half admission of the previous eve- 
 ning, and the circumstances of his departure — keeping silent, 
 however, about the letter of the steuerrath, which was not 
 my secret — and then my exploration in the cellar this morn- 
 ing, and finally Christel's disclosure. I wound up by say- 
 ing : " Herr von Trantow, I do not know what you think of 
 his conduct, but I know that you have a great regard for 
 him, and that," I added, coloring, " you deeply respect Con- 
 stance, Fraulein von Zehren. Help me if you can. I am 
 resolved to risk everything rather than let him fall into the 
 snare which clearly has been set for him." 
 
 Von Trantow's cigar had gone out while I was speaking, 
 nor had he made the slightest attempt to re-kindle it — an 
 evidence of the rapt attention with which he was listening to 
 my statement. As soon as I paused, he stretched out his 
 great hand to me over the table, and was about to say some- 
 thing, but perceived that both our glasses were empty, so 
 replenished them instead, and leaning back in his chair, 
 sank into the profoundest meditation. 
 
 "I do not think it probable," I proceeded, warmed by his 
 speechless sympathy, " that they will capture him ; for I am 
 convinced that he will defend himself to the last extremity." 
 
 Hans nodded, to intimate that he had not a doubt of it. 
 
 " But to think of their bringing him to trial, of their throw- 
 ing him into prison.? Herr von Trantow, shall we suffer 
 that, if we can prevent it ? Only yesterday he told me how 
 one of his ancestors, also named Malte, when a prisoner in 
 Uselin, was rescued by the strong arm, and at the sword's 
 point, by one of yours, named Hans like yourself, upon a 
 message brought by a faithful squire. The whole story has 
 
ISO Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 come round again. I am the faithful squire, and you and I 
 will cut him out as they did then." 
 
 " That we will ! " cried Hans, smiting the table with his 
 heavy fist so that the bottles and glasses rang. " If they 
 shut him up, we will blow up the prison." 
 
 " We must never let it get to that point," I said, smiling 
 involuntarily, despite my anxiety at Hans's blind zeal. 
 " We must warn him beforehand ; we must get to him before 
 anything happens ; we must frustrate the whole plan founded 
 upon Pinnow's and Jock's villainous treachery. But how ? 
 How can it be done .'' " 
 
 " How can it be done ? " echoed Hans, thoughtfully rub- 
 bing his head. 
 
 We — or rather I, for Hans contented himself with playing 
 the attentive listener, and incessantly replenishing my glass, 
 with the view, apparently, of assisting my invention — de- 
 signed a hundred plans, of which each was less practicable 
 than the previous one, until I hit upon the following scheme, 
 which, like all the others, had the fullest and promptest ad- 
 hesion of the good Hans. 
 
 If their plan was to seize- Herr von Zehren flagrante de- 
 licto, as Christel's revelation indicated, it was most probable 
 that, as was their usual plan of operations in similar cases, 
 they had laid an ambush for him. This ambush could only 
 be posted upon a road that he must of necessity take, or 
 upon one to which he was purposely enticed. In the latter 
 case we could form no conjectures of its disposition ; but in 
 the former we might assume with tolerable assurance that 
 the ambush would be stationed in the neighborhood of the 
 castle. In every event our aim must be to reach him as 
 soon as possible. But to effect this but one plan was practi- 
 cable ; we must set out at once with Pinnow, and as he was 
 not likely to take us voluntarily as passengers, we must be 
 prepared to compel him to it. How this was precisely to be 
 done, we could leave to chance ; the all-important thing was 
 that we should be in Zanowitz at the right time. Pinnow 
 would certainly not sail before night-fall, as the smuggler- 
 yacht would unquestionably come in under cover of the dark- 
 ness, and then would approach as near the shore as possible. 
 When we were once on board, it would be time to think 
 about the rest. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 151 
 
 We next took another point into consideration. That 
 our scheme was not to be accomplished without force, both 
 Hans and I were thoroughly aware. Nothing could be done 
 with guns in the darkness, nor would cutlasses or hunting- 
 knives be sufficient against Pinnow and his men, who ail 
 carried knives. We must trust to pistols. 
 
 Hans had a pair ; but one pair was not sufficient. I re- 
 membered that there was another pair hanging in Herr von 
 Zehren's chamber, and these we must get. I thought little 
 of Constance's prohibition from entering the house before 
 her father's return ; here were heavier interests at stake ; 
 this was a matter of life and death. Indeed it was a ques- 
 tion if it would not be judicious to give Fraulein von Zehren 
 a hint at least of the state of affairs ; but we concluded not 
 to do so, as she could not possibly help us, and would only 
 be alarmed to no purpose. But we thought it prudent to 
 I take into our counsel old Christian, who could be relied upon 
 
 ' ■ in any case. We could arrange a pre-concerted signal with 
 
 him, a light in on§ of the gable windows, or something of 
 that sort, by which he could let us know at a distance, in 
 case we got back unmolested to Zehrendorf, whether the 
 coast was clear about the castle. 
 
 By the time we had got so far with our deliberations, it 
 I was two o'clock, and we had until dusk at least three hours, 
 
 I which were to be got through with with as much patience as 
 
 we could muster — a hard task for me, who was in a burning 
 fever of impatience. Hans showed himself the most amiable 
 of hosts. He brought out his best cigars and his best wine ; 
 he was more talkative than I had ever known him ; the pros- 
 pect of an adventure of so serious a character as that which 
 we had in view, seemed to have had the good effect of arous- 
 ing him out of his usual apathy. He recounted the simple 
 story of his life : how he had early lost his parents, how he 
 had been sent to a boarding-school at the provincial capital, 
 where he was prepared for the gymnasium, in which he re- 
 mained until his seventeenth year and rose to the fourth 
 class. Then he became a farmer ; took his estate in hand 
 as soon as he was of age, and had been living upon it six 
 years — he was now in his thirtieth — quietly and placidly, 
 using his weapons only against the creatures of the forest 
 and the field, raising his wheat, shearing his sheep, smoking 
 
152 Hammer and Anvil. ' 
 
 his cigars, drinking his wine, and playing his cards. There 
 was but one romantic feature in all his prosaic life, and that 
 was his love for Constance. It was in the year that he came 
 to live up>on his estate, that she came back to her father ; 
 and to see Constance, to love her, and to love her still more 
 devotedly long after he had been convinced of the hopeless- 
 ness of his passion, to drown this hopeless passion in wine, 
 so far as was in his power — this was the poor fellow's fate. 
 He accepted it with perfect resignation, convinced that he 
 was not the man to make his own fortune, any more than he 
 had been able, when at school, to do his own exercises. 
 Why and for whom should he plague himself with work "i 
 He had all that he wanted in the present, and there was no 
 future for him to look forward to. He was the last of his 
 race, and had not even a kinsman in the world. When he 
 died, his estate, as a lapsed fief, reverted to the crown. The 
 crown then might see what was to be done with the ruined 
 barns and stables and with the dilapidated house. He let 
 decay and weather work their will. He only needed a room, 
 and in this room we were now sitting, while Hans went on 
 with his recital in his monotonous way, and the rain beating 
 against the low windows kept up a melancholy accompani- 
 ment. I 
 A conversation in which there was a continual reference 
 to Constance, even if her name was not actually mentioned, 
 had a strangely painful charm for me. Although Hans did 
 not breathe a syllable of complaint against the fair girl, it 
 was plain from his story that she had at first encouraged his 
 bashful attentions, and only altered her behavior to him 
 after her meeting with Prince Prora at the watering-place 
 two years before. And Hans was evidently not the only 
 one who had received encouragement. Karl von Sylow, 
 Fritz von Zarrentin — in a word, almost every one of the 
 young noblemen who formed Herr von Zehren's circle of 
 acquaintance, had earlier or later, with greater or less right, 
 held himself to be the favored one. Even Granow, although 
 from the first he was made the butt of his companions, might 
 boast that he was favorably looked upon by the young lady 
 during the earlier months of his residence ; indeed Hans 
 still considered Granow's chance by no means desperate, for 
 the little man was very rich, and she would only marry a 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 153 
 
 rich man, he added, with a deep sigh, as he filled his glass 
 once more. 
 
 At Hans's last words I sprang from the table and threw 
 open the window. I felt as if I must suffocate, or as if the 
 low ceiling with its bent beams would fall in upon me, 
 
 " Is it still raining ? " Hans asked. 
 
 " Not at this moment," I said. But one of those thick 
 fogs of which several had passed over in the course of the 
 day, was drifting in from the sea. 
 
 " Real smugglers' weather," said Hans. " The old man 
 ought to be ashamed of himself to drag his friends out on 
 such a day. But that cannot he helped. Shall we not 
 drink another bottle ? It will be cursedly cold to-night" 
 
 I said I thought we had already drunk more than enough, 
 and that it was high time to start. 
 
 "Then I will get ready," said Hans, and went into his 
 chamber, where I for a long time heard him rummaging 
 among his water-boots. 
 
 I had always considered myself pretty cool in moments of 
 I danger ; but in Hans I had met my master. While he was 
 
 \ overhauling the things in his room, I heard him through 
 
 i the half-open door whistling to himself as cheerily as if we 
 
 were going out to shoot hares, instead of an adventure of 
 life and death. To be sure, I said to myself, his is a case 
 of hopeless love, and Herr von Zehren is merely a friend, 
 neighbor, and equal, whom he feels it his duty to assist 
 against the hated police. That Hans, in combating for a 
 cause that did not really concern him, was doing much more, 
 or at least acting far more disinterestedly than I, did not 
 occur to me. 
 
 And now he came out of his room, if not the wildest of 
 all wild warriors, yet in appearance one who would be very 
 appropriately selected for an adventure that demanded a 
 strong and bold man. His long legs were incased in im- 
 mense boots ; over a close-fitting jacket of silk he had put 
 on a loose woollen overcoat, which he probably wore when 
 hunting in winter, and which could be drawn close with a 
 belt or allowed to hang loose, as at present, he having 
 buckled the belt under it around the jacket, and thrust his 
 pistols into the belt. With a jolly laugh he displayed his 
 equipment and asked me if I would not have an over- 
 
 , 
 
154 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 coat also, as he had another ; an offer which I gladly 
 accepted. 
 
 " We look like two brothers," said Hans ; and in fact we 
 might easily have been mistaken for brothers, as we both 
 had the same stature and breadth of shoulders, and were 
 dressed almost precisely alike. 
 
 " If there are not too many of them," said Hans, " we 
 can easily manage them." 
 
 " A half-dozen to each of us, or so," I said, and laughed ; 
 but I was very far from a mirthful feeling as we closed the 
 door after us, and Caro, whom we had left behind, broke out 
 into a dismal howling and whining. Poor Caro, he was in 
 the right that morning when he reminded me with his woe- 
 begone looks that we should never praise the day until the 
 evening. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 IT was four o'clock when we set out, and already it was 
 growing dusk as we took the foot-path through the 
 stubble-field to 2^hrendorf No clear judgment of the 
 weather was to be drawn from the appearance of the sky and 
 clouds, as the whole atmosphere was filled with watery mist, 
 through which every object took a singularly strange and 
 unnatural appearance. We pushed on rapidly, sometimes 
 side by side and sometimes in single file, for the path was 
 narrow and very slippery from the incessant rains. We 
 were just deliberating what we should say to Constance, in case 
 we should unfortunately meet her, when we saw upon the 
 road bordered with willows, which was but a few hundred 
 paces distant from the foot-path, a carriage drawn by two 
 horses coming from the castle in such haste that in less than 
 half a minute it had vanished in the mist, and we could only 
 hear the trampling of the galloping horses and the rattling 
 of the carriage over the broken causeway. Hans and I looked 
 at each other in astonishment. 
 
 "Who can that be? " he asked.- I 
 
 " It is the stcuerrath," I answered. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 155 
 
 " What can bring him here ? " he asked again. 
 
 I did not answer. I could not tell Hans of the letter that 
 proved the direct or indirect complicity of the steuerrath, nor 
 explain how likely it was that he would attempt to warn his 
 brother that the affair had taken a wrong turn. What infor- 
 mation could he have brought ? Might it still be of service 
 to the unfortunate man whose movements were dogged by 
 treachery 1 
 
 " Let us hasten all we can," I cried, pressing on without 
 waiting for Hans's answer, and Hans, who was a capital 
 runner, followed closely upon my heels. 
 
 In a few minutes we had reached the gate which opened 
 on this side into the court. At the gate was a stone-bench 
 for the accommodation of persons waiting until the gate was 
 opened, and upon this bench sat or rather lay old Christian, 
 with blood trickling down his wrinkled face from a fresh 
 wound in the forehead. As we came up he seemed to be 
 recovering from a partial swoon, and stared at us with a 
 confused look. We raised him up, and Hans caught some 
 water in his hollow hand from a neighboring rain-spout and 
 sprinkled it in his face. The wound was not deep, and 
 seemed to have been inflicted with some blunt instrument. 
 
 " What has happened. Christian t " I had already asked 
 half-a-dozen times, before the old man had recovered his 
 senses sufficiently to answer feebly : 
 
 " What has happened ? She is off; and he struck me over 
 the head with the butt of his whip as I was trying to shut 
 the gate." 
 
 I had heard enough. Like some furious animal I rushed 
 to the house. The doors were all standing open : the front 
 door, that of the dining-room, and that of Herr von Zehren's 
 chamber. I ran in, as I heard hammering and rattling in- 
 side. Old Pahlen was kneeling before Herr von Zehren's 
 escritoire, scolding furiously to herself while trying her best, 
 with a hatchet and crowbar, to force the lock. She had not 
 heard me enter. With one jerk I dragged her to her feet ; 
 and she started back and glared at me with looks flaming 
 with impotent rage. Her gray hair hung in elf-locks from 
 under her dirty cap, and in her right hand she still clutched 
 the hatchet. The horrible old woman, whose vile nature 
 was now openly shown, was a hideous object to behold ; but 
 
156 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 I was not in a frame of mind to be checked by any sight, 
 however repulsive. 
 
 " Where has she gone ? " I thundered at her. " You 
 must know, for you helped her off." 
 
 " Ay, that I did," screamed the old hag, " that I did ; 
 and may Satan fetch my soul for doing it ! The thankless, 
 worthless creature promised to take me with her, and now 
 leaves me here with shame and abuse in this robber's den ; 
 but she'll live yet to come to it herself when he flings her out 
 into the street, the " 
 
 " Another word, woman, and I strike you to the floor," I 
 cried, raising my fist threateningly. 
 
 The old woman burst into a screech of laughter. " Now 
 he begins ! " she cried. " And didn't they make a fine fool 
 of him, the stupid blockhead ! Thought he was the man, 
 to be sure, while the other one was with her every night. 
 Lets himself be sent out of the way, for the other to come in 
 his coach and carry off the pretty lady." And the old wretch 
 burst again into a sqreech of horrible laughter. 
 
 " Be that as it may," I said, struggling to keep down the 
 rage and anguish that were tearing my heart, "you have 
 been rightly served, at all events ; and if you do not want 
 me to have you hounded off the place for a thief, as you are, 
 you had better take yourself off at once." 
 
 " Oh, indeed ! " screamed the hag, planting her arms 
 a-kimbo, " he carries matters here with a high hand, to be 
 sure ! I a thief, indeed ! I only want my money. I have 
 had for this half-year no wages from the whole beggarly lot, 
 the smuggling gang ! " 
 
 She had received from me, during the two months of my 
 stay at Zehrendorf, more than her whole year's service could 
 amount to ; and I had myself seen Herr von Zehren pay her 
 wages but a few days before, and add a handsome present 
 besides. 1 
 
 " Begone ! " I said. " Leave the place this instant ! " 
 
 The old woman caught up the hatchet, but she well knew 
 that she could not intimidate me. So she retreated before 
 me out of the room, and out of the house, screaming out all 
 the time the vilest abuse and the most furious threats 
 against Herr von Zehren, Constance, and myself I closed 
 the great gate after her with my own hands, and then looked 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 157 
 
 for Hans, who was just coming out of the lodge, into which 
 he had been taking old Christian. 
 
 Hans was deathly pale, and did not look at me as he came 
 to my side. He had heard enough from old Christian to 
 make it unnecessary for him to seek from me any further 
 particulars of Constance's abduction; and he probably did 
 not care to let me see how hard the blow had struck him, 
 which hurled into the mire the image of his idolatry, and so 
 cruelly destroyed his solitary illusion, the last glimmer of 
 poetry in his cheerless life. I seized his hand and wrung it 
 hard. 
 
 "What now?" I asked. 
 
 " Suppose I ride after him and knock out his brains," said 
 Hans. 
 
 " Excellent ! " I replied, with a forced laugh ; " if he had 
 carried her off by force ; but as it seems she went with him 
 quite willingly — come on ; the thing is not worth thinking 
 over a moment longer." 
 
 " You have not loved her for six years," said poor Hans. 
 
 " Then saddle Herr von Zehren's bay and ride after him," 
 I said ; " but we must come to a decision at once." 
 
 Hans stood irresolute. "By heavens, I should like to 
 help you," he said. 
 
 " Ride after the rascal and punish him, if you want to," 
 I cried, " I am perfectly satisfied. But whatever is to be 
 done must be done at once." 
 
 " Then I will ! " said Hans, and went with long strides to 
 the stable, where he knew Herr von Zehren's horse stood, a 
 powerful hunter, but now past his prime, and much n^Iected 
 of late since Herr von Zehren had given up riding. 
 
 There was on the place a half-grown youth who did odd 
 jobs, and was much cuffed about by the others. He came 
 up now and said that Jock had been there an hour before 
 and taken with him Karl, who was cutting straw in the barn- 
 loft, and Hanne, who was sitting in the lodge, and so he was 
 left to do Karl's work. Of what else befell, he in his dark 
 loft had seen and heard nothing. 
 
 To entrust to this simple, scarcely more than half-witted 
 youth the part which Christian should have taken in our 
 plan would have been folly ; but as he was an honest fellow, 
 we could trust him to take care of the old man and keep 
 
158 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 guard over the house. I ordered him to go the rounds from 
 time to time with the dog, whom I unchained, and under no 
 pretext whatever to Jet in the old hag whom I had driven off 
 the place, and from whom I expected mischief. Fritz prom- 
 ised to observe my orders faithfully. Then I hastily caught 
 down Herr von Zehren's pistols, which were hanging, loaded, 
 against the wall. 
 
 When I came out into the court again, I saw Hans just 
 galloping out of the gate. A wild jealousy seized me. 
 Why could I not be at his side ? The composure, the indif- 
 ference, which I had just exhibited — all was mere sham ; I 
 had but a single desire, to revenge myself on him and on 
 her ; but I must leave it to Hans ; he had loved her for six 
 years ! 
 
 Thus I raged in spirit as I hastened at a rapid rate 
 through the fields and meadows, and finally across the 
 heath to Zanowitz. Strive as I might to fix my thoughts 
 upon the immediate exigency, they perpetually reverted to 
 what had just taken place. A weight as of a mountain lay 
 upon my heart. I remember more than once I stood still 
 and shrieked aloud to the gray, cloudy sky. When I reached 
 the dunes, however, the necessity of devising some definite 
 plan of operations brought me back to my senses. 
 
 The weather had somewhat cleared up in the meantime, 
 and the wind had hauled ; the rain had ceased, and the fog 
 had lifted ; there was more light than an hour before, although 
 the sun had set by this time. Looking down from the height 
 of the dunes upon Zanowitz I saw the dark sea, where the 
 waves were still tumbling, though not so heavily as in the 
 morning, cutting with a sharp horizontal line against the 
 bright sky. I could still distinguish, though with difficulty, 
 the larger vessel in the roadstead, but could clearly make 
 out the row of boats drawn up to the beach, as well as a 
 little yawl that came rowing towards a group of men assem- 
 bled on the strand. If these were the last of Pinnow's party 
 I had not a minute to spare. 
 
 It was also possible that this group of dark figures might 
 be functionaries of the custom-house; but I was satisfied 
 that the probability of this being the case, was but small. 
 Zanowitz was crowded with smugglers, and Pinnow could 
 hardly venture upon open treachery. Not that any attempt 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 159 
 
 would have been made to resist by violence an expedition 
 of the officials conducted by him ; but from the moment in 
 which he appeared in that capacity, he would be marked out 
 for vengeance, and his life would not be worth an hour's 
 purchase. However the treachery might have been con- 
 cocted, the traitors had assuredly taken care to conceal their 
 own share in it from all other eyes. 
 
 But I had no time for much consideration on these points ; 
 and indeed did not pause to reflect, but ran down the dunes. 
 As I neared the group a man came out from it and advanced 
 to meet me. He had turned up the wide collar of his pea- 
 jacket, and pulled the brim of his sou'-wester as far as possi- 
 ble over his face, but I recognized him at once. 
 
 " Good evening, Pinnow," I said. 
 
 He made no reply. 
 
 " I am glad to have met you," I went on ; " I heard this 
 morning that it was possible you might sail for Uselin this 
 evening, and I wanted to ask you to take me along with you." 
 
 He still gave no answer. 
 
 " You will have to take me, whether you like it or not," I 
 proceeded. " I have made every preparation for the trip. 
 Look here," and I threw back my overcoat and drew one of 
 my pistols half out of my belt, " they are both loaded." 
 
 He still kept silent. 
 
 " Shall I try them on you to see if they are loaded or 
 not ? " I asked, drawing one from my belt and cocking it. 
 
 " Come on," said Pinnow. 
 
 I lowered the hammer of the pistol, replaced it in my belt, 
 and then walked on Pinnow's right, keeping a little behind 
 him. Presently I said : 
 
 " Do not expect to find any protection among the men 
 down there. I will keep close to your side, and upon the 
 first word you let fall, tending to raise them against me, you 
 are a dead man. How many have you already on board ? " 
 
 " Ten men," muttered Pinnow. " But I do not know what 
 you want with me ; go with us or stay behind as you please ; 
 what the devil do you suppose I care ? "' 
 
 " We shall see," I answered, drily. 
 
 We now joined the group, which consisted of my long 
 friend Jock, the men Karl and Hanne, and the deaf and 
 dumb Jacob who had rowed the yawl over. 
 
i6o 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 " He is going with us," said Pinnow, laconically, to his 
 men, as he lent a hand himself to push off the yawl. 
 
 I thought that I perceived a look of alarmed surprise pass 
 over the brutal features of Jock at seeing us. He looked at 
 his accomplice for an explanation of the mystery, but Pin- 
 now was busy with the yawl. The two others were stand- 
 ing apart ; they evidently did not know what to make of it 
 all. 
 
 " There are only four wanted," said Pinnow. 
 " Very good," I said. " You, Karl and Hanne, go home 
 and keep perfectly quiet, do you hear ?" 
 " I can go home too," said Jock, surlily. 
 " One step from the spot," I cried, levelling the pistol at 
 his head, " and you have stood on your long legs for the last 
 time. Get on board !" 
 Jock Swart obeyed. 
 "You next, Pinnow!" 
 Pinnow obeyed. I followed. 
 
 We had about twenty minutes rowing before we reached 
 the cutter, for the surf was heavy, and the cutter was an- 
 chored pretty far out on account of her deep draught. This 
 frustrated a plan which occurred to me at the last moment, 
 namely, to put the whole party on shore, and go out to the 
 yacht with Pinnow and Jock alone. But I saw that in the 
 rowing back and forwards that would be necessary, at least 
 an hour would be lost, and it was all-important to have 
 speech of Herr von Zehren as speedily as possible. What 
 might not happen in an hour ? 
 
 We reached the cutter that was dancing at her anchor 
 upon the waves, like an impatient horse tugging at his halter. 
 We pulled alongside, and I sprang on board among the 
 dark figures. 
 
 " Good evening, men," I said. " I am going along with 
 you. Some of you know me, and know that I am a good 
 friend of Herr von Zehren ; and besides, Pinnow and Jock 
 Swart will answer for me." 
 
 The two that I named accepted the sponsorship by their 
 silence ; but I believe that it was unnecessary. I had often 
 been with Herr von Zehren in Zanowitz — indeed we had 
 been there but the day before — and had probably occasion- 
 ally spoken with every one of the men. They all knew my 
 
Hammer and Anvil. i6i 
 
 intimate association* with him, and could see nothing re- 
 markable that I should take part in an expedition made for 
 the account of one who was to a certain extent my patron as 
 he was theirs. No one answered me — these people were 
 not in the habit of wasting speech — ^but they willingly received 
 me among them. My impression that Pinnow and Jock 
 Swart were the only traitors, was confirmed. So in every 
 sense he was now in my power. If I told the men what I 
 knew, the two accomplices would probably have flown over- 
 board ; for the Zanowitz men were not to be trifled with in 
 these matters. 
 
 I said as much to Pinnow as I took my place beside him 
 at the helm. 
 
 " Do what you please," he muttered, putting a quid of 
 tobacco into his wide mouth. 
 
 Although Christel's information was so positive, a doubt 
 came over me as I marked the imperturbable calmness of the 
 man who knew that his life was every moment at risk. Had 
 Christel's hearing deceived her in her excitement ? Had the 
 good Hans and I unnecessarily mixed ourselves up with this 
 lawless crew, who were plying, in darkness and mist, their 
 perilous trade "i 
 
 By this time the cutter, a capital sailer, was flying through 
 the waves. The sky had grown much clearer; there was 
 still light enough to see pretty plainly at two or three hun- 
 dred yards distance. But it was bitter cold, and the surf 
 that dashed, often in heavy masses, over the deck, by no 
 means added to the comfort of the situation. The small 
 craft was crowded with the fourteen men that were on board. 
 Wherever one looked, there lay or crouched a dark figure. 
 Pinnow sat at the helm. As I kept my post at his side, and 
 had thus an opportunity to watch him closely, I grew more 
 dubious with every minute whether there was not some mis- 
 take in the whole affair. There sat tke broad-shouldered 
 man, moving not a muscle of his face, except when from 
 time to time he slowly turned his quid from one cheek into 
 the other, or fixed his sharp eyes upon the sails, or turned 
 them out to sea. When we tacked, a manoeuvre which was 
 performed almost every minute, and he called "Luff!" for us 
 to stoop and let the boom pass over our heads, his voice 
 rang always firm and clear. Was it possible. that a traitor 
 
1 62 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 could have so sure a hand, so sharp an eye, and could chew 
 his tobacco with such equanimity ? 
 
 " How far do you think we shall have to go before we 
 find the yacht ? " I asked. 
 
 " We may come up with her at any moment," Pinnow 
 growled ; " and very likely we may see nothing at all of 
 her." I 
 
 " How so ? " 
 
 " If they should have caught sight of one of the coast- 
 guard boats, they would stand out to sea again." j 
 
 " How long will you look for her ? " 
 
 " One hour ; so it was arranged." 
 
 " Between you and Herr von Zehren, or between you and 
 Inspector Blanck ? " 
 
 Pinnow squirted his tobacco-juice overboard and growled : 
 
 " For the last time I tell you that I do not know what you 
 want. The foolish wench Christel, I suppose, has made you 
 believe that I am playing false ; but she is more likely to 
 have done it herself I should be sorry if she gave up her 
 old foster-father in order to get rid of him ; but what will 
 such a wench not do ? " 
 
 These words, that the smith grumbled out in his surly 
 way, made a strong impression upon me. Had I not but an 
 hour before had proof what a girl would do to carry out her 
 will ? And Pinnow was only her foster-father. Could she 
 have invented a plausible tale to set Herr von Zehren and 
 myself against the old man ? Could she have herself perpe- 
 trated the treachery that she ascribed to him, and have given 
 the information to the officers, in order in this way to be rid 
 of one whom she had good reason for wishing out of the 
 way ? And had her conscience smitten her at the last mo- 
 ment, when she reflected that his ruin would involve that of 
 Herr von Zehren, to whom she owed a debt of gratitude ? 
 Was her story to me but an attempt to save him through my 
 means ? 
 
 I admit that a minute's calm reflection would have suf- 
 ficed to convince me of the extreme improbability of this 
 idea ; but how could I calmly reflect in the situation and in 
 the frame of mind in which I then was } 
 
 A wild merriment seized me, and I laughed aloud. Was 
 it not a thing to laugh at, that of us two conspirators, Hans 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 163 
 
 was galloping after the pretty pair over the wretched road 
 through mist and drizzle, without the shadow of a reasona- 
 ble ground for such a race ; and was it not just as ridiculous, 
 that I, who with such extravagant zeal and blindness, had 
 been running from the morning until now, through storm and 
 rain, tortured by countless anxieties, was a mere puppet, 
 moved by a string whose end was held by two girls' hands, 
 the one of which I, in my gratitude, had passionately kissed, 
 and the other at least pressed cordially. Truly it would 
 have been better if we had both stayed by our bottle in the 
 warm room. 
 
 " Look there ! " said Pinnow, touching my shoulder, while 
 at the same moment he gave the word, " Luff ! " in a pecul- 
 iar, long-drawn, suppressed tone. 
 
 I perceived at but a few hundred yards distance a trimly- 
 rigged schooner of moderate size, and I recognized at a 
 glance one of the vessels of the coast-guard, named the 
 Lightning. I had too often been on board her, and had 
 sketched her too often under every possible arrangement of 
 sails, to be deceived in her. 
 
 " That is the Lightning,''^ I exclaimed. 
 
 At the same moment that the cutter went about, the Light- 
 ning also altered her course and bore down on us. 
 
 " Boat ahoy ! " came through a speaking trumpet over the 
 dash of the waves. 
 
 My heart seemed to stop beating ; my hand lay on the 
 butt of my pistol. If Pinnow laid the cutter to, his treachery 
 was proven. 
 
 " Boat ahoy ! " came over the water again. 
 
 " Haul aft the foresail ! " ordered Pinnow. 
 
 I breathed again. Pinnow's order was equivalent to sauve 
 quipeut. 
 
 " Boat ahoy ! " came their hail for the third time, and al- 
 most in the same moment there was a flash on board the 
 Lightning, and the report of a musket, deadened by the dis- 
 tance and the plashing of the waves, reached my ear. 
 
 " Shake out that reef in the jib ! " ordered Pinnow. 
 
 I took my hand from the pistol. There was now no doubt 
 that Pinnow was doing his utmost to escape the pursuing 
 vessel. My heart leaped with joy ; the man at my side, of 
 whom I had once been so fond, though he had never de- 
 
164 Hammer and Anvil. ' 
 
 served my affection, was at all events no traitor. What 
 would I have done if I had known that this was all a care- 
 fully arranged plan, in carrying out which the cold-blooded 
 old villain was not in the least disturbed by my clumsy in- 
 terference ; that this meeting with the schooner was precon- 
 certed in order to lead the latter upon the right track ? That 
 the flight and pursuit were merely feigned, to conceal the 
 treachery from the other smugglers, and that the three or 
 four blank cartridges that were fired from the schooner had 
 the same object ? What would I have done if I had known 
 all this ? Well for me that I did not know it ; at least no 
 blood of a fellow-creature cleaves to my hand. 
 
 -o- 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE cutter now flew gallantly along under a press of 
 canvass that laid her lee-bulwarks nearly under water, 
 while the Lightning fell astern, and in brief time was 
 lost to our sight. 
 
 A sort of life had come into the silent and almost motion- 
 less crew of the cutter. They raised their heads and ex- 
 changed remarks upon the incident, which to them was noth- 
 ing so unusual. Every one of these men had at some time 
 or other been brought into dangerous contact with the reve- 
 nue service. The liberty, and possibly the life of every man 
 there had at some time or other hung by a single thread. 
 So no one exhibited any special excitement, but Smith Pin- 
 now least of all. He sat at the helm just as before, casting 
 keen glances at the sails and into the dusk, chewing his to- 
 bacco, and otherwise not moving a muscle. He did not say 
 a word to me, as if it was not worth the while of an old sea 
 dog to speak to so young a fellow about things which he did 
 not understand. I felt a dryness in my throat that com- 
 pelled me to cough once or twice, and I buttoned my over- 
 coat closer over my pistols. 
 
 And now another vessel loomed through the dusk, and 
 this time it was the long-looked-for yacht, a tolerably large 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 165 
 
 craft, with but a single sail, but a full deck. In a few min- 
 utes we were alongside of her, and immediately the bales of 
 goods, which were all in readiness, were lowered from the 
 deck of the yacht, and taken on board by the crew of the 
 cutter, who were now alert enough in their movements. 
 The whole went on with extraordinary silence ; hardly now 
 and then could be heard a suppressed exclamation, or an 
 order uttered half aloud in the gruff voice of the captain of 
 the yacht. 
 
 I was one of the first to board the yacht, but I looked 
 around in vain for Herr von Zehren. I was already congrat- 
 ulating myself that he was not on board, when he suddenly 
 emerged from the hatchway that led to the cabin. His first 
 glance fell upon me, and he came towards me with an un- 
 steady gait, caused, as I supposed, by the motion of the 
 vessel. 
 
 " And what in the devil's name has brought you here ? " 
 he cried with a hoarse voice ; but I had no time to give him 
 any explanation. The cutter had now ail her lading on 
 board, and the captain of the yacht coming up, said, " Now, be 
 off with you ! " He had just learned that a revenue schooner 
 was about, and had no desire to risk his vessel and the rest 
 of his cargo. " Be off ! " he repeated, in a rough tone. 
 
 " To-morrow evening, then, at the same time," said Herr 
 von Zehren. 
 
 " We'll see about it," said the captain, and sprang to the 
 helm, for the yacht, which had already weighed her anchor, 
 and whose mainsail was now half-mast high, began to come 
 round to the wind. 
 
 A scene of confusion followed. The yacht's manoeuvre 
 had been performed without any consideration for the cutter 
 alongside, and came very near sinking our little craft. There 
 was a burst of oaths on both sides, a tremendous grinding 
 and cracking, a perilous leap from the deck of the yacht to 
 that of the cutter, and we pushed off, while the yacht, which 
 had already caught the wind, went on her course with full sails. 
 
 All this had taken place so rapidly, and, besides, the bustle 
 and confusion of such a number of men on so small a 
 craft, as they set the sails and stowed the cargo in the fore- 
 hold, were so great, that some time passed ere I could get to 
 Herr von Zehren's side. 
 
1 66 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 He was still swearing at the villain of a captain, the cow- 
 ard who was running from a miserable revenue-schooner 
 that he could run down and sink in five minutes. Catching 
 sight of me he asked again, " What has brought you here ? " 
 
 I was somewhat embarrassed how to answer this question. 
 My suspicion of Pinnow had entirely vanished, and Pinnow 
 sat close beside us at the helm and heard the question put 
 in a loud tone. I contented myself with saying : 
 
 " I was afraid some misfortune might happen to you, and 
 wanted to be with you ! " 
 
 " Misfortune ! " he cried. " Stupidity, cowardice, that is 
 the only misfortune ! The devil take the stupid poltroons ! " 
 
 He sat down by Pinnow and talked with him in an under- 
 tone. Then turning to me, he said : 
 
 " You sent two of the men home ; you should not have 
 interfered with them. I need their services ; every back is 
 now worth a thousand thalers to me. Or did you propose 
 to carry a pack yourself ? " 
 
 He said this in an irritated tone that roused my indigna- 
 tion. If I had acted injudiciously, I had done all for the 
 best ; and to be rebuked for my faithful service ixv the pres- 
 ence of Pinnow, it was too much. I had a sharp answer at 
 my tongue's end, but I gulped down my anger and went 
 forward. 
 
 He did not call me back ; he did not come after me to 
 say a friendly word as he had always before done, whenever 
 in his hastiness he had wounded my feelings. Presently I 
 heard him rating two of the men in a shrill voice, for what, 
 I could not understand ; but this shrill tone which I had 
 never before heard from him, told me at once that what I 
 had feared was the truth ; he was intoxicated. 
 
 A horrible feeling of disgust and wretchedness came over 
 me. For the sake of this man, who was gesticulating there 
 like a maniac, I had done what I had ; for his sake I was 
 here among this abandoned crew as accomplice of a crime 
 which from boyhood had always seemed to me one of the 
 most detestable ; for his sake I had well-nigh become a 
 murderer. And even now I had in my pocket my father's 
 letter, in which the old man had given me such a solemn 
 warning, and commanded me, if I had any regard for his 
 peace, to return to him immediately. 
 
 -:^ 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 167 
 
 I felt for the letter, and my hand came in contact with the 
 pistols in my belt. I felt a strange impulse, here upon the 
 spot, in the midst of the smuggler-gang, and before the eyes 
 of their drunken leader, to blow out my brains. At this mo- 
 ment I thought of the good Hans who was risking himself 
 for a cause that was not a whit better. And yet he may 
 thank heaven, I said to myself, that he is not on this expe- 
 dition. 
 
 " Boat ahoy ! " suddenly rang over the water as before, 
 and the Lightning again loomed out of the dusk, and a 
 couple of shots were fired. 
 
 This was the signal for a chase which lasted probably an 
 hour, during which the cutter, while seeming to make every 
 effort, by countless dexterous and daring evolutions, to 
 escape her pursuer, drew ever nearer and nearer to that part 
 of the coast which had been agreed upon between Pinnow 
 and the officers, about half a mile above Zanowitz, where 
 the depth of the water would allow her to run almost imme- 
 diately upon the beach. From here one could proceed to 
 Zehrendorf by a wagon-road which ran along the strand to 
 Zanowitz, and from there over the heath ; or one could go 
 directly across the heath ; but in the latter case there was a 
 large and very dangerous morass to be crossed, which could 
 only be done by secret paths known to the smugglers alone. 
 It was ten to one that Herr von Zehren would choose the 
 way over the moor instead of that along the coast, from the 
 spot to which the cutter had apparently beeit driven. 
 
 While the chase lasted, I did not move from the spot in 
 which I was, fully determined to take no active part in the 
 affair, happen what might. Herr von Zehren made my pas- 
 sive part an easy one ; often as he came near me, he never 
 once took any notice of me. During this hour of excite- 
 ment his intoxication seemed to have increased ; his behav- 
 ior was that of a raging madman. He shrieked to Pinnow 
 to run the schooner down ; he returned the fire of the offi- 
 cers with one of Pinnow's old guns, which he had found in 
 the cabin, although the Lightning prudently kept at a dis- 
 tance which would have been too great for even a rifle of 
 long range ; and as the cutter, after a long tack out to sea, 
 on which she distanced the schooner, stood in again and 
 reached the shore unmolested, he leaped out into the shallow 
 
1 68 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 water, and his men had all to follow him, after each had 
 been loaded with one of the heavy packs which were made 
 up for this purpose. There were eleven carriers in all, as 
 Pinnow oifered the services of the boatmen he had brought 
 from Zanowitz, saying that he could get along with the deaf 
 and dumb Jacob alone ; and thus the place of one of the 
 two men whom I had sent home was filled. But there still 
 remained a twelfth pack, which lay upon the deck, and would 
 have been left, as there was no one to carry it, had I not 
 managed to get it on my shoulders by laying it on the gun- 
 wale of the boat, and then springing into the surf, which 
 reached to my knees. I was resolved that if I parted from 
 Herr von Zehren that night, he should not be able to say 
 that I had caused him the loss of a twelfth part of his prop- 
 erty, won with so much toil and care, with the risk of the 
 liberty, and lives of so many men, and at the price of his 
 own honor. 
 
 A boisterous laugh resounded behind me as I left the cut- 
 ter. It came from Pinnow ; he knew what he was laughing 
 about. The cutter, lightened of her lading, was now afloat, 
 and as I gained the beach and turned, she was slowly stand- 
 ing out to sea. He had done his shameful work. 
 
 At this moment it flashed upon me, " He is a traitor, after 
 all ! " I do not know whether it was his laugh of malicious 
 triumph that again aroused my suspicion, or what suggested 
 the thought, but I said to myself, as I closed the file which 
 was headed by "Herr von Zehren and Jock Swart, "Now it 
 will soon be decided." 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 WE had passed the dunes, and were marching in single 
 file across the sandy waste land on the other side. 
 No word was spoken ; each man had enough to do in 
 carrying his heavy pack ; I perhaps the most of all, although 
 none of the men, unless it might be Jock Swart, equalled me 
 in strength ; but in such things practice is everything. And 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 169 
 
 then in addition to my pack, which probably weighed a hun- 
 dred-weight, I bore another burden from which the others were 
 free, and which pressed me far more heavily — the burden of 
 shame that my father's son was bending under this bale of silk, 
 of which the revenue was defrauded, because I would not cause 
 a loss of property to the man whose bread I had been eating 
 for two months. And then I thought with what happiness my 
 heart beat high when I left Zehrendorf in the morning, and 
 that I was now returning deceived by the daughter, insulted 
 by the father, contaminated by the defilement of the base 
 traffic to which I had lent myself, and that this was the end 
 of my visionary splendors, of my adored liberty ! But the 
 end had not yet come. 
 
 Without a moment's rest we kept on, the wet sand crunch- 
 ing under our feet, when of a sudden a word was given at 
 the head of the file and passed on in an under-tone from 
 man to man until it came to me, who being the last could 
 pass it no further — " Halt ! " 
 
 We had reached the edge of the moor. It could be en- 
 tered on this side only by a narrow strip which was passable ; 
 then came a stretch of dry land, a sort of island, surrounded 
 by the morass on every side, which closed in again at its op- 
 posite extremity, perhaps two thousand paces distant, and 
 there was again only a narrow path which a heavily laden 
 man could pass without sinking into the morass. After this 
 came the heath, which extended from the lands of Tranto- 
 witz and Zehrendorf on one side to the dunes of Zanowitz 
 on the other, and which I had already crossed three times 
 to-day. 
 
 The place where we halted was the same where I had 
 stood with Granow three evenings before. I recognized it 
 by two willows which grew on the edge of the hollow from 
 which I had first seen the band of night-prowlers emerge. 
 This hollow lay now a little to our left, at perhaps fifty paces 
 distance ; and I could not have distinguished the willows in 
 the increased darkness, but for the extraordinary keenness 
 of my sight. On account of this darkness the men had to 
 close up in order not to deviate from the narrow path, and 
 this was the reason that a momentary halt had been ordered. 
 
 But it was only for a moment, and again we struck into 
 the moor upon the narrow causeway : to the right and left 
 8 
 
170 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 among the rushes gleamed a pale phosphorescent light from 
 the stagnant water which lay around in great pools, and the 
 ground on which we were treading oscillated in a singular 
 manner, as we crossed it in a sort of trot. 
 
 The path had been safely passed, and the men were march- 
 ing more slowly, when my ear caught a clicking sound like 
 the cocking of a gun. The sound was behind me ; that I 
 had plainly heard; and I knew besides that none of our 
 party was armed. I stopped to listen, and again I heard the 
 same sound ; and presently I distinguished upon the spot 
 where we had just passed, a figure emerge between the tall 
 rushes, followed immediately by a second and a third. 
 Without thinking to throw the heavy pack from my shoulders, 
 and indeed without being conscious of it, I ran to the head 
 of the file and touched Herr von Zehren, who with Jock 
 Swart was leading the march, upon the shoulder. 
 
 " We are pursued ! " 
 
 "Nonsense ! " said Herr von Zehren. 
 
 " Halt ! " cried a powerful voice behind us. 
 
 " Forward ! " commanded our leader. 
 
 " Halt ! halt ! " it was repeated, and half-a-dozen shots 
 were fired in quick succession, the bullets whistling over our 
 heads. 
 
 In an instant our whole party was scattered, as is the 
 custom of contrabandists when they are hotly pressed, and, 
 as in the present instance, they are not prepared, or not dis- 
 posed to offer resistance. On all sides, except in the direc- 
 tion of our pursuers, I saw the men, who had at once cast 
 off their packs, stealthily slipping away, some even creeping 
 off on all-fours. In the next moment Herr von Zehren and 
 I were alone. 
 
 Behind us we heard the ring of iron ramrods in the bar- 
 rels. They were re-loading the muskets that had been fired. 
 This gave a brief pause. 
 
 Herr von Zehren and I were standing together. " How 
 many are there } " he asked in a whisper. 
 
 " I cannot make out," I answered, in a similar tone ; " I 
 think more are coming up. There can hardly be less than a 
 dozeYi." 
 
 " They will not advance any further in the darkness," he 
 said. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 171 
 
 " They are coming now," I urged. 
 
 " Halt ! Who goes there ! " came again from the pursu- 
 ing party, who were not more than a hundred paces off, as 
 well as could be judged in the darkness, and again a bullet 
 or two whistled above our heads. 
 
 " I entreat you ! " I said, taking his arm Xo urge him for- 
 ward. 
 
 He let me fairly drag him a few steps. Then suddenly he 
 seemed to awake as from a dream, and with his old voice 
 and old manner said to me : 
 
 " How the devil did you come by this ? Off with it ! " 
 and he flung down violently the pack from my shoulders. 
 
 " I have carried it the whole way," I murmured. 
 
 " Shameful ! " he muttered ; " shameful ! But it all comes 
 from My p>oor boy ! my poor boy ! " 
 
 The effect of the spirits he had drunk, to deaden as far 
 as possible his feelings of shame, had entirely passed away. 
 He was again all that he could be at his best moments, and at 
 once my old love for him returned. My heart began to throb 
 with emotion. I was again ready to give my life for him. 
 
 " Let us make haste," I said, seizing his cold hand. " It 
 is high time, by heaven ! " 
 
 " They will not venture any further up here," he replied, 
 " even if they have a guide. One man cannot guide them 
 all. But there is treachery at work. Did you not say some- 
 thing of the sort to me } " 
 
 " Yes ; and the traitors are Pinnow and Jock Swart" 
 
 " Jock was the very one that advised this route." 
 
 " Exactly." 
 
 " And the villain was the first one to make off." 
 
 " He was in haste to join his new friends." 
 
 We thus spoke in short detached sentences, while we hur- 
 ried almost at a run over the open space, where the darkness, 
 which was now intense, offered the only security — ^but an 
 ample one, it is true — against pursuit. A light rain began 
 to fall ; we literally could hardly see our hands before our 
 faces. Nothing was to be seen or heard of our pursuers. 
 
 " The blundering dolts came too late," said Herr von Zeh- 
 ren ; " they clearly planned to catch us on the narrow path. 
 If our rascals had not run off, we might now go on comfort- 
 ably." 
 
172 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 " We cannot go back to Zehrendorf," I said. 
 
 " Why not ? " 
 
 " If Jock Swart has betrayed us, as I would take my oath 
 he has, they will certainly search Zehrendorf." 
 
 " Let them try it once," cried the Wild Zehren ; " I will 
 send them home with broken heads. No, no ; they will not 
 venture that, or they would have tried it long ago. At Zeh- 
 rendorf we are as safe as in Abraham's bosom." 
 
 Just as he said these words there was a sudden gleam of 
 light in the distance ahead of us, like a faint flash of lightning. 
 Before I could frame any conjecture as to its cause, it flashed 
 out once more, this time more vividly, and not vanishing 
 again. The light increased every moment, rising higher and 
 higher against rhe black sky with a steadily widening glare. 
 
 " Trantowitz is on fire ! " cried Herr von Zehren. 
 
 It was not Trantowitz ; it could not be Trantowitz, that 
 lay further to the left and much lower. At Trantowitz there 
 were not the lofty trees whose summits I could now distin- 
 guish in the glow which burned now red and now yellow, but 
 ever brighter and brighter. 
 
 " By heaven it is my own house ! " said Herr von Zehren, 
 He rushed forward for a few paces, and then stopping, burst 
 into a loud laugh. It was a hideous mirth. 
 
 " This is a good joke," he said ; " they are burning the 
 old nest down. That is smoking the old fox out of his den 
 with a vengeance." 
 
 He seemed to think that this also was the work of his 
 pursuers. But I recalled the threats which old Pahlen had 
 uttered when I drove her off the place. I remembered that 
 among the rest she had said something about " the red cock 
 crowing from the roof." 
 
 But however the fire had originated in which the old 
 castle was now rapidly consuming, it could not have occur- 
 red at a more critical moment for the castle's master. 
 Although we were fully a mile distant, the flames, which now 
 towered above the gigantic trees of the park, cast their light 
 to our very feet ; and as the awful glare was caught up and 
 reflected by the black clouds, now changing to a lurid crim- 
 son, a strange and fearful light spread over the whole region. 
 I could clearly see Herr von Zehren 's features : they were, 
 or appeared to me. of the paleness of death. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 173 
 
 " For God's sake let us hasten to get away from here," I 
 said to him. 
 
 " The hunt is about to begin," he said. 
 
 The hunt had begun already. The pursuing party, who 
 had beset the narrow pass, and had probably no other 
 orders than to cut us off there, were now, by the strangest 
 accident, enabled to continue the pursuit, and they made the 
 best use of the opportunity. Spreading out like skirmishers, 
 without venturing too dangerously near to the morass on 
 either side, they pressed rapidly on, rousing from their 
 hiding-places the fugitives, some of whom were stealing 
 across the open space to the narrow outlet, and others 
 crouching to the earth or lurking in hollows, in hope that 
 the pursuit would be given over. Here and there a flash 
 pierced the dusky glow, and the report of a musket rang out ; 
 and everywhere I saw the figures of pursuers and pursued 
 flitting through the uncertain light, and heard wild cries of 
 " Halt ! " " Stand ! " and a loud halloo and laughter when 
 one was caught. 
 
 The blood seemed frozen in my veins. To be hunted 
 down, and shot down in this fashion, like hares at a battue ! 
 
 " And no arms," muttered Herr von Zehren, through his 
 clenched teeth. 
 
 " Here ! " cried I, tearing the pistols from my belt and 
 placing one in his hand. 
 
 " Loaded ? " 
 
 "Yes!" 
 
 " Now then, en avant!" 
 
 At a rapid run we had nearly reached the outlet-pass, dis- 
 tinguishable to those who knew the localities by a dead oak 
 and a clump of hazels, when I caught the gleam of musket- 
 barrels above the bushes. It was as I had dreaded: the 
 outlet was beset. 
 
 " I know another way," whispered Herr von Zehren. 
 " Perhaps it will bear us, and if not " 
 
 I did not let him finish—" On ! on !" I cried. 
 
 We turned sharply to the right and entered the tall rushes 
 that bordered the morass. But they had already caught 
 sight of us ; there was a cry of " Halt !" and shots were 
 fired at us ; and some came rapidly running towards us. 
 
 " It must be here," said Herr von 2:ehren, parting the high 
 
174 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 rushes and plunging into them. I followed closely behind 
 him. 
 
 Slowly and cautiously, crouching almost to the earth, we 
 crept forward. It was a desperate attempt. More than 
 once I sank to the knees in the black morass. I had made 
 up my mind, in case I stuck fast in it, to blow out my 
 brains. | 
 
 " We shall do it yet," said Herr von Zehren in a whisper 
 to me over his shoulder. " We have passed the worst now. 
 I know it well. I was here after snipe last spring, and the 
 villain Jock was with me. So : now we are through." 
 
 He pushed through the rushes, and at the same moment 
 three men, who had separated from the rest, and must have 
 been lying for some minutes in ambush a few paces from the 
 outlet, sprang upon us. The foremost man was long Jock 
 Swart. 
 
 " Dog !" hissed Herr von Zehren through his clenched 
 teeth. He raised his pistol, and long Jock fell to the ground 
 a dead man. 
 
 At the same moment, I also fired, and one of the others 
 reeled and fell with a loud cry. The third shot off his piece, 
 and ran at full speed back to the morass. The wounded 
 man then rose to his feet and limped off with considerable 
 celerity, but with loud cries of pain. 
 
 Herr von Zehren, in the meantime, had stepped up to the 
 fallen man. I sprang to his side, and seized the man, who 
 was Ijdng on his face, by the shoulders to raise him up. As 
 I lifted him his head fell heavily forward. A cold shudder 
 ran through me. " My God !" I exclaimed, " he is dead !" 
 
 " He would have it so," said Herr von Zehren. 
 
 The body of the dead man slipped from my hand. I 
 arose, trembling in every limb ; my brain began to swim. 
 Here stood a man with a discharged pistol in his hand ; 
 there lay another like a log upon the ground, and a red glow, 
 as if from the open gate of hell, fell upon them both ; the 
 smoke of powder filled the air, and the rushes of the morass 
 gave a hissing sound as of a thousand serpents. 
 
 However deeply the fearful sight and the feeling of hor- 
 ror with which I gazed upon it, imprinted themselves upon 
 my memory, I remained stupefied and aghast for but a sin- 
 gle moment. Then all other feelings were lost in the one 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 175 
 
 thought : He must be saved ; he must never fall into their 
 hands ! I believe I could have caught up the unhappy man 
 in my arms and borne him off, had he resisted ; but he 
 offered no resistance. I now know that he was not flying to 
 save his life ; I now know that he would not have stirred one 
 step from the spot, had he known that I had the leather 
 pouch with ammunition for the pistols in my pocket ; but he 
 supposed that he was weaponless, and he was resolved not 
 to be taken alive. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 AT the edge of the morass, where we now were, there was 
 a hollow, in which, among the deeper marshy spots 
 overgrown with long reed-grass, there were higher 
 patches, like islands, covered with thick clumps of alders, 
 hazels, arid willows. For any other, who did not know 
 every foot of this wild region, it would have been impossible 
 to find any way here ; but the old huntsman, who was now 
 the fox upon whose track the hounds were following hard, 
 was not for a moment at fault either in the direction to be 
 taken, or the pathless way that was to lead us through this 
 wilderness. I have never been able to comprehend how a 
 man of his age, hard pressed as he had already been, and 
 wounded besides, as I presently learned, was able to over- 
 come such difficulties as nearly vanquished my youthful 
 strength. Whenever, since, I have seen an old thorough- 
 bred, broken down under the saddle or in harness, whd still, 
 when his generous blood is roused, by his fire, his strength, 
 and endurance, puts his younger rivals to shame, my mind 
 reverts to the Wild Zehren in this night of terror. He burst 
 through almost impenetrable thickets as though they were 
 standing grain, he bounded over wide chasms like a stag, and 
 did not check his rapid course until we came out of the 
 hollow upon the dunes. 
 
 Here we took breath, and held a brief consultation which 
 way we should next pursue. To our right lay Zanowitz, and 
 
176 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 could we reach it safely, certainly some friend or other would 
 help us across the sea, or at the worst I was sailor enough 
 to handle a sail-boat alone ; but it was only too probable 
 that the village and its vicinity were already beset with sol- 
 diers sent to capture any of the fugitives who might seek 
 refuge there. To attempt to cross the heath between Zehren- 
 dorf and Trantowitz and reach the house of some one of 
 Herr von Zehren's friends, would have been mere madness 
 now that the whole sky was reddened with the still increas- 
 ing conflagration, and the heath illuminated with a light that 
 almost equalled that of day. But one chance was left us ; 
 to keep to the left along the strand as far as the promontory, 
 there ascend the chalk-cliff in the vicinity of the ruined 
 tower, and so reach the beech-wood of the park, which was 
 but the continuation of the forest which bordered the coast 
 for about eight miles. j 
 
 " If I can only get so far," said he ; " my arm begins to 
 grow very painful." 
 
 Now for the first time I learned that he was wounded in 
 the arm. He had not known it himself at first, and then 
 supposed he had only struck it against some sharp project- 
 ing bough, until the increasing pain showed what was really 
 the matter. I asked him to let me examine the wound \ 
 but he said we had no time for anything of that sort, and 1 
 had to content myself with binding up the arm as firmly as I 
 could with his handkerchief, which indeed did but little 
 good. 
 
 Here among the dunes I remembered for the first time 
 that I had ammunition in my pocket, and by his direction I 
 reloaded the pistols. A shudder came over me when he 
 handed me his, and I touched the cold wet steel. But it 
 was not blood, though in the red light it looked like it : it was 
 but the moisture from the damp atmosphere still heavy with 
 rain. 
 
 We emerged from the dunes upon the strand, in order to 
 proceed more rapidly over the hard sand. The light was 
 now, when apparently all the buildings were involved in the 
 conflagration, so strong that a dull crimson glow, reflected 
 from the reddened clouds, was thrown far out to sea. Even 
 the lofty and steep chalk-cliffs under which we were presently 
 passing, looked down upon us strangely in the strange light. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 177 
 
 There seemed something unearthly and awful in it ; despite 
 the considerable distance at which we were, notwithstanding 
 that hills and woods lay between, notwithstanding that we 
 were passing under the shelter of cliffs more than a hundred 
 feet high, the light still reached us and smote us, as if what 
 had been done, had been told by the earth to the heavens, 
 and by the heavens to the sea ; and earth, sky, and sea called 
 out to us — For you there is no escape ? 
 
 : CHAPTER XX. 
 
 SOME feeling of this kind must have been in the breast 
 of the unhappy man at my side, for he; said once or 
 twice, as we clambered up the ravine, up which a steep 
 path led between thick bushes from the strand to the top of 
 the cliffs, " Thank God, it is dark here at least ! " 
 
 During the ascent he had several times complained of his 
 arm, the pain of which had now grown intolerable, and at 
 last he was scarcely able to move forward, although I sup- 
 ported him as well as I could. I hop6d that when we reached 
 the top, and he had rested a little, the strength of which he 
 had already given such extraordinary proof, would return ; 
 but no sooner had we gained the plateau than he sank faint- 
 ing into my arms. True, he instantly recovered and declared 
 that it was but a momentary weakness, and that the attack 
 was over ; but still he could hardly stand, and I was glad 
 when I succeeded at last in getting him to the ruin, where 
 an excavation, half filled with rubbish, between the walls, 
 offered at least some protection from the east wind, which 
 blew sharp and bitter cold over the ridge. 
 
 Here I begged him to sit down, while I descended the 
 ravine, where about half-way from die top there was a tolera- 
 bly abundant spring, at which we had made a short pause in 
 our ascent, to get him some water, as he complained of a 
 burning thirst. Fortunately, on account of the rain, I had 
 put on in the morning the oil-skin hat which I had on at my 
 arrival at Zehrendorf, but had not since worn, as Constance 
 8* 
 
178 Hammer and Anvil. I 
 
 expressed such a dislike to it. This hat now served me for 
 a bucket, and I was glad when I succeeded with some diffi- 
 culty in filling it to the brim. I hurried back as fast as I was 
 able without spilling the precious fluid, full of anxiety for the 
 man to whom my heart drew me all the more powerfully, as 
 calamity smote him with such terrible blows. What would 
 become of him if he were not able soon to continue the 
 flight t After what had happened at the edge of the morass, 
 no exertion would be spared to take us ; and that an amply 
 sufficient force could be employed, was "but too certain. The 
 second pass had been beset by soldiers ; that I had plainly 
 seen. How long a time would elapse ere they came up 
 here ? If we were to escape, we must be at least six or eight 
 miles from here before morning, and I thought with a shud- 
 der how he had twice fainted in my arms, and the wild words 
 in which he had asked for water "that was not burning : it 
 must not be burning. " Perhaps he might revive after quench- 
 ing his thirst. I had so firm a faith in the inexhaustibility 
 of his strength. 
 
 Thus I tried to encourage myself as I hastened carefully 
 to the ruin with the water in my hat, and from dread of 
 stumbling scarcely cast a glance in the direction of the beech- 
 wood, over which the flames were still glowing. While still 
 at some distance, I thought I heard Herr von Zehren's voice 
 calling my name, then resounded a shrill laugh, and as I 
 rushed up in terror, I saw the unhappy man standing at the 
 entrance to the excavation, his face turned to the fire, gestic- 
 ulating wildly with his uninjured arm, and now pouring out 
 execrations, now bursting into frenzied laughter, or calling 
 for water " that was not burning." I drew him in deeper 
 between the walls, and made him a kind of bed of the heath 
 that grew thickly around, over which I spread my coat. 
 Upon recovering from a brief swoon into which he again 
 fell, he drank deeply of the water, and then thanked me in 
 a voice the gentle tone of which singularly contrasted with 
 his previous shrill vociferations, and deeply moved me. 
 
 " I fancied," he said, " that you too had abandoned me, 
 and I must perish miserably here like a wounded stag. Is 
 it not strange that the last Zehren who is worthy of the 
 name, here, from the ancient fortress of his ancestors, now 
 a pile of ruins, must watch the house that later generations 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 179 
 
 built, consumed by the flames ? How did it take fire ? 
 What do you suppose ? I have many other questions to ask 
 you, but I feel so strangely — such strange fancies pass 
 through my head. I never felt thus before ; and my arm too 
 is very painful. I think it is all over with the Wild Zehren — ■ 
 all over, all over ! Let me lie here, George, and die quietly. 
 How long will it be before the fire eats its way through the 
 subterranean passage, and the old Zehrenburg flies into the 
 air ? " 
 
 Thus reason and madness contended in his fevered brain. 
 Now he spoke connectedly and intelligently of what was 
 next to be done, as soon as he had recovered his strength a 
 little, and then he suddenly saw Jock Swart lying before him 
 on the ground, and again it was not Jock but Alfonso, the 
 brother of his wife, whose heart his sword had pierced. And 
 yet — and I have often reflected upon this, while pondering 
 over the singular character of this man — these terrible mem- 
 ories recurring in his delirium were accompanied with no 
 words that indicated the slightest remorse. On the con- 
 trary, they had been rightly dealt with, and so should it be 
 with all that ventured to resist his wilL If they had burned 
 his house, all castles and villages for leagues around should 
 be ravaged by the flames. He would see if he could not 
 punish his vassals as he thought fit, if they dared to rise in 
 revolt. He would chastise them until they howled for 
 mercy. Such utterances of his haughty spirit, exalted to 
 madness by the fever that was raging in his veins, contrasted 
 frightfully with the utter wretchedness of our position. 
 While in fancy he was charging through burning towns that 
 his wrath had given to the flames, his frame was shivering 
 with ague, and his teeth chattered audibly. The cold, which 
 grew ever keener towards daybreak, seemed to pierce to my 
 marrow ; and as often as the unhappy man, whose head rested 
 upon my lap, ceased for a while his ravings, my head sank 
 forwards or sideways to the cold wall against which I was 
 leaning ; and with ever more painful exertions I strove 
 against the weariness which oppressed me with leaden 
 weight. What would become of us if my strength gave way? 
 Indeed what would become of us as it was ? We could not 
 remain thus. I was afraid that he would die in my arms if I 
 could get no assistance. And yet how could I go for help 
 
i8o Hammer and AnviL 
 
 without the risk of abandoning hinn to his pursuers ? And 
 how could I leave him now, when he was wanting to dash 
 his head to pieces against the stones, and was craving to 
 drink up the sea to assuage his consuming thirst ? 
 
 During the night I had several times gone to the spring 
 for water, and when I brought it he was always very grate- 
 ful. Indeed, towards daybreak he grew much quieter, so 
 that I indulged the hope that after all we should soon be 
 able to get away. At last, overcome by exhaustion, I fell 
 asleep, and must have slept some time, for the dawn was 
 already glimmering when I was awakened by the touch of a 
 hand on my shoulder. Herr von Zehren stood before me ; 
 I looked at him with horror. Now I saw what he had suf- 
 fered in that fearful night. His healthy bronzed face was 
 of a clayey pallor, his large brilliant eyes were dull and 
 deeply sunk in their sockets, his beard dishevelled, his lips 
 white, and his clothes torn and covered with dirt and blood. 
 It was no longer the man that I had known, but more like a 
 spectre. 
 
 A faint smile played about his pale lips, and there was a 
 touch of the old vivacity in "the tone of his voice, as he said : 
 " I am sorry to have to awaken you, my poor boy, but it is 
 high time." 
 
 I sprang to my feet and put on my coat, which he had 
 carefully laid over my shoulders. 
 
 " That is, it is high time for you," he added. | 
 
 " How so ? " I asked, in alarm. 
 
 "■ I should not get far," he replied, with a sad smile ; " I 
 just now made a little trial ; but it is impossible." 
 
 And he seated himself on a projecting piece of the wall, 
 and leaned his head upon his hand. 
 
 " Then I also stay," I said. ! 
 
 " They will soon follow us up here." 
 
 " So much the more reason for my remaining." 
 
 He raised his head. 
 
 " You are a generous fool," he said, with a melancholy 
 smile ; " one of those that remain anvils all their life long. 
 What advantage in the world could it be to me, that they 
 caught you with me here 1 And why should you give up, 
 and let yourself be caught.? Are you brought down to noth- 
 ing, and less than nothing? Are you an old wounded fox, 
 
 Itt 
 
Hammer and Anvil. i8i 
 
 burnt out of his den and with the hounds on his track? Go, 
 and do not make me entreat you any more, for it hurts me 
 to talk. Good-by ! " 
 
 He reached me an ice-cold, trembling hand, which I 
 pressed with tears in my eyes, and said : 
 
 " How can you ask it of me ? I were the vilest wretch 
 alive to leave you thus. Happen what may, I remain." 
 
 " It is my will that you leave me — I command you." 
 
 " You cannot — ^you must yourself feel that you cannot. 
 You cannot command me to cover myself with disgrace." 
 
 " Well then," said he, " I will make a confession to you. 
 It is true that it so happens that I cannot get away ; but 
 were I in condition to escape, I would not and will not do 
 it. I will not have a hue and cry raised after me, and pla- 
 cards posted as if I were a vagabond or common criminal to 
 be hunted through the land. I will await their coming here 
 — here where my ancestors beat back so many an attack of 
 the shopkeepers. I will defend myself to the last ; they shall 
 not take me from this place alive. I do not know what I 
 might do, if I were altogether alone in the world. Probably 
 this would then not have happened. I have paid dearly for 
 the folly of trying to help my brother in his distress. And 
 then I have a daughter ; I do not love her, nor she me ; but 
 for this very reason she shall not be able to say that her 
 father was a coward, who did not know when it was time to 
 die." 
 
 " Do not think of your daughter ! " I cried, losing all my 
 self-control. " She has rent the single tie by which you were 
 still bound to her." And briefly and in hurried words I 
 told him of Constance's flight. 
 
 My intention was to tear away at all costs every pretext 
 that he might allege for not doing what he considered un- 
 worthy a Zehren. It was most inconsiderate in me to make 
 such a disclosure to him at such a moment ; but my knowl- 
 edge of human nature was then very slight, and my faculties 
 were confused by the anguish of the last thirty-six hours, and 
 my fear and distress for the unhappy man at my side. 
 
 And it seemed that my design had succeeded. He arose, 
 as soon as I had finished my hurried recital, and calmly 
 said: 
 
 " Is it then so with me ? Am I a vagabond, and my 
 
1 82 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 daughter dishonored ? My daughter a harlot, who throws 
 herself into the arms of the very man whose hand she cannot 
 touch without dishonoring me ? Then may I well do what 
 others would do in my place. But before we set out, get me 
 another draught of water, George. It will refresh me ; and 
 I must not fail soon again. Make haste ! " 
 
 1 caught up the hat, joyful that I had at last persuaded 
 him. When I had gone a few paces he called me back 
 again. 
 
 " Do not mind my giving you so much trouble, George. 
 Take my thanks for all." 
 
 " How can you speak so ? " I said. " Step back out of 
 the cold wind ; I shall be back in five minutes." 
 
 I started off at a run. There was no time to be lost ; 
 streak after streak of pale light was appearing in the east ; 
 in half an hour the sun would rise. I had hoped that by 
 this time we would have been leagues away in the depth of 
 the forest. 
 
 The spring in the ravine was soon reached, but it gave me 
 some trouble to fill the hat. In the night I had trampled the 
 earth around it, and stones had rolled in, which nearly blocked 
 it up. While I was stooping over it and clearing away the 
 obstructions, a dull report of fire-arms reached my ear. I 
 started and felt involuntarily for the pistol which was still in 
 my belt. The other I had left with him. Was it possible ? 
 Could it be ? He had sent me away ! 
 
 I could not wait for the water ; I was irresistibly impelled 
 to hasten back. Like a hunted stag I sprang up the side of 
 the ravine, and bounded over the plateau to the ruin. ; 
 
 All was over. 
 
 Upon the very spot where I had parted from him, where 
 I had last pressed his hand, he had shot himself. The 
 smoke of the powder was still floating in the excavation. 
 The pistol lay beside him ; his head had fallen sideways 
 against the wall. He breathed no more — he was quite dead. 
 The Wild Zehren knew where a bullet must strike if the 
 wound was to be mortal. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 183 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 I WAS still sitting, stupefied and incapable of reflection, 
 by the dead man, when the first rays of the sun, which 
 rose with tremulous lustre over the sea, fell upon his 
 pallid face. A shudder ran through me. I arose and stood 
 trembling in every limb. Then I ran, as fast as my tottering 
 feet would bear me, along the path that descended from the 
 ruin to the beech-wood. I could not now say what my real 
 intention was. Did I simply wish to flee from this place of 
 terror, from the presence of the corpse whose glazed eyes 
 were fixed upon the rising sun ? Did I wish to get assist- 
 ance ? Did 1 design to carry out alone the plan of escape I 
 had formed for both, and thus save myself? I do not now 
 know. 
 
 I reached the park and the tarn, the water of which looked 
 blackly through the yellow leaves that yesterday's storm had 
 swept from the trees. In this water had drowned herself 
 the wife of the man who had borne her from her far-off home 
 over her brother's corpse, and who was now lying dead in 
 the ruins of the castle of his forefathers. Their daughter 
 had thrown herself into the arms of a profligate, after deceiv- 
 ing her father, and playing a shameful game with me. 
 This all came at once into ray mind like a hideous picture 
 seen in the black mirror of the tarn. As if some pitiless god 
 had rent away the veil from the pandemonium which to my 
 blinded eyes had seemed a paradise, I saw at a glance the 
 two last months of my life, and what they really were. I 
 felt a nameless horror, less, I think, of myself, than of a 
 world where such things had been, where such things could 
 be. If it be true that nearly every man at some time in his 
 life is led or driven by malignant demons to the verge of 
 madness, this moment had come for me. I felt an almost 
 irresistible impulse to throw myself into the black water 
 which legend represented to be of unfathomable depth. I 
 do not know what I might have done, had I not at this mo- 
 ment heard the voices of men who were coming down the 
 path that led from the park. The instinct of self-preserva- 
 tion, which is not easily extinguished in a youth of nineteen, 
 suddenly awaked within me. I would not fall into the hands 
 
184 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 of those whom I had been since the previous evening making 
 such prodigious exertions to escape. In a bound I sprang 
 up the bank that surrounded the tarn, leapt down on the 
 other side, and then lay still, buried in the thick bushes and 
 fallen leaves, to let them pass before recommencing my flight. 
 In a minute more they were at the spot I had left. They 
 stopped here, where the path branched off towards the ruin, 
 and deliberated. " This must be the way," said one. "Of 
 course ; there is no other, you fool," said another. " For- 
 ward !" cried a third voice, apparently belonging to the leader 
 of the party, " or the lieutenant will get there from the 
 beach sooner than we. Forward !" 
 
 The patrol ascended the path towards the ruin, and I 
 cautiously raised my head and saw them disappearing among 
 the trees. When I thought them at a sufficient distance, I 
 arose, and struck deeper into the wood. The impulse to 
 self-destruction had passed ; I had but one desire, to save 
 myself; and the almost miraculous manner in which I had 
 just avoided a peril from which there seemed no escape, 
 filled me with new hope, as a losing player feels at the first 
 lucky cast. 
 
 When we boys played " robbers and soldiers " in the fir- 
 wood around my native town, I had always managed to be 
 of the robber party, and they invariably chose me their cap- 
 tain. The duties of this office I had always so discharged 
 that at last none were willing to take the part of soldiers. 
 The boast that I had so often made in our merry sports, that 
 no one could catch me unless I allowed myself to be caught, 
 was now to be tested in deadly earnest. Unfortunately just 
 now, when life and liberty were at stake, the most important 
 thing of all was wanting, the fresh and inexhaustible strength 
 that carried me through my boyish exploits, and which now 
 by reason of the terrible mental emotions of the last twenty- 
 four hours, and the excessive physical exertion I had under- 
 gone, was well-nigh broken down. To my other sufferings, 
 I was tormented with gnawing hunger and burning thirst. 
 Keeping always in the thickest of the forest, I came upon 
 no spring nor pool of water. The loose soil had long since 
 absorbed the rain of the previous day, and the slight mois- 
 ture that I was able to suck from the ' dead leaves only 
 increased my sufferings. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 185 
 
 My intention had been to traverse the forest, which bor- 
 dered the coast for about eight miles, in its whole length, in 
 order to place as much distance as possible between me and 
 my pursuers, before I made the attempt to leave the island 
 at any point to which chance might conduct me. I had 
 trusted that I should be able to accomplish this distance at 
 the latest by noon ; but I was compelled to admit to myself 
 that in the condition in which I was, and which grew worse 
 every minute, this was no longer to be thought of I had 
 also formed no just conception of the obstacles that impeded 
 me. I had often before been in this forest, but only for 
 short distances, and I had never been compelled to keep to 
 a certain direction, and at the same time anxiously guard 
 against every possibility of being seen. But now, unless I 
 made long detours, I had to break through dense thickets 
 scarcely penetrable even by the deer, or again take a circuit 
 which took me far out of the way, to avoid some open space 
 where there was no sufficient concealment. Then I had to 
 bury myself in leaves and bushes while I listened to discover 
 whether some sound that I heard really proceeded from 
 human voices, and to wait thus until all was again silent. 
 More than once I came upon forest-paths, where double cau- 
 tion was necessary ; and with all I felt my strength constantly 
 diminishing, and looked forward with terror to the moment 
 when it should fail me altogether, and I should sink, proba- 
 bly to rise no more. And to lie here dead, with wide-open, 
 glazed eyes, like what I had seen — ^by this time they had 
 probably found him and carried him down, and then in some 
 fashion or other they must bury him — ^but how long would I 
 lie here in the depth of the forest before I was found, unless 
 it were by the foxes ? 
 
 But why did I fly, after all ? What had I then done to 
 deserve such extremity of punishment ? What could they do 
 to me worse than the torments I was now suffering ? And 
 what was this ? Here was a path that in half an hour would 
 bring me out of the forest. Possibly I might then at once 
 come upon the soldiers. So much the better ; then there 
 would be an end of it. 
 
 And I really went some distance along the path, but sud- 
 denly I stopped again. My father ! what would he say when 
 he saw me led by soldiers through the town, and the street- 
 
i86 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 boys shouting after me ? No, no ; I could never bring that 
 upon him ; better that the foxes should devour me than 
 that!^ 
 
 I turned again into the forest, but ever more agonizing 
 grew the strain upon my fast-failing powers. My knees tot- 
 tered ; the cold sweat ran from my face ; more than once I 
 had to stop and lean against a tree, because all became dark 
 before my eyes, and I feared that I should faint. Thus I 
 dragged myself for perhaps half an hour more — it was by 
 my calculation about two in the afternoon — when my long 
 agony found an end. In the edge of a small clearing which 
 I had just reached, stood a little hut, lightly constructed of 
 branches and mats of straw, looking almost like a dog-ken- 
 nel, and which probably had been built by wood-cutters or 
 poachers. I crawled in, buried myself in the straw and 
 leaves with which the floor of the hut was deeply heaped, 
 and which happily were tolerably dry, and fell at once into a 
 sleep which was almost as heavy as death. 
 
 When I awaked it was quite dark, and it was some time 
 ere I could recollect where I was and what had happened ; 
 but at last I recovered full consciousness of my desperate 
 situation. I crept out of the hut with great difficulty, for my 
 limbs felt as if they were broken, and the first steps I took 
 gave me excruciating pain. This, however, presently passed 
 off. My sleep had somewhat refreshed me ; but my hunger, 
 the cravings of which had aroused me, was now so torturing 
 that I resolved to appease it at every hazard, especially as 
 I felt that unless this was done, I must of necessity soon 
 give way again. But how was this to be done ? At last I 
 hit upon a plan to which nothing but my desperation could 
 have prompted me. I determined to keep to the left through 
 the woods, until I reached the open country, which I calcu- 
 lated must happen in about an hour. I would then strike 
 for the nearest farm-house, and there either by fair means or 
 foul get something to appease my hunger, and perhaps also 
 a supply for the next day. 
 
 Accident seemed to favor the execution of this plan. In 
 a few minutes I came upon a sort of road, which I followed, 
 although it did not run in the direction that I desired. 
 But how great was my astonishment and my alarm, as, in far 
 less time than I had hoped, I emerged from the woods, and 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 187 
 
 by the starlight distinguished a region of country which I 
 could not by any possibility mistake. There on the right 
 were the cott^es belonging to Herr von Granow's estate, 
 Melchow ; further on, embosomed in stately trees, was the 
 proprietor's house, and from a slight eminence rose the 
 white steeple of the new village church. Further to the left, 
 lower down in the valley, lay Trantowitz, and still further, 
 but on higher ground, had Zehrendorf stood. Indeed, as if 
 to leave me not an instant of doubt that I had got back to 
 the old well-known district of country, there suddenly sprang 
 from the immense pile of ruins where the castle had stood, 
 a flame so high and so vivid that the steeple of Melchow 
 church glowed with rosy light. But there must either have 
 been little fuel left for the fire, or else in the day there had 
 been ample provision made for its extinction, for the flames 
 sank again immediately, the bright light vanished, and there 
 only remained a feeble glow, as from the embers of a burnt 
 brush-heap in a field. 
 
 So at the sacrifice of all my strength, I had wandered 
 about the whole day in a circle, and now at night-fall found 
 myself not far from the spot from which I had started in the 
 morning. This was not very consolatory, but it was ridicu- 
 lous ; and I laughed — not very loud nor cheerfully, it is 
 true, but still genuine laughter. And at the same moment 
 the fancy seized me that perhaps my good genius had led me 
 here against my wishes. Where would I be less likely to be 
 looked for than exactly here ? Where had I better friends 
 than here at Trantowitz, for example, where everybody at 
 the house and in the village* knew me ; where I could knock 
 at any door and be sure to find help and reliefl Besides, the 
 circumstance that during the entire day I had met no human 
 creature, to a certain extent assured me that the pursuit 
 towards the last had not been so hot, and finally I was at the 
 point of starvation, and had no choice left me, so I pushed 
 on, almost carelessly, over the fields to Trantowitz, for the 
 first time since we had separated, thinking seriously of the 
 good Hans, and wondering what had become of him. Had 
 he overtaken the fugitives ? Had there been a scene, as in 
 that night when the Wild Zehren was pursued and overtaken 
 by the brother of his mistress, and their blades crossed in 
 the uncertain light of the Spanish stars ? Tlad blood flowed 
 
1 88 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 for the daughter, as well as for the mother ? Had Hans fal- 
 len a victim in his bad cause, or had he been victorious? If 
 so, what then ? Were the officers of justice after him as 
 they were after me ? Had they caught him, perhaps red- 
 handed ? Was he now sitting behind bolts and bars ? 
 
 I grew very sad at heart as this idea struck me. Hans 
 behind bolts and bars was a melancholy picture — one could 
 as well fancy a polar bear fireman on a steamer. 
 
 Without observing where I was going, I had approached 
 the house nearer than was necessary to reach the village. 
 From the field a path led across a dry ditch into a wilder- 
 ness of about two acres extent, of potatoe, cabbage, and 
 salad-beds, blackberry thickets, and stunted fruit-trees, which 
 Hans, by a singular delusion, called his garden, and prized 
 highly because he here in winter shot the most hares from 
 his chamber-window. Towards this chamber, famous in all 
 the country round, my eyes involuntarily turned, and to my 
 great astonishment I perceived a faint glimmer of light in it. 
 The window was open, and the light, as I discovered upon a 
 nearer approach, came from the sitting-room, the door be- 
 tween the two not being closed. I listened, and heard the 
 clatter of a knife and fork. Could Hans be at home again 
 already.? I could not resist the temptation, clambered 
 through the window into the chamber, looked through the 
 door, and there sat Hans, just as I had seen him the previ- 
 ous morning, behind a couple of bottles and an immense 
 ham, from which he raised his blue eyes at my entrance and 
 stared at me with a look of astonishment rather than alarm. 
 
 " Good evening, Herr von Trantow," I said. | , 
 
 I was about to say more, and explain how I had come, but 
 involuntarily I clutched a just-opened bottle with shaking 
 hand, and drained it before I set it down. Hans gave a 
 nod of approval at my prompt recourse to his universal spe- 
 cific. Then he arose without a word, went out and closed 
 the shutters of both windows, came in and bolted the door, 
 took a seat opposite to me, lighted a cigar, and waited in 
 silence until my ravenous hunger was appeased sufficiently 
 to allow me to converse. 
 
 " Suppose in the meantime you tell me what happened to 
 you," I said, without raising my eyes from my plate. 
 
 Hans had but little to tell, and told that little in the fewest 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 189 
 
 possible words. He had galloped a couple of miles or so 
 along the road to Fahrdorf— the only one which the fugitives 
 could possibly have taken — ^when he observed that his horse, 
 who had so far exhibited no signs of fatigue, began to fail. 
 After riding another mile at a more moderate pace, he was 
 convinced of the impossibility of continuing the pursuit. 
 " The road was very bad," Hans said ; " I am a heavy rider, 
 and the poor brute had probably had neither feed nor water 
 for twenty-four hours." So he dismounted and led the horse 
 at a walk the nearest way to Trantowitz, where he arrived 
 safely at nightfall. " By the time I had saddled my Wodan 
 and ridden to Fahrdorf," he said, " they were far away. 
 And then — it is always the way with me that I can never 
 
 manage to do what other men would do in my place ; and " 
 
 Here he drained his glass, refilled it, leaned back in his 
 chair, and enveloped himself in a cloud of smoke. 
 
 The good Hans ! he had meant all for the best — even his 
 plan of smashing the skull of our happy rival. How could 
 he help it if on this occasion, as so often before — always in 
 his life indeed — he rode a slow horse ? He could not 
 founder the animal in a cause which really did not concern 
 it in the least. 
 
 About eight o'clock, while he was sitting in his room, he 
 saw the light of the fire, and saddled Wodan and hurried to 
 it, followed by all his wagons. Men came over with wagons 
 and fire-engines from the other estates ; but it was not pos- 
 sible to save anything ; old Pahlen, who no doubt had no 
 difficulty in eluding the vigilance of the stupid stable-boy, 
 had done the work too well — the flames burst from all parts 
 of the building at once. " I rode home," he went on, " and 
 went to bed, and waked up this morning. I don't know 
 why, I had much rather never have awaked again." 
 
 Poor Hans ! 
 
 This morning, for the first time, he had learned from his 
 men what had happened ; how the night before, the officers 
 of the customs, with the assistance of half a company of 
 soldiers, had hunted down the smugglers ; and that they had 
 caught four or five, who would all be hung. And a soldier 
 had sunk in the morass, one of the custom-house men had 
 been wounded, and Jock Swart shot dead. Herr von Zehren 
 had been found dead this morning at the ruin. That it was 
 
I go Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 a lucky thing for him not to have lived to learn that his 
 daughter had run away, and that the old Pahlen, whom the 
 stable-boy Fritz and Christian Halterman had caught in the 
 act, had set fire to his castle and burned it to the ground. 
 And they would have hanged him, just as they meant to hang 
 George Hartwig, the son of customs-accountant Hartwig at 
 Uselin, who had been the captain of the smugglers, as soon 
 as they caught him. 
 
 Hans filled my glass again, and invited me by an expres- 
 sive look to empty it at once, as if so I could best afford him 
 the consolatory assurance that they had not hanged me so 
 far. 
 
 Now it was my turn to relate. Hans listened, silently 
 smoking ; but when I described the death of the Wild Zeh- 
 ren, and how I had last seen him — dead, with his pale face 
 turned to the rising sun, the first beams of which fell in his 
 glazed eyes — he sighed deeply, rocked his great head from 
 side to side, and drank deep draughts of wine. 
 
 " And now, what do you advise me to do ? " I said, at last. 
 
 " What is your own idea.-" " asked Hans. 
 
 That my position was a most serious one, even Hans per- 
 ceived. I had forced Pinnow, pistol in hand, to take me 
 with him ; I had taken the most direct and most active part 
 in the expedition ; I had fired upon the officers ; I had ac- 
 companied Herr von Zehren in his desperate flight. In the 
 eyes of the law these were far from being meritorious per- 
 formances ; and the less I came into contact with the law 
 henceforth, the. better it would be for me. 
 
 " And yet," I said, " would that this were my greatest 
 trouble ; but my father would never outlive the shame of 
 having a son in the penitentiary ; and therefore I am resolved 
 to fly, though it were to the uttermost parts of the earth." 
 
 Hans nodded approbation. . . i 
 
 " What if I went to America ? " 
 
 So brilliant an idea as this, which at a blow removed all 
 the perplexities of the situation, secured the instantaneous 
 adhesion of Hans. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 191 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 BUT the most dazzling ideas are frequently found to have 
 their dark side when it comes to putting them in execu- 
 tion. The financial question Hans thought he had set- 
 tled when he went to his desk, which was not — and apparently 
 could not be — locked, took out a box, and poured its con- 
 tents between us on the table. There were from four to five 
 hundred thaleri in gold, silver, and treasury notes, mixed up 
 with invitations to hunting-parties, receipted and unreceipted 
 bills, dance-cards (apparently from an earlier time), samples 
 of wool, percussion-caps, and a few dozen buckshot, which 
 rolled upon the floor and awaked Caro, who had been asleep 
 under the sofa, and now crept forth, yawning and stretching, 
 as if he considered that buckshot belonged to his depart- 
 ment. 
 
 Hans said that he had at the moment, so far as he knew, 
 no more in the house ; but if it was not sufficient, he would 
 search his coats, in which he had from time to time found 
 quite considerable sums between the cloth and the lining. 
 
 I was much affected by Hans's kindness ; but even were I 
 to avail myself of it, how was the flight to be accomplished .'' 
 Hans had heard — and it appeared only too probable — that 
 search was being made for me everywhere. How could I, 
 without being seized, make my way to Bremen or Hamburg 
 or any other port from which I could get a passage to Amer- 
 ica — at least so long as the pursuit was still hot ? 
 
 After much consideration, Hans hit upon the following 
 plan, the inspiration to which sprang from his generous heart. 
 I was for a while to remain concealed in his house, until the 
 first heat of the pursuit was over. Then — always supposing 
 that he was himself unmolested — we would undertake the 
 journey together, I being disguised as his coachman or ser- 
 vant. The question now arose about the passport, without 
 which, as I knew, no one was allowed to go on board the 
 ship. Here also the inventive Hans found an expedient. 
 A certain Herr Schulz, who had been his overseer, had in- 
 tended to emigrate the previous spring, and procured the 
 necessary papers, but had died before his project was ac- 
 
192 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 complished. These papers Hans had kept, and after some 
 searching we found them. It appeared from their contents 
 that the emigrating overseer was not nineteen, but forty years 
 old ; not six feet without his shoes, which was my stature, 
 but only four and a half ; and moreover, he was distinguished 
 by being very deeply pitted with the small-pox. Still, Hans 
 was of opinion that they would not look into the matter so 
 closely, and a hundred thaler note would reconcile all the 
 little discrepancies. 
 
 It was two o'clock by the time we had matured this ingen- 
 ious plan, and Hans's eyes were growing heavy with weari- 
 ness. As he insisted that I should sleep in his bed, I was 
 obliged to leave him the sofa in the sitting-room, on which 
 he had scarcely stretched himself when he began to snore. 
 I covered him with his cloak, and went into his chamber, 
 where, tired as I was, I still took time to avail myself of the 
 simple apparatus for ablution that I found there, to my great 
 comfort. Then dressing myself again, I lay down on Hans's 
 bed. 
 
 I slept soundly an hour or two, and as I awaked at the 
 first gray glimmer of dawn, a resolution with which I had 
 lain down, arose clear to my mind. I would go : the good 
 Hans should not on my account be brought into any more 
 serious troubles. The longer I remained with him, the 
 greater was the probability that his complicity, which it was 
 just possible might remain concealed as things were, would 
 be discovered, and it would then appear in a so much more 
 serious light. Besides, I had in truth but little faith in the 
 availability of the pass of the deceased overseer of four feet 
 and a half high ; and finally, as a youth of no craven spirit, 
 I was possessed with the conviction that it was my duty to 
 take the consequences of my action, as far as possible, upon 
 my own head alone. 
 
 So I softly arose from the bed, wrote a few words of grati- 
 tude to Hans for all his kindness, filled my game-bag with 
 the remains of the supper, stuck the note in the neck of a 
 wine-bottle on the table, in the assurance that Hans would 
 not overlook it there, gave a parting nod to the brave fellow 
 who still lay in the same position upon the sofa in which he 
 had fallen asleep two hours before, patted Caro, who wished 
 to accompany me, and signified to him that I could not take 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 193 
 
 him, took my gun, and went out by the same window at 
 which I had entered. 
 
 •CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 FOOD, drink, and sleep had completely restored my old 
 strength, and I was now in a condition to play my part 
 in the game of " robbers and soldiers " more success- 
 fully. 
 
 The following days — there were three or four of them — ' 1 
 form a strange episode in the history of my life ; so that 
 it often seems to me that I cannot really have lived them, but 
 must have read the whole in some story-book. Yes, after so 
 many years — there are thirty of them now — the remembrance 
 of those days comes before me like some story about the bad 
 boy who lost himself in the woods, and to whom so many 
 uncomfortable things happened there ; and yet who drank 
 so much sweet pure air, and bathed in so much golden sun- 
 shine, that one would give who knows how many stations in 
 the monotonous turnpike of his orderly life, could he but 
 once experience such romantic suffering and happiness. 
 
 As if heaven itself was disposed to be good to the bad 
 boy who, whatever his errors, had erred but through youthful 
 folly, and perhaps, all things considered, was not after all so 
 utterly bad, it sent him two or three of the loveliest autumn 
 days for his adventurous flight. The recent rains had 
 cleared the air to a crystalline transparency, so that the 
 remotest distance seemed brought near at hand. A flood 
 of bright but indescribably soft sunlight streamed from the 
 cloudless sky, and penetrated into the inmost recesses of the 
 forest, where from the huge old trees the yellow leaves 
 silently floated down to the others, with which the ground 
 was already strewn. Not a sound was audible in the simny 
 wilderness except the melancholy chirp of a yellow-hammer 
 in the thicket, or the hoarse cawing of a crow who regarded 
 with disfavor the gun which I was carrying, or the faint cry 
 of cranes that, careless of what was going on below, were 
 winging high in air their proud flight to southern lands. "^ 
 9 
 
\ 
 
 194 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 Then again I lay in the heart of the forest upon some j 
 
 hillock, perhaps a " giant's barrow," as they were tradition- ^ 
 
 ally called, and watched sly Reynard steal out of his Castle j 
 
 Malepartus among the great stones, to bask in the morning j 
 
 sun, while a few paces farther off his half-grown cubs chased | 
 
 each other and rolled over and over in merry romp ; or I 
 marked in the evening light a herd of deer crossing a clear- 
 ing, the stag in front with head proudly held aloft, and only 
 lowered occasionally to pick a peculiarly tempting tuft of 
 herbage, while the does came peacefully grazing after. 
 
 Again I stood on the heights, close to the verge of the 
 steep chalk-cliff, and looked longingly out over the blue sea, 
 where on the farthest horizon a little cloud marked the spot 
 where the steamer which I had been watching for an hour 
 had disappeared, while in the middle distance glittered the 
 sails of a pair of fishing-boats. The speck of cloud vanished, 
 the white sails dwindled away, and with a sigh I turned back 
 into the forest, scarcely hoping now that I should succeed in 
 .getting off the island. 
 
 Twice already I had made the attempt. Once at a small 
 fishing village that lay at the head of a narrow cove in a re- 
 cess of the shore, and was the picture of isolation and lone- 
 liness. But the men were all out fishing ; only a very old 
 man and a couple of half-grown youths were at home with 
 the women and children. If the catch was a good one, it 
 might be two days before the men came back ; and it was 
 not likely then that any one would take me so far. So said 
 the old man, when I asked ; while a pair of red-haired chil- 
 dren stood by staring at me with open mouths, and an old 
 woman came up and confirmed the man's statement, while 
 the sun sank below the horizon, and a cool breeze blew down 
 the cove towards the darkened sea. 
 
 It was the second day of my wandering. The first night I 
 had passed in a sheep-fold : I thought I might venture for 
 once to sleep under a roof ; and the good wife to whom I 
 made the proposal willingly gave up to me the chamber of 
 her son, who had sailed away three years before, and not been 
 heard of since. I might, very likely, have spent days in 
 this retired nook without being discovered j but the necessity 
 of my getting off the island was too pressing, and early on 
 the next morning I set out to try my fortune elsewhere. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 195 
 
 My next trial was made in a large village. There were 
 boats enough and men enough there, but no one would take 
 me ; not even though I offered ten dollars, half the money I 
 had, for the short passage to the Mecklenburg coast, where 
 I might consider myself tolerably safe. I do not know 
 whether, as was possible, they knew who I was, or merely 
 saw something suspicious in the wild-looking young man 
 with a gun on his shoulder who asked a passage to another 
 country ; or whether, as I seemed in such extreme haste, and 
 appeared to have money, they merely wished, by delay and 
 apparent reluctance, to extort a higher fare. But after an 
 hour had been spent in parleying, and Karl Bollmann said 
 he was willing to take me, if Johann Peters would lend his 
 boat ; and Peters, for his part, was ready to go, but only in 
 Bollmann's boat ; and Christian Rickmann, who was stand- 
 ing by with his hands in his pockets, said he would take me 
 with his boys, but not for less than thirty dollars ; and all 
 then held a whispering consultation together, during which 
 the whole population, women and children included, gathered 
 around — I thought it prudent not to await the result, but 
 turned abruptly away, and strode off towards the dunes. A 
 half-dozen followed me, but I showed them- my gun, upon 
 which they kept back. 
 
 The same day I had another proof that the pursuit for me 
 was still kept up, which indeed I had never doubted. It 
 was towards evening, when reconnoitring from the edge of 
 the woods a piece of open country that I had to cross, I 
 caught sight of two mounted patrols on the road, talking 
 with a shepherd who had driven his flock upon the strip of 
 heath between the road and the woods. I observed that they 
 several times pointed to the forest, but the shepherd's an- 
 swers seemed satisfactory, for they presently rode away in 
 the opposite direction, and disappeared beyond some rising 
 ground. When I thought them far enough, I came out of 
 my concealment and joined the shepherd, who was knitting 
 a long black stocking, and whose simple face gave a suffi- 
 cient guaranty of the security of the step. He told me, in 
 answer to my inquiries, that the patrol were on the track of 
 a man who had committed a murder. He was a tall young 
 man, they had said, and a desperate villain : but they would 
 have him yet. 
 
196 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 The lively imagination of the stocking-knitter had prob- 
 ably had sufficient time in the interval between the departure 
 of the patrol and my appearance, to paint the portrait of the 
 fugitive from justice in the most frightful colors. At all 
 events he did not recognize me, but took me at once for what 
 I gave myself out to be : a huntsman, who was stopping on 
 a visit at one of the neighboring estates, and not knowing 
 the country well, had lost his way. He gave me minute 
 directions ho\v to find my way, thanked me for the coin I 
 put in his hand, and dropped his knitting in astonishment 
 as he saw me, instead of following his directions, strike 
 across the heath into the forest. 
 
 The vicinity of the patrol had startled me, in fact, and I 
 had determined to pass this night in the woods. It was a 
 bad night. Warm as it had been in the day, it grew cold at 
 nightfall, and the cold steadily increased as the night 
 advanced. In vain did I bury myself a foot deep in the dry 
 leaves, or try by brisk walking backwards and forwards to 
 gain a little warmth. The dense mist that arose from the 
 earth soaked my clothes through, and chilled me to the mar- 
 row. The long hours of the autumn night crept on with 
 dreadful slowness ; it seemed as if it would never be day. 
 And in addition to these physical and almost intolerable suf- 
 ferings of cold, hunger, and fatigue, the recollection of what I 
 had recently gone through presented itself to me in ever more 
 frightful pictures the longer the night lasted, and the more 
 hotly the fever burned in my veins. While, half dead with 
 fatigue, I staggered backwards and forwards in a clear space 
 between the trees, I saw myself again on the moor at Herr 
 von Zehren's side, with Jock Swart lying dead at our feet, 
 while the flames of the burning castle wrapped us in an 
 awful glare, so fearfully bright that it seemed the whole forest 
 was burning around me, while yet my limbs shivered and 
 my teeth chattered with cold. Then Herr von Zehren sat 
 before me as I had last seen him sitting, with the rising sun 
 shining in his glazed eyes ; and then again it was not Herr 
 von Zehren, but my father, or Professor Lederer, or some 
 other, but all dead, with glassy eyes open to the sun. Then 
 again I became conscious of my real situation, that it was 
 dark night around me, that I was excessively cold, that I had 
 sharp fever, and that despite the risk of discovery I must 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 197 
 
 resolve to kindle a real fire instead of the frightful visionary 
 one which I still saw in my feverish hallucination. 
 
 I had provided myself against this necessity with a large 
 piece of touchwood which I had broken out of a hollow tree 
 and placed in my game-bag. By its aid I succeeded after a 
 while in kindling a pile of half-dry wood, and I cannot de- 
 scribe the delicious sensation that thrilled through me as at 
 last a bright flame sprang up. The cheery light drove back 
 the fever-phantoms into the darkness from which they had 
 sprung ; the luxurious warmth expelled from my veins the 
 icy cold. I dragged together great quantities of fuel ; I 
 could not sufficiently luxuriate in the sight of the curling 
 smoke, the leaping flames, and the glittering sparks. Then 
 I seated myself at my forest-hearth, and resolved in my mind 
 what I should do to escape a situation which I clearly saw I 
 could not long endure. At last I hit upon a plan. I must 
 make the trial to get away at some one of the points from 
 which there was a regular communication with the main-land, 
 and which I had, on good grounds, hitherto avoided ; and the 
 attempt must be made in disguise, as otherwise I should be 
 recognized instantly. The difficulty was, how to obtain a 
 suitable disguise \ and here a happy thought struck me. I 
 had noticed in the chamber in which I had slept the previous 
 night, a complete sailor's dress hanging against the wall ; 
 very likely the kind old woman would sell it to me. If thus 
 disguised I could get off the island, I was pretty confident 
 that by a night-march I could reach the Mecklenburg fron- 
 tier ; and once there, I would let chance decide what was 
 next to be done. 
 
 At early dawn I began to put this plan into execution ; 
 and although I had a walk of eight or ten miles to the lonely 
 fishing village, I reached it just afl:er sunrise. The good old 
 dame would not hear of any sale ; I needed the things, and that 
 was enough ; perhaps some one in some strange land might 
 do as much for her son, if he was alive — and a tear rolled 
 down her aged wrinkled cheeks. My clothes and my gun — 
 for I had left my pistol at Hans's — she would keep for me ; 
 I should have them any time that I came for them. I do 
 not I know for what the kind old creature took me ; but no 
 doubt she thought that I was in distress ; and she helped me 
 thus because I said that this was the only way to help me. 
 
198 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 The worthy soul ! Later in my life it was in my power in 
 some measure to repay her kindness, if indeed a kind deed 
 can ever be repaid. 
 
 So I set out at once upon my way, which took me, through 
 many perils, directly across the island to a point where I 
 determined to wait until evening before entering Fahrdorf, 
 which I could reach in an hour. Relying upon my sailor's 
 dress, which fitted me perfectly, and, as I thought, com- 
 pletely disguised me, I had chosen the ferry which led most 
 directly to Uselin. In this way, it was true, I should have 
 to go through my native town ; but it was probable that just 
 there I should be least looked for ; and at that time, I con- 
 fess it, it took but a little to rouse in me the old daring 
 spirit which had already played me so many an unlucky 
 trick. With a grim satisfaction I imagined myself pacing at 
 night through the silent streets, and even considered whether 
 I should not write on the door of the Rathhau^ the old say- 
 ing of the Nuremburgers, and sign my name to it. 
 
 At nightfall I entered Fahrdorf I had missed the boat ; 
 but the next one, which was the last, sailed in half an hour. 
 As I had seen through the window of the tavern that the 
 large tap-room was almost empty, and as I must of necessity 
 strengthen myself for my night-journey, I entered it, took my 
 seat at the farthest table with my face to the wall, and 
 ordered some supper of the bar-maid. 
 
 The girl went to get it for me. On the table, beside the 
 candle which she had lighted, lay a beer-stained copy of the 
 Uselin Weekly News of the previous day — another cleaner 
 copy is now lying beside the page on which I am writing. 
 I took it up, and my first glance fell upon the following 
 announcement: 1 
 
 NOTICE. 
 
 Frederick William George Hartwig, former pupil 
 of and fugitive from the Gymnasium in Uselin, strongly sus- 
 pected of smuggling, of violent resistance to officers of the 
 Government, and of murder, has still, notwithstanding every 
 exertion on the part of the authorities, evaded arrest. As it 
 greatly concerns the public welfare that this apparently most 
 dangerous person should be brought to justice, he is hereby 
 
 * " Rathhaus ; " Council-house, or City Hall. — Tr. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 199 
 
 • 
 
 summoned voluntarily to surrender himself; and all persons 
 who may have any knowledge of the place of concealment 
 of the aforesaid Hartwig, are called upon to give notice 
 thereof without delay to the undersigned. We also urgently 
 and respectfully request the various authorities, both here 
 and abroad, to keep a strict watch for the aforesaid Hartwig, 
 (description at foot), to arrest him promptly, should he be 
 discovered, and forward him to us at our expense, under the 
 assurance of the readiest reciprocity on our part in a similar 
 case. -(Signed) Heckepfennig. 
 
 District of * * * 
 
 Uselin, November 2, 1833. 
 
 I will not copy the description that followed. The reader 
 could learn from it nothing except that at that time I re- 
 joiced in dark-blond, curly hair (" sorrel-top " the boys used 
 to call me when they wanted to tease me), stood six feet 
 without my shoes, and, as a well-finished specimen of hu- 
 manity, had no special marks, or at least none in the eyes of 
 Herr Justizrath Heckepfennig. 
 
 But in truth, at this moment so critical for me, I scarcely 
 noticed the description of my person ; the Notice occupied 
 all my thoughts. When, the evening before, the shepherd 
 said that the man whom the patrol were after was charged 
 with murder, I did not believe it for a moment. He was 
 such a simple-looking fellow, that I thought the patrol had 
 been telling him a frightful story to scare him, or to enhance 
 their own importance. But here it stood in large clear let- 
 ters in the Weekly News, which, as but few other papers had 
 ever fallen into my hands, was always to my uncritical youth- 
 ful mind invested with a certain magisterial authority — I 
 might almost say, bore the stamp of infallibility. " Suspected 
 of murder ! " Was it possible > Was I then looked upon as 
 the murderer of Jock Swart ? I, who had thanked God when 
 I saw the man at whom I had fired, limping briskly off ? I, 
 whose only consolation in these last days of suffering, was 
 that at the worst no man's death weighed upon my con- 
 science ? And here it was proclaimed to all the world that I 
 was a murderer ! 
 
 The bar-maid brought the refreshment I had ordered, and 
 1 think advised me to waste no time, as the ferry-boat would 
 soon start. I scarcely heard what she said, but left my sup- 
 
200 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 per untouched, and sat staring at the paper, which I had 
 hastily turned over as the girl entered, as if my printed name 
 might betray me. But on the other side it again appeared in 
 a paragraph headed City Items. The paragraph ran thus : 
 
 " Yesterday evening, in some unaccountable way, a rumor 
 got afloat that George Hartwig, whose name is now in every- 
 body's mouth, had taken refuge in the house of his father, 
 Customs- Accountant Hartwig, and was there in hiding. An 
 immense crowd, of probably more than a hundred persons, 
 assembled in consequence in the Water street, and tumultu- 
 ously demanded that the young criminal should be given up 
 to them. In vain did the unhappy father, standing on his 
 threshold, protest that his son was not in his house, and 
 that he was not the man to obstruct the course of justice. 
 Even the vigorous exertions of those dauntless public ser- 
 vants, officers Luz and BoUjahn, were ineffectual ; only the 
 eloquent appeals of our respected mayor, who had hurried 
 to the spot at the first news of the disturbance, succeeded at 
 last in dispersing the excited crowd. We cannot refrain 
 from earnestly warning our fellow-citizens of the folly and 
 lawlessness of such proceedings, although we willingly admit 
 that the affair in question, which unhappily seems to assume 
 even more serious proportions, is of a nature to strongly ex- 
 cite the minds of all. But we appeal to the men of intelli- 
 gence — that is to say, to the great majority of our fellow- 
 citizens — and ask them if we cannot repose the fullest confi- 
 dence in the authorities ? Should we not be convinced that 
 the public welfare is in better keeping in their hands than 
 in those of a thoughtless, ungoverned mob ? And in refer- 
 ence to the occurrence of yesterday, we earnestly appeal to 
 the good feeling of all well-meaning persons. Let them 
 remember that the father of the unhappy George Hartwig is 
 one of our most respectable citizens. He would, as he de- 
 clared, and as we for our part firmly believe, be the last to 
 obstruct the course of justice. Fellow-citizens, let us 
 respect this assurance ; let us respect the man who gave it 
 Let us be just, fellow-citizens, but not cruel. And before all, 
 let us take care that the reputation of good-order and of a 
 law-abiding spirit which our good old town has so long 
 enjoyed, be not lost through our fault." 
 
 The well-known signal summoning the passengers on 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 201 
 
 board, now sounded from the wharf, and at the same moment 
 the girl came in again and told me I must make haste. 
 
 " But you have not eaten a bit ! " she exclaimed, and 
 stared at me with surprise and alarm. I suppose that I 
 looked very pale and agitated. I muttered some reply, laid 
 a thaler on the table, and hurried from the house. 
 
 Notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, the boat was 
 crowded with passengers. On the forward-deck were stand- 
 ing two saddled horses, which could only belong to the 
 mounted patrol ; and I soon discovered their riders, who 
 were the same that I had seen talking to the shepherd, as I 
 gathered from their conversation with a couple of peasants. 
 They were complaining bitterly of being recalled, for they 
 were sure, they said, that they would have caught the villain, 
 who must be somewhere hidden on the island, though six 
 more besides themselves, two on horseback and four on foot, 
 had searched it through in every direction. Now the others 
 would gain the reward, while they were sent for to keep 
 order in the town, which was no affair of theirs ; there were 
 Bolljahn and Luz to attend to that duty. 
 
 I sat quite near them, and could hear every word they 
 said ; and I thought what delight it would give the brave 
 fellows if I were suddenly to stand up and say, " here's the 
 villain." But I could not afford them that pleasure ; what I 
 had resolved to do, must be done voluntarily. So I kept 
 quiet, and it never occurred to the wise servants of the law 
 that the young sailor who was listening to them with such 
 apparent interest was the man they were looking for. 
 
 The wind was fair, and the passage quick ; in half an 
 hour the boat reached her wharf. The horses pawed, the 
 patrolmen swore, the passengers crowded out of the boat, 
 and went up the wharf with their luggage. At the upper 
 end of the wharf, just by the gate, stood fat Peter Hinrich, 
 the landlord of the sailor's tavern, and asked me if I would 
 not lodge in his house. I said I had a lodging engaged 
 elsewhere. 
 
 So I passed through the ruinous old port-gate, which was 
 never shut, and entered the Water street. When I arrived 
 at the small house, I paused for a moment. All in the 
 house was dark and silent, and it was dark and silent in the 
 street ; but only two days before there had been commotion 
 9* 
 
2 02 Hammer and Am'il. 
 
 enough here, and there upon the threshold my father had 
 stood and said that he was not the man to obstruct the 
 course of justice. He should not incur the suspicion of 
 having concealed his son in his house ; he should see that 
 his son had still some regard for his father's good name, and 
 that he had the courage to face the consequences of what 
 he had done. 
 
 The exhortations of the Weekly Ne7as had not been in 
 vain. The little town seemed as if life had departed j the 
 energetic Luz and BoUjahn, with the best will in the world, 
 could have found no field for their activity. My steps 
 resounded along the empty alleys, which struck me as being 
 singularly narrow and crooked. Here and there was light in 
 the windows ; but folks went early to bed in Uselin, and the 
 authorities could therefore extinguish the street lamps at a 
 very early hour, especially when, as now, the new moon over 
 St. Nicholas's church looked sadly down through driving 
 clouds upon the empty market-place. 
 
 I stood in the market-place before the house of Herr Jus- 
 tizrath Heckepfennig. It was one of the stateliest mansions 
 in the town. How often had I passed it when I came out 
 of school at mid-day, and cast a glance of respectful longing 
 at the left-hand corner-window in the second story where 
 Emilie used to sit behind a vase of gold-fish, and always 
 happened, just as I passed by — a little dim window-mirror 
 gave her faithful notice — to have her attention attracted by 
 something in the market. Now I again looked up at the 
 window, but with very different feelings. There was a light 
 in the room, which was the usual sitting-room of the family. 
 The justizrath used to smoke his evening pipe there. I had 
 a presentiment that the visit that he would presently receive 
 would cause it to go out. 
 
 The good people of Uselin did not usually fasten their 
 street-doors until they went to bed ; but whether it was that 
 the recent disturbances so energetically and successfully con- 
 tended with by the officers Luz and Bolljahn had rendered 
 greater precautions advisable ; or whether the justizrath, in 
 his double capacity of wealthy man and officer of the law, 
 insisted upon a stricter rule in this matter — in any case his 
 door was fastened, and it was some time before my repeated 
 ringing was answered by a female voice that called through 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 203 
 
 the keyhole in rather a quavering tone to know who was 
 there. My reply, " one who wishes urgently to speak with the 
 Herr Justizrath," did not seem by any means entirely to sat- 
 isfy the portress, who could be none other than the pretty 
 housemaid Jette. A whispering followed, from which I in- 
 ferred that Jette had brought the cook with her ; then a gig- 
 gling, and finally the answer that she would tell her master. 
 
 I was patrolling up and down before the house in my im- 
 patience, when a window opened in the sitting-room above, 
 and the Herr Justizrath in person, putting out his head a 
 very little way indeed, repeated the question of the housemaid, 
 and received the same answer. 
 
 " What is your business ?" asked the cautious man. 
 
 "I come from the island," I replied at a venture. 
 
 " Aha !" cried he, and closed the window. 
 
 For some days the justizrath had done nothing but give 
 audience to people who professed to be able to throw some 
 light upon the great mystery. A sailor or fisherman just 
 from the island, and who urgently desired to speak with him 
 at ten o'clock at night, could come with but one object : to 
 make some imp>ortant communication which might bring 
 some illumination into the obscurity of this mysterious affair. 
 I for my part believed that the justizrath had recognized me 
 by my voice, and that his exclamation meant : " So ! here 
 you are at last !" I was soon to learn how greatly I was 
 mistaken. 
 
 The door was opened, an<i I hastily entered. Scarcely 
 had the light of the candle which Jette was holding up in her 
 hand, fallen upon my face, when she gave a loud scream, 
 dropped candlestick and all, and ran off as hard as she could, 
 while the cook followed her example, at least so far as scream- 
 ing and running went. The cook, who was an elderly female, 
 ought to have had more sense ; but still she only knew me by 
 sight, and for a long time had heard nothing but horrors 
 about me, so I cannot blame her. But the conduct of the 
 pretty Jette admitted of no defence. I had always been very 
 friendly to her, partly on her mistress's account, and partly 
 on her own ; and she had always freely acknowledged it, co- 
 quettishly smiling whenever I met her, saluting me with her 
 deepest curtsey whenever I entered the house, and now — 
 but I had now something else to think of than the ingrati- 
 
204 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 tude of a housemaid. I passed through the dark hall, as- 
 cended the stair I knew so well, and knocked at the door 
 of the justizrath's study, which adjoined the sitting-room, and 
 to which he had doubtless betaken himself to receive his late 
 visitor. 
 
 " Come in ! " said the justizrath, and I entered. 
 
 There he stood, just as I expected to find him, a tall, 
 broad-shouldered figure, wrapped in his loose flowered dress- 
 ing-gown, his long pipe in his hand, his low, narrow forehead 
 wrinkled into deep folds as he fixed his little stupid eyes 
 with a look of curiosity upon me at my entrance. , 
 
 "Well, my friend, and what do you bring ? " he asked. 
 
 " Myself," I answered, in a low but resolute voice, stepping 
 up nearer to him. 
 
 My presentiment that he would let his pipe go out was ful- 
 filled by his simply letting it drop upon the floor ; and with- 
 out saying a word he caught up the skirts of his flowered 
 dressing-gown in both hands, and fled into the family-room. 
 
 There I stood by the broken pipe, and trampled out the 
 glowing ashes which had fallen upon the little carpet by the 
 writing-table. While engaged in this certainly not criminal 
 occupation, I was startled by a cry for the watch from the 
 adjacent window that opened on the market-place. It was 
 the voice of the justizrath, but it had a very hoarse and la- 
 mentable sound, as if some one had him by the throat. I 
 stepped to the door of the sitting-room and knocked. 
 
 " Herr Justizrath ! " 
 
 No answer. 
 
 " Frau Justizrath ! " 
 
 All silent. 
 
 " Fraulein Emilie ! " 
 
 A pause, and then a frightened little voice that I had so 
 often heard laughing, and with which I had sung so many a 
 duet in parties by land and water, piped feebly out : i 
 
 " What do you want ? " 
 
 " Tell your father, Fraulein Emilie, that if he does not at 
 once stop calling the watch, and does not immediately come 
 into his study, I shall go away and not come back." 
 
 I said this in a tone in which resolution and politeness 
 were so blended, that I was sure it could hardly fail of its 
 effect. I could hear a whispered discussion within. The 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 205 
 
 women seemed to be adjuring the husband and father not to 
 adventure his precious life in so manifest a peril, while the 
 husband and father sought to calm their terrors by heroic 
 phrases, such as, " But it is my duty," or, " It might cost 
 me my place ! " 
 
 At last, assisted by these weighty considerations, duty tri- 
 umphed. The door slowly opened, and by the side of the 
 flowered dressing-gown I caught a glimpse of the cap of the 
 Frau Justizrath, and of the curl-papers of Fraulein Emilie, 
 whose golden ringlets I had always supposed a beautiful 
 work of nature. But so many great illusions of mine had 
 been dissipated in the last few days, that this small one 
 might well go with the rest. 
 
 / Hesitatingly the justizrath closed the door behind him, 
 hesitatingly he came a few paces nearer, stopped and tried 
 to fix me firmly with his eye, in which, after some difficulty, 
 he almost succeeded. 
 
 "Young man," he began, "you are alone ?" 
 
 " As you see, Herr Justizrath." 
 
 " And without weajxjns ? " 
 
 " Without weapons." 
 
 " Without any weapon ? " 
 
 " Without any weapon." 
 
 I unbuttoned my sailor jacket to convince my questioner 
 of the truth of my statement The justizrath evidently 
 breathed more fireely. 
 
 " And you have come ? " 
 
 " To surrender myself to justice." 
 
 " Why did you not tell me so at once ? " 
 
 " I do not think you gave me time." 
 
 The justizrath cast a confused glance at his broken pipe 
 on the floor, cleared his throat, and seemed not to know 
 exactly what was to be done in such an extraordinary case. 
 There was a pause of silence. 
 
 The ladies must have inferred from this pause that I was 
 engaged in cutting the throat of the husband and father; 
 at least at this moment the door was flung open, and the 
 Frau Justizrath, in night-gown and night-cap, came rushing 
 in and fell upon the neck of her spouse in the flowered 
 dressing-gown, whom she embraced with every mark of mor- 
 tal fear, while Emilie, who had followed close behind her, 
 
2o6 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 turned to me, and with a tragic gesture of supplication, raised 
 both her hands as high as her curl-papers. 
 
 " Heckepfennig, he will murder you ! " sobbed the night- 
 gown. 
 
 " Spare, oh spare my aged father ! " moaned the curl- 
 papers. 
 
 And now the door leading into the passage opened. Jette 
 and the cook were curious to see what was going on, though 
 at the peril of perishing in the general massacre, and ap- 
 peared upon the threshold wailing aloud. This mark of 
 courageous devotion so touched the night-gown that it burst 
 into a flood of hysterical tears, and the curl-papers tottered 
 to the sofa with the apparent intention of swooning upon it. 
 
 Here the justizrath showed, for the second time, how great 
 emergencies .bring out the strength of great characters. 
 With gentle firmness he freed the flowered dressing-gown 
 from the embrace of the night-gown, and said in a voice that 
 announced his resolve to do and dare the worst : " Jette, 
 bring me my coat ! " i 
 
 This was the signal for a scene of indescribable confu- 
 sion, out of which, in about five minutes, the victim of his 
 devotion to duty emerged victorious with coat, hat, and stick : 
 a sublime sight, only the effect was a little damaged by the 
 hero's feet being still covered with embroidered slippers, a 
 fact of which he was not aware until it was too late, when we 
 were standing on the pavement of the market-place. 
 
 " Never mind, Herr Justizrath," I said, as he was about 
 to turn back. " You would not get away again, and we have 
 but a few steps to go." | 
 
 In fact the little old Rathhaus was at the other side of the 
 by no means wide square, and the pavement was perfectly 
 dry, so that the victim of fidelity had not even to fear a cold 
 in the head. 
 
 " Herr Justizrath," I said, as we crossed the market-place, 
 " you will tell my father, will you not, that I gave myself up 
 voluntarily, and without any compulsion ; and I will never 
 mention to any one a word about the broken pipe." 
 
 I have spoken many foolish and inconsiderate words in 
 my life, but few that were more foolish and more inconsider- 
 ate than this. Just as I was touching the point which I 
 might say was J:he only thing in the whole affair to which 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 207 
 
 I attached importance, namely, to show my pride to the 
 father who had disowned me, I failed to perceive that 1 gave 
 mortal offence to a man who would never forgive, and had 
 never forgiven me. Who can tell what other turn the affair 
 might have taken, if, instead of my unpardonable stupidity, 
 I had intoned a paean to the heroic man who knew how to 
 guard himself from a possible and indeed probable attack, 
 and then did his duty, happen what might. But how could 
 I know that, young fool that I was ? 
 
 So we reached the open hall of the Rathhaus, where in 
 the day time an old cake-woman used to sit in a chair sawed 
 out of a barrel, before a table where plum-buns and candies 
 lay upon a cloth not always clean, that was constantly flut- 
 tering in the wind that blew through the hall. The table 
 was now bare, and presented a very forlorn appearance, as 
 if old Mother Moller, and not only she, but all the cakes, 
 plum-buns, and candies of the world, had departed forever. 
 
 A desolate feeling came over me ; for the first and only 
 time this night, the thought occurred to me that perhaps 
 after all I had better make my escape. Who was to pre- 
 vent me .'' Assuredly not the slippered hero at my side ; 
 and as little the old night-watchman Riiterbusch, who was 
 shuffling up and down the hall, in front of his sentry-box, in 
 the dim light of a lantern that swung from the vaulted roof. 
 But I thought of my father, and wondered if his conscience 
 would not smite him when he heard the next morning that I 
 was in prison ; and so I stood quietly by and heard the 
 night-watchman Riiterbusch explaining to Justizrath Heck- 
 epfennig that the matter would be very hard to manage, since 
 the last few days so many arrests had been made, that the 
 guard-house was completely full. 
 
 The guard-house was a forbidding-laoking appendage to 
 the Rathhaus, and fronted on an extremely narrow alley in 
 which footsteps always made a peculiar echo. No towns- 
 man who could avoid it ever went through this echoing alley ; 
 for that gloomy appendage to the Rathhaus had no door, but 
 a row of small square windows secured with iron bars and 
 half-clos.ed with wooden screens, and behind them here and 
 there might be seen a pale, woe-begone face. 
 
 A quarter of an hour after the conversation between Herr 
 Justizrath Heckepfennig and night-watchman Riiterbusch 
 
208 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 had come to a satisfactory conclusion, I was sitting behind 
 one of these grated windows. 
 
 ART 
 
 E C O N D. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THIS little alley by the Rathhaus, in which footsteps 
 gave such a singular echo, had never, even within 
 the recollection of the most ancient crow on the 
 neighboring steeple of St. Nicholas's church, enjoyed such a 
 reputation for uncanniness as in the last two months of this 
 year, and the first two of the next. It was also observed 
 that in no previous winter had the snow lain so deep in it, 
 and it grew dark much earlier in the evening than had ever 
 before been known. And Mother Moller, the old cake- 
 woman in the Rathhaus hall, who always hitherto, in the winter 
 season, packed up her wares at the stroke of five, now did it 
 regularly at half-past four, because, as she affirmed, just as it 
 grew dark there was " what you might call a kind of corpsy 
 smell about," and her old table-cloth flapped about in a way 
 no natural table-cloth would do. On the other hand Father 
 Rtiterbusch, the night-watchman, asseverated that for his part 
 he had not observed either in the hall or the alley anything 
 out of the common, not even between twelve and one o'clock, 
 which was the fashionable hour with ghosts, let alone at 
 other times. Yet people were more disposed to accept the 
 views of the old cake-woman than those of the still older 
 night-watchman ; as the first, though she took a nap now and 
 then, still on the whole was more awake than asleep ; while 
 in regard to the other, the regular customers of the Rathhaus 
 cellar, who had to pass his post at night, maintained pre- 
 cisely the contrary. By these assertions they deeply wounded 
 the good heart of Father Riiterbusch, but did not confute 
 him. "For, d'ye see," he would argue, "you must know 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 209 
 
 tha a sworn night-watchman never goes to sleep, on any 
 account ; but it may happen that he pretends to be asleep, 
 in order not to mortify certain gentlemen who would be 
 ashamed if they knew the old man had his eye on their do- 
 ings. And mark you, I am willing to be qualified to what I 
 say, upon my oath of office ; and none of them can say that. 
 And even if many of them, for instance Rathscarpenter Karl 
 Bobbin, come and go the same way every evening, that is to 
 say every night, for nigh on to twenty years now, a habit is 
 not an office, mark you ; and I for my part have never heard, 
 for example, that the customers of the cellar ever took any 
 oath or were qualified in any manner, shape, or form ; and 
 yet it was only last Easter I celebrated my jubilee, for it was 
 then fifty years I had held this place, and I went to school 
 with Karl Bobbin's father, who was never of any account, for 
 that matter." 
 
 However, be that as it might, during the winter of '33— '34, 
 there was but one opinion of the matter in Uselin ; and that 
 was, that if there was anything queer about the Rathhaus 
 alley, nobody need wonder at it, as things were. 
 
 Things were certainly bad enough, and worse for no one 
 than for me, who, as was admitted on all hands, was by far 
 the chief figure in the great smuggling case ; for into such 
 proportions, thanks to the inquisitorial genius of the justiz- 
 rath who had charge of the investigation, a thing which to 
 my eyes was of extreme simplicity had now been developed. 
 
 As if it was of the least importance how the case looTced 
 in my eyes ! As if anybody gave himself the trouble to in- 
 quire what my thoughts or wishes were ! But no ; I will do 
 Justizrath Heckepfennig and co-referent Justizrath Bostel- 
 mann no injustice. They gave themselves the very greatest 
 trouble ; but they had no desire to find out where the truth 
 lay, and where I told them it might be found. 
 
 " Why had I left my father ? " they asked. 
 
 " Because he ordered me out of his house ! " 
 
 " A fine reason, truly ! Angry fathers often tell their sons 
 to be gone, without the idea ever seizing the sons to start off 
 into the wide world. There must be something more be- 
 hind. Perhaps you wanted to be sent off ? " 
 
 "To a certain extent I admit it." 
 
 " Perhaps you admit it unqualifiedly ? " 
 
2 TO Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 " I admit it unqualifiedly." 
 
 " Very good. Actuary, please to take down the reply of 
 the prisoner, who admits without qualification that he wished 
 to be sent off" by his father. And when and where did you 
 first make the acquaintance of Herr von Zehren ? " 
 
 " On that evening at Smith Pinnow's." 
 
 " Had you never seen him before ? " 
 
 "Never, to my knowledge." 
 
 " Not even at Smith Pinnow's ? Pinnow declares that 
 Herr von Zehren was so often at his house, and you also so 
 often, that it is incredible that you never met before." 
 
 " Pinnow lies, and knows that he lies ! " I 
 
 " You still persist then that your meeting with Herr von 
 Zehren was entirely accidental ? " 
 
 "Entirely." I 
 
 " How much money had you about you when you left 
 your father ? " 
 
 " Twenty-five silbergroschen, as well as I can remember." ' 
 
 " And had you any prospect of obtaining anywhere a per- 
 manent position .'' " 
 
 "None." ' ' 
 
 " You had no such prospect, had but twenty-five silber- 
 groschen in your possession, were anxious that your father 
 should send you off", and yet you persist in asserting that 
 your meeting on that same evening with the man who took 
 you at once into his house, and with whom you stayed until 
 the final catastrophe, was purely accidental ! You are sharp 
 enough to see how extremely improbable this is ; and I now 
 ask you for the last time, if, at the risk of casting the strong- 
 est suspicions on your veracity, you still persist in that state- 
 ment?" 
 
 "I do." . I 
 
 Justizrath Heckepfennig cast a look at Actuary Unterwas- 
 ser as much as to say : Can you conceive such impudence ? 
 Actuary Unterwasser smiled compassionately, and sadly 
 shook his head, and scratched away with his pen over his 
 paper, as if his shocked moral sense found some relief in 
 '; getting such inconceivablethings at all events down in black 
 i and white. 
 
 Thus it went on with I do not know how many interroga- 
 tions and examinations ; summary examination, examination 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 211 
 
 in chief, articular examination. Often I could not tell what 
 they were aiming at, and what was the object of all the long- 
 winded interrogatories, and short cross-questions, in which 
 last Justizrath Heckepfennig considered himself particularly 
 great. I complained bitterly of this to my counsel, Assessor 
 Perleberg, saying that I had told — or, as they preferred to 
 express it, confessed — everything to the gentlemen. 
 
 " My dear sir," said the assessor, " in the first place it is 
 not true that you have confessed everything. For instance, 
 you have refused to say who was the person whom caller 
 Semlow saw, about four o'clock on the evening in question, 
 with you on the path leading to Zehrendorf And in the 
 second place, what is confession .-' In criminal jurisprudence 
 it has but a very subordinate value. How many criminals 
 cannot be brought to confess at all ? and how many confes- 
 sions are false, or are afterwards recanted ? The real object 
 of the examination is the detection of guilt. Consider, my 
 dear sir, your entire so-called confession might be a fabrica- 
 tion. It has often happened before, the criminal record — " 
 
 It was enough to drive a man desperate. Years after, my 
 counsel became a great beacon and luminary of jurispru- 
 dence ; and indeed he was such at that time, though he was 
 not then a professor, a privy-councillor, and a man of wide 
 reputation, but an obscure assessor of the superior court, a 
 very learned man, and of wonderful acuteness — a world too 
 learned and too acute for a poor devil like me. With his 
 " in the first place," and "in the second place," he would have 
 prejudiced a juiy of angels against innocence herself, to say 
 nothing of a college of learned judges who could not avoid 
 the conclusion that a man whose defence required so extra- 
 ordinary an expenditure of learning and acumen, must of 
 necessity be a very great criminal. I can still see him sitting 
 on the end of the table in my cell, which was fastened with 
 iron clamps to the wall, jerking his long, thin legs, and flour- 
 ishing his long, thin arms, like a great spider who finds a 
 broken mesh in his web. It was probably a hard task for so 
 learned a spider, into whose web a clumsy blue-bottle had 
 blundered and was floundering about in his awkward way, to 
 extricate him with scientific nicety. And now for the first 
 time I began to find out how far-spreading this web was, and 
 how many flies, besides myself, were entangled in its meshes. 
 
212 Hammer and Anvil. \ 
 
 There were very careless flies that under the masks of re- 
 spectable citizens and honest tradesmen of my native place 
 and the neighboring towns, had for years carried on an 
 extensive business in smuggled goods, and defrauded the 
 revenue of thousands upon thousands. This sort of flies 
 was very dirty and disgusting. For as soon as one had 
 caught its foot in the web, and found itself entangled, it 
 turned traitor to its companions, and did not rest until all 
 were fast in the web. 
 
 Then there was another and honester species, though it 
 was far from wearing so honest an appearance. These were 
 my old friends, the weather-beaten, tobacco-chewing, silent 
 men of Zanowitz and the other fishing villages on the coast. 
 They had by no means had so good a time of it as the gen- 
 tlemen in the counting-houses and behind the counters. 
 They had had to fight with wind and storm, to keep watch 
 and ward, to suffer hunger and cold, arid carry their lives in 
 their hand, and all for small gain, many of them for only 
 just enough to keep wife and children from starving ; and 
 yet, though four of them had been taken prisoners in that 
 terrible night on the moor, the examiners could draw nothing 
 from them. No one betrayed his comrade \ no one knew 
 who had been the man at his side. " The night was dark, 
 and in the dark all cats are gray ; every man had enough to 
 do to look to himself. If Pinnow has said that this man 
 and that man was there, why he can probably make oath to 
 it." In vain did the justizrath ask the most ingenious ques- 
 tions, in vain did he wheedle and threaten — they had to let 
 go a dozen or two that were very strongly suspected, and 
 console themselves with the reflection that at all events they 
 had four who had been taken in the act. 
 
 Yes, it was a very peculiar sort of flies who had thus been 
 caught with the others in the web of law ; a tough, rough 
 sort, very inconvenient for the guardians of the flesh-pots of 
 an orderly government, but still honest after their fashion, 
 and not the sneaking crew that the others were. 
 
 These two species of flies had for a long time played into 
 each other's hands, but without any proper system, and con- 
 sequently at great disadvantage, until, about four years be- 
 fore, the business had taken a sudden and enormous expan- 
 sion. For some one, who hitherto, like all the proprietors 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 213 
 
 along the coast, had obtained his wine, his brandy, his salt, 
 his tobacco, from the smugglers in small quantities, had hit 
 upon the idea that what was needed was an intermediary be- 
 tween the supply and the demand ; a middleman who should 
 provide a sort of warehouse or magazine for the smuggling 
 trade, and thus afford the furnishers an opportunity of get- 
 ting rid of larger quantities at once, and the purchasers the 
 means of procuring their supplies as they needed them, and 
 at convenient times. 
 
 This plan, founded on the soundest commercial principles, 
 begotten of necessity, and joyfully welcomed by the naturally 
 adventurous spirit of the man, he carried out with the au- 
 dacity, the judgment, and the energy, which so highly distin- 
 guished him. The solitary position of his estate upon the 
 long promontory, with the open sea on one side and a narrow 
 strait on the other, was as if it had been made for the very 
 purpose. If before the dealings were in boat-loads, now 
 whole ships' cargoes were received at once, or in a couple of 
 nights, and stored in the cellars of his castle, from which 
 they were gradually delivered to the purchasers, the neigh- 
 boring proprietors, and the tradespeople in the small towns 
 of the islan'd and the little seaports of the mainland. 
 
 This part of the business was chiefly undertaken by Smith 
 Pinnow. Smith Pinnow had been long known to be a 
 smuggler, had been frequently overhauled by the officers of 
 justice, and more than once punished, when of a sudden he 
 found that he was going blind, had to wear great blue spec- 
 tacles, and could only in very fine weather, with the help of 
 his deaf and dumb apprentice Jacob, take some of the bathing- 
 guests at Uselin out in his cutter for an hour or two's sail. 
 This affliction befel the worthy man just at the time that the 
 great smuggler-captain on the island, whose attention had 
 been drawn to so highly qualified an assistant, one night 
 paid a'visit to the forge, and took him, so to speak, into his 
 service. From that time forth the two acted in concert ; and 
 by the time the four years had passed, the smith had amassed 
 so much money that he would never have thought of betray- 
 ing his chief, had not jealousy got the upper hand of the 
 old sinner. " If you do not leave the girl in peace, I will 
 shoot you down like a dog," the Wild Zehren had said ; and 
 Smith Pinnow was not the man to quietly put up with such 
 
214 Hammer and Anvil. ' 
 
 a threat, especially when he knew in what deadly earnest it 
 was uttered. 
 
 From that time a rumor, of which no one knew the source, 
 spread abroad in the city, but especially in the offices of the 
 customs, that the Wild Zehren at Zehrendorf was the soul 
 of the whole smuggling trade, which was carried on with 
 such activity for leagues up and down the coast. At first 
 no one gave credit to the rumor. To be sure the Wild Zeh- 
 ren was a man whose name was used as a bugbear to 
 frighten children with in Uselin ; and no doubt things were 
 known or believed of him which people hardly ventured to 
 whisper — he had stabbed his brother-in-law, he had horribly 
 maltreated his wife and afterwards drowned her in the tarn 
 in the woods, and more of the same sort — but these were 
 things that were to be expected of the Wild Zehren, while 
 smuggling — no, it was not possible ! A man of the most 
 ancient nobility, and whose brother moreover was the high- 
 est officer of the Revenue Department in the province ! 
 
 This was the general opinion. But now and th«n there 
 would be a voice heard, but very softly indeed, remarking 
 that however different the brothers might be in disposition, 
 mode of life, and even in person, they resembled each other 
 at least in this, that both were deeply in debt ; and similar 
 causes might very well produce similar effects. If the Wild 
 Zehren's undertakings had been accompanied with such ex- 
 traordinary good fortune during these years, the reason 
 probably was that the custom-officers had no clue to his 
 movements, while he, for his part, was perfectly well in- 
 formed when and where there was no risk of meeting any 
 of them. 
 
 The matter might still have been long quietly argued //v 
 and con, had not an unlucky chance happened to give effect 
 to Smith Pinnow's treachery. In the same night when Pin- 
 now and Jock Swart, who could have turned traitof to his 
 master from no other cause than sheer black-heartedness, 
 lodged their information with Customs-revisor Braun, the 
 provincial customs-director arrived in Uselin. The revisor, 
 who belonged to the party that distrusted their chief, did 
 not go to the latter, as he would certainly have contrived 
 to render the denunciation harmless ; but went straight to 
 the director, who at once laid his plans with great skill and 
 
Hammer and Anvit. 
 
 215 
 
 forethought, to strike a strong blow at the smugglers, in which 
 he succeeded but too well. 
 
 Was the steuerrath guilty ? There was no direct proof of 
 the fact, if it was a fact. The steuerrath had always de- 
 clared that for a long time he had broken off all personal 
 intercourse with his brother, whose conduct — though in truth 
 he was greatly reformed of late — was of a nature to com- 
 promise a faithful public officer. And in truth, the Wild 
 Zehren had in the last year never been seen with his brother, 
 nor even in the city. If, notwithstanding, there had been 
 any personal intercourse between them, their meetings must 
 have been kept extremely secret. Any letters he might have 
 received from his brother, the steuerrath would of course have 
 destroyed ; and if the Wild Zehren was less cautious, he was 
 now dead, his castle burned to the ground — who or what was 
 there to bear witness against the steuerrath ? 
 
 I was the only one who could have done it. I remembered 
 well the expressions which Herr von Zehren had always used 
 in speaking of his brother ; I knew that this last expedition 
 had been made chiefly on that brother's account. I had held 
 in my hands the proof of his guilt, and — destroyed it. 
 
 It seemed as if something of the sort was suspected. 
 Suddenly the name of the steuerrath made its appearance in 
 the examinations to which I was subjected, and I was closely 
 questioned as to what I knew of the relations between Herr 
 von Zehren and his brother. I firmly denied all knowledge 
 of anything of the kind. 
 
 " My dear sir," said Assessor Perleberg, " why do you 
 wish to screen the man ? In the first place, he does not de- 
 serve to be spared, for he is a bad subject, take him as you 
 will ; and in the second place, you thus do yourself irrepara- 
 ble injury. I will tell you beforehand, you will not get off 
 with less than five years, for in the first place -" 
 
 ^^ For God's sake let me alone ! " I said. 
 
 "You grow less reasonable every day," said Assessor 
 Perleberg. 
 
 And he was quite right ; but it would have been a marvel 
 had it been otherwise. 
 
 I had been confined now for nearly half a year in a cell 
 but half lighted by a small grated window, and which I could 
 traverse with four steps lengthways and with three across. 
 
2l6 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 This was a hard trial for a young man like me, but harder, 
 much harder, were the mental sufferings that I endured. The 
 confidence in humankind which had hitherto filled my heart, 
 was all now gone. That no one visited me in my prison, I 
 could lay to the account of Justizrath Heckepfennig, who 
 felt it to be his duty to see that so dangerous a man held no 
 communication with the outer world ; but that men to whom 
 I had done nothing, or at the worst had perhaps at some 
 time or other, in my clumsy way, ruffled their pride a little, 
 should set their hearts upon trampling a fallen man still 
 deeper into the dust — ^this I could not forgive ; this it was 
 that filled my soul with bitterness unspeakable. Ten wit- 
 nesses were called to prove my previous good character ; and 
 of these ten there was but one, and that one the man whom 
 of all others I had most deeply wounded — Professor Led- 
 erer — ^who ventured to say some words in my behalf, and to 
 put up a timid plea for lenity. All the rest — old friends of 
 my father, neighbors, fathers whose sons had been my friends 
 and companions — all could hardly find words to express 
 what a miscreant I had been all my life long. And good 
 heaven ! what had I done to them ? Perhaps I had filled 
 the pipe of one with saw-dust ; I had caught a pair of pig- 
 eons that belonged to another ; the son of a third I had sent 
 home with a bloody nose — and this was all. 
 
 I could not comprehend it, but so much of it as I did un- 
 derstand, filled me with inexpressible bitterness, which once 
 even broke out into indignant tears when I learned through 
 my counsel that Arthur — the Arthur whom I had so dearly 
 loved — ^when interrogated as to his association with me, de- 
 clared that for years I had talked to him about turning 
 smuggler, and had even attempted to persuade him to join 
 me ; that I had always been on the most intimate terms with 
 Smith Pinnow, and that if he were asked if he believed me 
 capable of the crime laid to my charge, he must answer un- 
 equivocally Yes. 
 
 " That ruins you," said Assessor Perleberg. " You will 
 not get off under seven years ; for in the first place " 
 
 I brushed away the tears that were streaming down my 
 ckeeks, burst into a wild laugh, and then fell into a paroxysm 
 of frantic rage, which finally gave place to a stony apathy. 
 I still felt a kind of interest in the sparrows that I had taught 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 217 
 
 to come every morning and share my ration of bread ; but 
 all other things were indifferent to me. I learned, without 
 feeling any special interest in the news, that Constance was 
 already deserted by her princely lover, who had yielded to 
 the entreaties and threats of his father ; that Hans von 
 Trantow had disappeared and no one knew what had become 
 of him, but the general opinion was that he had met with 
 some accident in the forest or on the moor ; that old Chris- 
 tian had never recovered from the effects of his young mis- 
 tress's flight, his master's death, and the burning of the 
 castle, and had been found one morning lying dead among 
 the ruins which he could never be prevailed on to leave ; and 
 that old Pahlen had escaped from the jail at B. in which she 
 had been confined. I heard all this with indifference, and 
 with similar apathy I received my sentence. 
 
 Assessor Perleberg, with his " first place " and " second 
 place," had been perfectly right. I was condemned to seven 
 years' imprisonment in the prison at S. 
 
 " You may think yourself lucky," said Assessor Perleberg. 
 *' I would have condemned you to ten years and to hard 
 labor ; for in the first place " 
 
 It was no doubt a mark of youthful levity that I had no 
 ears for the very learned and instructive exposition of my 
 counsel, and that too when it was my last opportunity. But 
 I was really thinking of something quite different. I was 
 thinking what the Wild Zehren would have done had he 
 been alive and learned that they had shut up his faithful 
 squire in prison and placed his own brother as jailor over 
 him. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 IT was an evening of May, as the wagon in which I was 
 conveyed, escorted by two mounted gendarmes, drew 
 near the place of my destination. On the left of the 
 road, which was lined with stunted fruit-trees, I saw num- 
 bers of laborers working on the new turnpike which was to 
 xo 
 
 
2l8 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 connect my native town with the provincial metropolis ; on 
 the right, open meadow-land stretched away to the sea, 
 which was visible as a wide dark-blue streak. On the other 
 side of the water, from a low beach of sand, green fields 
 sloped upwards to a moderately high upland which was 
 crowned with woods. This was the island, which here lay 
 much nearer the mainland than it did near Uselin, and 
 which I now beheld again for the first time. Before me, 
 still more than a mile distant, I could perceive two towers 
 rising high above a range of hills that we were slowly 
 approaching. 
 
 My feelings were strange. During the whole journey I 
 had been looking through the rents in the cover of the little 
 wagon, but only watching for ari opportunity of escape. But 
 however determined I was to seize the very first that pre- 
 sented itself, there was none, not even the slightest. The 
 two gendarmes, of whom one was one of those who had 
 hunted me in vain upon the island, rode on the right and left 
 close behind the wagon without exchanging a word, their 
 moustachioed faces looking straight between their horses' 
 ears, or turned sideways towards the wagon. There was not 
 the slightest doubt that the first movement that looked like 
 an attempt to escape would bring the butts of their carbines 
 to their shoulders. To make the attempt in the presence 
 of two well-armed, well mounted, and thoroughly determined 
 men, would have been to seek, not liberty, but death. 
 
 And none of the chances had happened which I had im- 
 agined possible. We had passed no bridge over which I 
 might have leapt into a torrent, we had entered no crowded 
 market-place in which I might have sprung into the throng, 
 and perhaps found shelter with some compassionate soul. 
 Nothing of the kind ; we travelled the seven or eight miles 
 of the journey at a walk, or a short trot, without a single 
 halt, and without an interruption of any kind, and now 
 before me rose the towers in whose shadow lay my prison. 
 
 And yet at this time I no longer felt the wrath and burning 
 indignation which had filled my breast the whole time that I 
 was in custody under examination. The two hours in the 
 open air had done me inexpressible good. It had been raining 
 for some time before, and I had held out my hands to catch 
 the drops ; I had inhaled with delight the fresh air that blew 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 219 
 
 into the wagon. Now the sun had again broken through the '^^ 
 clouds, and, as it was near its setting, cast long ruddy streaks 
 over the green sprouting fields and the sparkling meadows. 
 Birds sang and twittered in the trees by the wayside ; just be- 
 fore us in the east stood a brilliant rainbow with one foot on 
 the mainland, and the other on the island. All nature 
 seemed so calm and gentle, so free from hate or anger ; on 
 the contrary all things wore so mild a beauty and breathed 
 such sweet peace, that I who from a child had sympathized 
 with every mood of nature, could not close my heart to her 
 soft solicitations. My heart sang with the birds ; it floated 
 on the moist pinions of the gentle breeze that bore blessings 
 over the fields and meadows ; it bathed in the bright hues of 
 the bow of hope, which sprang from earth to heaven and 
 back to earth again. The feeling that I was, as it were, a 
 part of all these, and yet was sitting a prisoner in the jail- 
 van, begat in me such a sense of pity for myself as I had 
 never before experienced. I covered my face with my hands y 
 and wept. 
 
 The sun had now set ; the eastern and western skies were 
 glowing with the most splendid hues as the van rolled through 
 the town-gate, rattled up two or three narrow, badly-paved 
 streets, and stopped at last at a gateway in a high dead-wall. 
 The gate slowly opened, the van rolled across a wide yard 
 shut in on all sides with lofty blank walls and tall, gloomy- 
 looking buildings, to the gate of the tallest and most forbid- 
 ding of these, and there stopped. I had reached the place 
 where I was to spend seven years because I had endeavored 
 to guard my friend and protector from the results of a crime 
 which I myself abhorred. 
 
 Seven years ! I was determined that it should not be so 
 long. I had read the adventures of Baron Trenck, and knew 
 that it was possible to pierce thick masonry and undermine 
 great fortress-walls. What he had succeeded in doing, I 
 thought I could not fail to accomplish. 
 
 So my first proceeding, when the door closed behind the 
 surly warden, was to examine my cell as closely as the faint 
 remains of daylight would allow. If all the prisoners were 
 so well lodged, there were certainly many of them that fared 
 much worse when at liberty. The walls of the small room 
 were simply whitewashed, it is true ; but so were those of 
 
220 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 my garret at home. There was an iron bedstead with what 
 seemed a very comfortable bed, a clothes-press, at the soli- 
 tary window a large table with a drawer, two wooden chairs, 
 and, to my surprise, a great arm-chair covered with leather, 
 which strongly reminded me of the one in my room at Castle 
 Zehrendorf 
 
 Yes, I was again the guest of a Zehren, though this time 
 he was only the superintendent of a prison. It seemed as 
 if the Zehrens were inextricably woven into my life. They 
 had brought me but little good fortune ; and the proud lustre 
 that had formerly seemed to me to illume the name, had 
 greatly paled in my eyes. The steuerrath, in whom the boy 
 had beheld the incarnation of the highest earthly authority, 
 what was he in the eyes of the prisoner but a liar and hypo- 
 crite who had ten-fold and a hundred-fold deserved the mis- 
 fortunes he had brought upon men who were better than he ? 
 And the man here, who, sprung from such a family, had 
 been willing to undertake such an office as his, must be even 
 worse than the h)rpocrite and liar. I would let him feel the 
 full measure of my contempt when I met him ; I would tell 
 him that if he chose to be a jailor, he ought at least to re- 
 nounce the name which his noble brother had borne, who 
 preferred dying by his own hand to falling into the hands 
 of those who would have brought him here, behind this 
 triply-bolted door, and these windows with massive bars of; 
 iron. 
 
 The window was bv no means so higch as those in the 
 guard-house, and I looked with curiosity through the bars. 
 The prospect might have been worse. True, a high and 
 perfectly blank wall shut out the view to the left, but on the 
 right I could see into a court planted with trees, in which at 
 no great distance was a two-storyed house presenting a gable 
 covered entirely with vines. Behind the house there seemed 
 to be a garden : at least I could catch glimpses of fruit- 
 trees in blossom. All this had a very lovely and peace- 
 ful appearance in the dim light of the spring evening ; and 
 the shrill twittering of the swallows that skimmed in flocks 
 past my window, might have made me forget that I was a 
 tenant of a prison, had I not been painfully reminded of it 
 by the sharp angle of one of the bars against which I had 
 pressed my forehead. 
 
Hummer and Anvil. 221 
 
 I seized the bar with both my hands, and shook it with 
 my whole force. Six months of confinement had not 
 deprived my muscles of their strength, as I well perceived. 
 I felt as if with one wrench I could bring away the whole 
 grating. Did I deceive myself, or did it yield a little ? I 
 was not mistaken ; either the screws were loose, or the 
 wood-work decayed ; I could not at the moment determine 
 which ; but this seemed no grating that could hold me. 
 My heart beat with the exertion and the joyful surprise. I had 
 vowed to myself that they should not keep me seven years ! 
 But caution ! it was not the grating alone that made a pris- 
 oner of me. Were the grating away, there was a depth of at 
 least thirty feet to the stone pavement of the court. And 
 were I safely down, there were doubtless other difficulties to 
 overcome, and a baffled attempt at escape might make my 
 position incalculably worse. 
 
 I heard a rustling in the passage. Footsteps drew near 
 and came to my door. I sprang back from the window and 
 stood in the centre of the room, when there was a rattling 
 of keys on the outside, the door opened, and a man of tall 
 stature entered, passing the turnkey, and the door was 
 closed after him. He stood for a moment at the threshold, 
 and then approached me with a peculiar light step. From 
 the ruddy evening clouds there still fell a pale rosy light 
 into the room ; in this rosy glow I always see him again 
 when I think of him — and how often do I think of him, with 
 the deepest emotions of gratitude and love ! 
 
 Over the table at which I am writing these words, hangs 
 his portrait, painted by a beloved hand. It is a most perfect 
 likeness. It would recall to my memory every feature, every 
 line, were it possible that I could forget them. And now, 
 did I close my eyes, he would stand before me again as he 
 stood on that evening, in the rosy sunset light, and not less 
 clearly would I hear his voice, whose soft, deep tone I then 
 heard for the first time, and whose first word was one of pity 
 and sympathy. 
 
 " Poor youth ! " 
 
 How deeply must the prison air have poisoned my heart, 
 that these words and the tone in which they were spoken did 
 not move me ! Alas, it is one of my most painful recollections 
 that this was so ; that I rudely repulsed the hand of the 
 
222 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 noblest of men, and deliberately wounded the kindest heart 
 on earth. But the narrative of my life would have no worth, 
 if my faults were not honestly set down. And I have often 
 thought that I might not have learned to love him so well 
 had I been less obdurate at first, had I not given him the 
 occasion to heap upon me all the wealth of his benevolence and 
 love. And yet I err in this. Jewels of the costliest price, 
 of the purest water, need no dark foil. 
 
 " Poor youth ! " he said again, and held out his white and 
 almost transparent hand ; but let it fall again, when, instead 
 of taking it and pressing it with reverence to my lips, as I 
 should have done had I known him, I folded my arms and 
 stepped back. 
 
 " Yes," he said, and his voice sounded, if possible, still 
 gentler than before, " it is very hard, very cruel, the fate 
 which has befallen you for a crime which, whatever it may 
 be in the eyes of the judge who must follow the stern letter 
 of the law, in the eyes of others merits a milder name, for at 
 least it does in mine. I am the brother of the man for whose 
 fault you are suffering." 
 
 He seemed to expect an answer from me, or at least some 
 word of acknowledgement, which I would not give. I would 
 not do my jailor the favor to help him in his attempt to show 
 himself in another light than that in which I saw him. 
 
 " It is a strange caprice of fortune," he continued, after a 
 short pause, always in the same gentle manner, " that one 
 brother should to a certain extent be the instrument of pun- 
 ishing you for the injury which another has done you — a 
 chance for which I am thankful, and which I think I shall 
 rightly employ by — but of this another time. To-day the 
 gloomy shadow of the first dreary impression a place like 
 this must make upon a spirit like yours, lies too heavily upon 
 you ; though I could speak with the tongues of angels, I 
 could find no entrance to your heart, which is closed by anger 
 and hatred. I have merely come to perform a duty which 
 my office and I may say my heart prescribes. And this also 
 is my duty, so that you may freely answer me without feeling 
 that your pride is making concessions. Have you any wish 
 that it is in my power to grant ? " 
 
 " No," I answered, " for you could hardly give me a day's 
 shooting over the heaths of Zehrendorf," 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 223 
 
 A sad smile played around the superintendent's delicate 
 lips. 
 
 *' I have heard," he said, " that you used to hunt much 
 with my brother, and that you are yourself a skilful hunter. 
 The hunter's nature is a peculiar one. I think I understand 
 it, for I was born with the hunter's instincts ; but there is no 
 room for its exercise in these court-yards and gardens. I 
 seldom have a holiday, and still more rarely avail myself of 
 it ; and in this respect I enjoy, and indeed desire, but little 
 advantage over my prisoners. So it would be a hard trial 
 for me, if with the old passion I still possessed my former 
 vigor ; and thus I may almost count it a piece of good for- 
 tune that at the Battle of Leipzig I was shot through the 
 lungs, so that it would avail me nothing though I had the 
 range of the boundless hunting-grounds of America. I have 
 since learned to confine my activity within narrower limits. 
 My favorite recreation is the turning-lathe. It is light work, 
 and yet often proves too heavy for an invalid like myself I 
 shall probably soon give it up, and must choose some still 
 lighter work. But I should not like to find myself con- 
 demned to absolute inactivity. You do not now know, but 
 you will soon learn, how great a blessing to a prisoner is a 
 mechanical occupation which fixes his wandering thoughts 
 upon some near and easily obtainable result which shapes 
 itself under his hand. And now I will leave you. I have 
 still two visits to make, besides my evening round through 
 the building. One thing more : the old man who will wait 
 upon you, is, despite his rough ways, a thoroughly good 
 man, whom I have known for many years, and who has ren- 
 dered me in my life the most important services. You can 
 trust him absolutel3^ Now, good-night, and good sleep to 
 you, and dream of the freedom which I hope you will sooner 
 regain than you now think." 
 
 He gave me a friendly nod, and left the room with the 
 slow, light step with which he had entered. I looked after 
 him with fixed eyes, and passed my hand over my brow ; the 
 silent cell seemed to have become suddenly darker. 
 
224 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 I WAS still standing on the same spot, endeavoring to col- 
 lect my thoughts, when the door again opened, and the 
 old turnkey who had first received me, entered with a 
 lighted candle, which he placed upon the table. Then re- 
 turning to the door, he took from some female whose form 
 was barely perceptible, a waiter upon which was a collation, 
 and even a bottle of wine. He laid a snow-white napkin 
 over one corner of the great oak table, placed everything 
 neatly and orderly, took a step back and cast a satisfied look 
 at his work, then an angry one at me, and said with a voice 
 which strikingly resembled the growl of a great mastiff: 
 " There ! " 
 
 " It seems this is for me," I remarked, indifferently. 
 
 " Don't see who else it could be for," growled the old man. 
 
 The roast meat on the dish had a very appetizing odor ; 
 for half a year I had not tasted a drop of wine ; and what 
 was more, I did not feel towards the surly turnkey the aver- 
 sion that I felt towards the gently-speaking, courteous super- 
 intendent ; but I was resolved to accept no favors from my 
 jailor. 
 
 " I owe this to the kindness of the Herr Superintendent ? " 
 I asked, taking my seat at the table. 
 
 " This and more," said the old man. 
 
 " For instance ? " 
 
 " For instance, that one has our best cell, with a look-out 
 into the garden, and not one looking into the prison-yard, 
 where neither sunlight nor moonlight erer comes." 
 
 " Thanks," said I, " anything else ? " 
 
 " That one can wear his handsome town-clothes, instead 
 of unbleached drilling ; which is not such a bad rig, though, 
 after all." 
 
 " Thanks," said I ; " anything else t " 
 
 " And that one has Sergeant Sfissmilch for warden." 
 
 " With whom I have the honor ? " 
 
 " With whom one has the honor." 
 • "Much obliged." 
 
 " Well you may be." 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 225 
 
 I looked up to get a better view of the man whose relation 
 to me was so fraught with honor and advantage. He aj>- 
 peared to be above fifty years of age, of short, compact build, 
 who seemed to stand remarkably firmly for his age upon his 
 short bowed legs. From his broad shoulders hung a pair of 
 quite disproportionately long arms, with great brown hairy 
 hands, which evidently had not lost their strength of grasp. 
 From his furrowed and wrinkled face, which might once have 
 been good-looking, twinkled under gray bushy eyebrows a 
 pair of clear, good-humored eyes, which in vain tried to look 
 fierce and cruel. His smooth, close-cropped gray hair lay 
 thick above his bronzed forehead ; and beneath his great 
 hooked nose, like an eagle's beak, a heavy moustache drooped 
 on either side far below his firm chin. Sergeant Siissmilch 
 was, in later years, long my true friend ; in hours of trial he 
 rendered me priceless services ; he taught my eldest boys to 
 ride ; and when, five years ago, we carried him to his last 
 resting-place, we all heartily sorrowed over him ; but at this 
 moment I was considering what amount of resistance he 
 would be likely to offer in a contingency which I deemed 
 very probable, and thought that I should be sorry to have 
 to take the life of the old fellow who was so delightfully 
 surly. 
 
 " If one has looked at Sergeant Siissmilch long enough, 
 one will do well to fall to the supper, which is getting no bet- 
 ter by standing," he said. 
 
 "It may stand therefor me," I answered. "I have no 
 appetite for the Herr Superintendent's roast meat and wine." 
 
 " Might as well have said so at once," growled Herr Siiss- 
 milch, coiAmencing to replace the things on the waiter. 
 
 " Who the deuce was to know what your custom here is," 
 I said in a sulky tone. 
 
 " The custom here is that one has to work when he wants 
 to eat." 
 
 " That is not true," I said. " I am not condemned to labor : 
 I was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment, and should by 
 rights have been sent to the fortress, where decent people 
 go." 
 
 " Meaning one's self? " asked Herr Siissmilch. 
 
 " Meaning one's self." 
 
 " One is altogether mistaken," he replied, having by this 
 10* 
 
226 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 time cleared away the things. " In the prison one is com- 
 pelled to work, unless one has a father or some one who will 
 pay for his keep. In this case one has a father, and gets 
 from him ten silbergroschcn daily." 
 
 " Herr Siissmilch," I cried, stepping up to the old man, 
 "I take for granted that you are telling me the truth ; and 
 now I give you my word that I will rather starve in the dun- 
 geon like a rat, than take a penny from my father." 
 
 " One will be of another way of thinking to-morrow." 
 
 "Never." 
 
 " Then one will have to work." 
 
 " We shall see about that." 
 
 "Yes, we shall see." 
 
 Siissmilch went, but stopped at the door, and remarked 
 over his shoulder : 
 
 " One wants, then, the ordinary diet, such as every one re- 
 ceives when he comes here ? " 
 
 " One wants nothing at all," I said, turning my back upon 
 him. 
 
 "No light, then, for that is extra too." 
 
 I made him no answer. I heard the old man go to the 
 table, take the light, place it on the waiter, and move to the 
 door. There he paused, apparently to see if I would change 
 my mind. I did not move. He coughed ; I took no notice. 
 The next moment I was alone in the dark. 
 
 " To the devil all of you, with your smooth ways and your 
 rough ways ! " I muttered to myself " I want the one as 
 little as the other, and I will be under obligations to no one 
 — no one ! " 
 
 I laughed aloud, seized the grating of the window and 
 shook it, and then ran up and down the dark room like 
 some wild animal. At last I threw myself in my clothes 
 upon the bed, and lay there in gloomy desperation brooding 
 over my fate, which had never before seemed to me so in- 
 tolerable. I wrought myself up to a pitch of wild hatred 
 against all who had had any share in my ruin, against my 
 judge, my counsel^ my father, the whole world ; strengthen- 
 ing myself in my resolution not to abate my obduracy, not 
 to ask the slightest thing of any one, not to be grateful to 
 any one, and above all to win my liberty, cost what it might. 
 
 Thus I lay for long hours. At last I slept and dreamed 
 
 M: 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 227 
 
 of a flowery meadow over which were fluttering gay butter- 
 flies which I tried to catch but could not, for whenever I 
 touched them they turned to red roses. And the red roses, 
 when I attempted to pluck them, began to flash with Hght 
 and ring with music, and flashing and ringing they floated up 
 to heaven, whence they looked smiling down upon me as the 
 faces of blooming maidens. It was all so strange and sweet 
 and fair, that I lay upon the grass, laughing with bliss. But 
 when I awaked I did not laugh. When I awaked Sussmilch 
 stood at my bed-side and said : " Now one will have to work." 
 
 -o- 
 
 CH AFTER III. ■ 
 
 FR a fortnight I had been doing the very hardest work 
 which at the time was to be had in the establishment, 
 which combined in itself the features of a work-house, 
 jail, and penitentiary. I was not compelled to do this either 
 by the letter of the law which prescribed that prisoners should 
 be employed in accordance with their capabilities, nor by 
 order of the superintendent, who on the contrary had allowed 
 me to choose whatever work I preferred. Indeed he pro- 
 posed to me to draw up certain lists, and make out certain 
 accounts which happened to be needed in the office, and for 
 which the materials should be sent to my cell. For exercise 
 I might find pleasant and healthful work in the large garden, 
 which was about to be extended. 
 
 I replied — and in this I spoke the exact truth — that I was 
 but a poor hand at accounts, and that I understood nothing 
 of gardening. I should prefer, if I were allowed any choice 
 in the matter, the very hardest work that could be found. 
 The Herr Superintendent had himself remarked that work 
 of this sort was the most suitable to a man of my constitu- 
 tion. I had at first denied this ; but had more maturely 
 considered the matter and found that the superintendent 
 was right. Indeed I must confess that I felt an irresistible 
 desire to split wood, to break stone, or to handle great 
 weights. 
 
228 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 < 
 
 In this, too, I spoke but the truth My powerful frame was 
 really suffering from the compulsory inactivity. But there 
 were other reasons besides this which really prompted my 
 request. Though I scarcely knew it myself, most of my 
 decisive steps were taken with reference to my father. It 
 was in a spirit of defiance to him that I had left his house ; 
 it was in defiance to him that I had given myself up to jus- 
 tice ; and it was in defiance that I rejected his provision for 
 my support and demanded the hardest work. He should 
 not have it in his power to say that I ever, even in prison, 
 was a burden to him ; he should know that his son was 
 treated no better than a common criminal, which indeed he 
 was in his eyes. 
 
 And as little should the soft-speaking superintendent be 
 able to say that he had dealt out to the young man who came 
 of such respectable parents, mercy instead of justice. 
 
 And finally, heavy work which would have to be done in 
 the open air must offer better chances for the execution of the 
 plan over which I was brooding day and night, the plan either 
 by cunning or force, or both combined, to obtain my liberty. 
 
 Now it is true that the work in the garden which was pro- 
 posed to me perhaps offered still greater facilities for my 
 purpose. The watch that would be kept there would hardly 
 be very strict, especially for me, whom for some reason or 
 other the superintendent seemed so particularly disposed to 
 favor ; but here a feeling arose within me which would prob- 
 ably appear singular to most men in my position, and yet of 
 which I have no cause to feel ashamed. 
 
 I was not willing to abuse any confidence that might be 
 placed in me. I had never done this in my life before ; and 
 I would not learn it now, not even though a prisoner, not 
 even to win the liberty for which I so wildly longed. If they 
 set me to work with the common criminals condemned to 
 hard labor, they would probably treat me and watch me as 
 one of them ; and if they neglected this, so much the worse 
 for them who made the distinction at their own risk, and so 
 much the better for me who did not ask to be spared, and 
 consequently was under no obligations to spare any one. 
 
 These thoughts passed through my mind as I appeared 
 before the superintendent on the following day — this time 
 in his office — and presented my request to him. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 229 
 
 He looked searchingly at me with his large gentle eyes, 
 and answered : 
 
 " Whoever enters this place as a prisoner, is an unhappy 
 man, who as such alone is entitled to my compassion. If 
 your fate touches me more nearly than the rest, the reason is 
 so clear as to need no explanation. You have rejected the 
 sympathy which I proffered you, but have not offended me. 
 From what I know of you, from your attitude during your 
 trial, this was what I had to expect. Whether you do well 
 to reject the provision which your father is willing to make 
 for you, I greatly doubt, as by so doing you but widen the 
 breach between you ; and in any circumstances one owes a 
 father so much, that one can, without shame, accept even a 
 humiliation at his hands. But this matter I must leave to 
 your own feelings. If you wish to be treated as a common 
 pauper criminal, who has to work for his maintenance, I had 
 planned, as you know, work for you better suited to your 
 capacities and your education. You say that what you 
 desire is hard, laborious work. It may be so : you are a 
 man of very unusual bodily strength, and the confined air 
 of a prison is p>oison to both your mind and body. You have 
 been deeply embittered by the long term of your preliminary 
 detention, which appears to have been unprecedentedly rigor- 
 ous. You will again, I am convinced, become the generous, 
 good-natured, noble fellow which you are by nature, and 
 which in my eyes you still are, when you have expanded 
 this deep chest with pure fresh air, and your torpid circula- 
 tion has been quickened by active work. You need, more- 
 over, a strong counterpoise to the passions that are raging 
 within you. So, all things considered, I am willing to grant 
 your request. Siissmilch shall show you your duties. But 
 I tell you beforehand, it is convicts' work, and you will find 
 yourself in very bad company ; so much the earlier will you 
 remember the difference between you and them." 
 
 He gave me a friendly look and wave of the hand, and 
 dismissed me. A feeling which I could not explain brought 
 tears to my eyes as I turned from him to the door, but I 
 forced them back and said to myself : That is all very fine ; 
 but I do not wish to be good, I wish to be free. 
 
 At the extreme corner of the prison wall, upon a slight 
 elevation, there was a new infirmary to be built. Design, 
 
230 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 plans, specifications, had all been prepared by the superin- 
 tendent himself, who was an excellent architect, and the 
 work was to be done by the convicts. They were now dig- 
 ging the foundations. It was a heavy piece of work. An 
 old tower, forming part of the city wall, had once stood upon 
 the spot the ruins of which in the lapse of centuries had 
 first crumbled to rubbish, and then become consolidated 
 into a compact mass which had to be broken up with the 
 pick until the old foundation-wall was reached, which was to 
 serve in part for the new building. 
 
 About twenty men were employed on this work. Sergeant 
 Siissmilch had the general supervision of it, and indeed, I 
 being the only prisoner under his immediate charge, had 
 nothing else to do, the convicts from the penitentiary being 
 under the charge of two overseers. The most of these con- 
 victs, of whom the majority were young men, and all strong 
 and well fitted for such work, looked as any men would look 
 dressed in coarse drilling, working under the eyes of a pair 
 of stalwart overseers, and forbidden to smoke, to whistle, to 
 sing, or to speak in a low tone. This latter prohibition first 
 struck me upon hearing Sflssmilch give to one who had at- 
 tempted to open a private conversation with his neighbor, in a 
 very emphatic tone the warning : " One has no secrets here ; 
 one can talk loud or hold his tongue." 
 
 This warning was most frequently given to one particular 
 convict, with the additional remark that he had every reason 
 to be careful. 
 
 This was a fellow of Herculean frame, the only one that 
 had what might be called a thorough gallows-face, and who 
 owed his precious life only to the circumstance that a mur- 
 der of which he was most vehemently suspected, could not 
 quite be brought home to him in the eyes of the judges. He 
 was named Kaspar, and his fellow-convicts called him Cat- 
 Kaspar, because he was believed to possess the mysterious 
 faculty of seeing in the dark as well as in broad daylight, 
 and, notwithstanding the gigantic breadth of his shoulders, 
 of creeping through holes only large enough to allow the 
 passage of a cat. 
 
 From the very first day I had made a conquest of this 
 richly-gifted man. While the others watched me with sus- 
 picious side-glances, never spoke a word to me, and visibly 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 231 
 
 avoided me, Cat-Kaspar sought every opportunity to be near 
 me ; made furtive signals with his eyes, first looking at me 
 and then at the overseers, and gave me in every way to un- 
 derstand that he wished to enter into more intimate relations, 
 and especially that he wished to speak with me. 
 
 I confess that I felt the strongest abhorrence for the man, 
 whose nature was plainly enough indicated by a low forehead 
 almost covered by his hair, a pair of evil, poisonous eyes, 
 and a great brutal mouth ; and any one would have felt the 
 impulse to shun him even without the knowledge that his 
 hands were stained with blood. But I mastered this instinc- 
 tive aversion, for I said to myself that this man would have 
 decision enough for any venture, and dexterity and strength 
 enough to carry out any plan. So I also sought an oppor- 
 tunity to get near him, but did not succeed until we had been 
 working together for a fortnight. I had hardly effected this, 
 when I made the discovery that Cat-Kaspar, in addition to 
 the accomplishments of which I had heard, possessed an- 
 other, which I afterwards found out to be easily acquired. 
 This art consisted in a most perfect imitation of a yawn, and 
 while holding the hand to the open mouth, forming by means 
 of the tongue and teeth certain sounds which, when closely 
 listened to, could be detected to be words. Thus for the 
 first time I heard, to my no small astonishment, from the 
 midst of the most natural yawn in the world, the words : 
 "The great stone — help me." 
 
 What he meant I learned a few minutes later. 
 
 They had recently been hauling stone for the foundations, 
 and a particularly large one, through the clumsiness of the 
 wagoners, had rolled into the foundation at a place where it 
 was not needed. It seemed a matter of impossibility to get 
 it out again without erecting apparatus for the purpose. 
 Sergeant Sussmilch swore at their cursed stupidity, which 
 would now cause an hour or more of unnecessary work. Cat- 
 Kaspar, after he had given me the mysterious hint, suddenly 
 raised his voice and said : 
 
 "What is the great difficulty, Herr Stissmilch? I will 
 undertake it, single-handed." 
 
 " Yes, if a big mouth could do it," growled Herr Suss- 
 milch. 
 
 The rest laughed. Cat-Kaspar called them a pack of 
 
232 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 toadies, and said that it was an easy thing to crack jokes and 
 laugh at an honest fellow who was not allowed to show what 
 he could do. 
 
 Cat-Kaspar knew his man. The honest sergeant turned 
 red in the face ; he pulled his long moustache, and said : 
 
 " In the first place, no arguments ; in the second place, 
 one may show now what he can do." ' j 
 
 In an instant Cat-Kaspar had seized an immense crowbar 
 and sprung into the foundation. 
 
 The stone lay upon the incline covered with planks by 
 which the rubbish and earth were hauled away, and a giant, by 
 means of a lever, might perhaps have rolled it up. Cat-Kaspar 
 certainly exhibited very surprising strength. Thrusting his 
 bar under the stone, he raised it so far that it required but 
 little more to turn it over. The exertion of strength was 
 really so astonishing, that the men hurrahed, and the atten- 
 tion of even Sergeant SUssmilch and the two overseers was 
 riveted on the performance. Suddenly Cat-Kaspar's strength 
 seemed to fail him ; he looked as if in peril every instant to 
 be crushed between the stone and the bank of earth. 
 
 " Help me, some one !" he cried. 
 
 I did not imagine that all this was a mere stratagem of 
 the cunning rascal. Snatching a second crowbar, and with- 
 out waiting for the sergeant's permission, I leapt down, 
 thrust the bar under the stone, clapped my shoulder to it and 
 heaved with all my strength, and the stone rolled over. 
 
 " Hurrah ! " shouted the men. I 
 
 " Slowl}', comrade," said Cat-Kaspar, as I was exerting 
 myself further to help him with the stone, " slowly, or we will 
 get up too soon." 
 
 He had no need to yawn now ; the excitement of both 
 convicts and overseers was such that the regulations were 
 for the time forgotten ; and then we were at least fifteen feet 
 below them, and only our backs were visible. Cat-Kaspar 
 took advantage of his opportunity. . While we were heaving 
 at the stone, shoulder to shoulder, he kept bandying coarse 
 jokes with those above, and in the intervals addressed me in 
 rapid, broken sentences. 
 
 " Will you join us .'' — never have such another chance — two 
 fellows at least, such as you and I, must take it in hand — 
 there are ten more of them — but two must begin — no one 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 233 
 
 has the courage but myself — and you too, I hope — to-morrow 
 is the last day — through the gate across the bridge over the 
 rampart to the outer harbor at the strand — only follow me — 
 I'll bring you through — if any one offers to stop us, kill him 
 — the scoundrel SUssmilch first of all. If you betray us " 
 
 " Work, and stop gabbling ! " called out the sergeant. 
 
 " I can do no more ! " said Cat-Kaspar, throwing down his 
 crowbar. 
 
 He had gained his object, and had no desire to expend his 
 strength further, at no advantage to himself. 
 
 " Come out ! " ordered the sergeant, well pleased to have 
 been right, and indeed doubly right, since the two strongest 
 men of the gang had not been able to accomplish what Cat- 
 Kaspar had undertaken to do single-handed. 
 
 Order was restored, and the work proceeded as usual. I 
 did the work of two, to conceal the excitement into which 
 the assassin's words had thrown me. His plan at once 
 seemed tolerably plain, and I comprehended it thoroughly 
 when I found an opportunity to take a look around from the 
 highest point of the site from which one could see over the 
 wall. Immediately adjoining the place where we were work- 
 ing was a gate in the wall, which during the progress of the 
 work was frequently used, and the key to which the sergeant 
 carried in his pocket. A short bridge, which had in the cen- 
 tre a gateway defended by chevaux-defrise, led from the gate 
 over a wide moat which in former times had been the town- 
 fosse, as our prison-wall had once been part of the town-wall. 
 Beyond the moat was a high bastion, with a walk shaded 
 with walnut-trees at its foot, and on it stood two cannon, but 
 I had never observed any sentry near them. To the right 
 of the bastion was a much lower rampart, over which from 
 my position it was easy to see ; and beyond this I caught 
 sight of the pennons of ships, which must be in the outer 
 harbor of which Cat-Kaspar had spoken. Between the pen- 
 nons glittered a bit of blue sea ; indeed I could catch a glance 
 of the island beyond, whose low chalk-cliffs shone bright in 
 the sunset. 
 
 I had seen enough, and hastened to descend in order to 
 awake no suspicion. The evening-bell rang, our work was 
 over for the day ; with the sergeant at my side I retraced the 
 now familiar way by the garden, past the house to my cell. 
 
234 
 
 Hamtner and Anvil. 
 
 This night no sleep visited my eyes. All night long I re- 
 volved in my mind the possibilities of flight. That Cat-Kas- 
 par's plan was feasible, I was now convinced ; and equally 
 so that this cunning, bold fellow was the very man to carry 
 it out. The place could not have been better chosen ; a 
 high bastion, an outer harbor with ships and boats, a de- 
 serted strand beyond, and over there the island, which I 
 could reach in any event by swimming. Once there, I knew 
 now how to get away, and how easily it could be done. My 
 clothes were still in the old woman's keeping, and there also 
 were my gun and my game-bag. Then farewell preliminary 
 detention and imprisonment ; farewell judges and counsel, 
 superintendents and turnkeys ! I should be a free man and 
 could mock you all — and you too, worthy citizens of my 
 native town, who had dealt so generously with me, and my 
 father — well, my father might look to it how he reconciled to 
 his conscience his treatment of a son whom his severity had 
 driven from his house, whom he and he alone had made a 
 criminal. 
 
 I had not been a criminal yet, but I knew that I should 
 soon be one ; indeed I felt myself one already. I even now 
 felt the taint of my associations with Cat-Kaspar. It was 
 plain enough that without real and deep crime — without 
 murder — our plan could not be executed. The sergeant 
 kept the keys of the gates in his pocket, and he was not a 
 man to yield, especially in such a case. Then the other two 
 overseers were there, who were clearly no chicken-hearts. 
 The three would resist as long as life was in their bodies. 
 They must be despatched at the very first attack, in order 
 that terror should be added to confusion, if our flight was to 
 succeed. 
 
 I sprang up from my bed with a wildly-beating heart. 
 Cat-Kaspar counted on my assistance first of all, and he was 
 right ; unless we two began the attack simultaneously, there 
 was no chance of success ; one man alone would have none 
 to second him ; so one of the guards, probably the sergeant, 
 must fall by my hand. 
 
 By my hand — how easy it was to think and to say this ; 
 but would not my courage fail me at the moment ? True, I 
 had fired at the officer in the moor, but then not only my 
 own liberty, but that of my protector, benefactor, and friend 
 
Hammer and AnvH. 235 
 
 was at stake, and thankful had I been that my bullet went 
 astray. Now my associate was not the man I so loved and 
 admired, but Cat-Kaspar ; the thing to be done now was not 
 to fire a pistol at a dark figure that suddenly springs up 
 threatening in the way, but to perpetrate a deliberate mur- 
 der ; it was to kill a comparatively unarmed man with a 
 spade, a pick, or a crowbar, or the first tool that came to the 
 murderer's hand. And .1 had done everything in my power 
 to hate the man, and could not do it. Through all his 
 roughness there shone so much genuine kindness, that it 
 often seemed to me that he had put on this prickly garb 
 because he knew how soft he was by nature. If my relations 
 to him were none of the best, whose fault was it but mine 
 who had so rudely repulsed all his advances ? He had not 
 retaliated ; he had never wavered in his rough but sincere 
 good-will ; if I overlooked his surly fashion of speech, he had 
 treated me, not as a keeper his prisoner, but as an old faith- 
 ful servant, who can take many liberties, might treat a young 
 master who has behaved badly, and who has. been entrusted 
 to him to bring back to reason. Often during the work I 
 found his clear blue eyes looking at me with a strange ex- 
 pression as if he were saying constantly to himself : " Poor 
 youth ! poor youth ! " and as if he would like to throw down 
 his measuring-rod, seize my pick, and do the work in my 
 place. Once or twice he had said, as we were returning 
 from work, " Well, hasn't one had enough of it yet ? " and 
 again, " One shouldn't be too obstinate and grieve the 
 captain so." (The sergeant never called his former officer 
 the "superintendent," except where it was absolutely ne- 
 cessary.) " How grieve the captain t " I asked. " One will 
 not understand it," the old man replied, and looked quite 
 sad and dejected. 
 
 I would not understand it — he was right in that. 
 
 But does any one understand less because he pretends un- 
 consciousness ? Whatever the reason might be that drew 
 the superintendent's sympathy to me and my fate, I could 
 not close my eyes to the fact that this sympathy existed, and 
 that it was expressed in the sincerest, in the most winning 
 manner, I still heard his words and the tone in which they 
 were spoken, a tone which so vividly brought back to my 
 memory the voice of the man who had been and still was 
 
236 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 my hero. The oftener I saw the superintendent — and I saw 
 him nearly every day — the more I was struck by his resem- 
 blance to his unfortunate brother. It was the same tall 
 form, but toil atid sickness, and probably grief and care, had 
 broken down the proud strength ; it was the same noble face, 
 but nobler and gentler ; the same great dark eyes, but their 
 looks were more earnest and sad. Even when his lips were 
 silent, these eyes greeted me with kindness; and in this 
 frightful night, while I was struggling with the tempter, I 
 saw them still, and their soft sad looks seemed to ask : 
 " Have you a heart to plan such a deed ? — a hand to execute 
 it t " 
 
 But I will, I must be free ! my spirit cried out. What care 
 I for your laws ? If you have brought me to despair, you 
 can only expect from me the actions of a desperate man. 
 From my school here — from one prison to another ! I shook 
 off one tyranny because I found it intolerable ; should I pa- 
 tiently bear this which oppresses me so much more heavily ? 
 Shall I not meet force with force ? What would the Wild 
 Zehren do were he alive and knew that his dearest friend 
 was here in a dungeon ? He would strive to set me free, 
 though he had to burn down the prison or even the town, as 
 those faithful fellows did, who delivered his ancestor ! What 
 he would do and dare, that would I. At the worst it could 
 but cost my life ; and that life should be thrown away when 
 it was no longer worth having — the Wild Zehren had taught 
 me that. 
 
 Thoughts like these agitated me as if a hell had been let 
 loose in my breast. Even now, after so many years, now 
 when with a joyous and innocent heart I feel grateful for 
 every sun that rises bringing me another day of earnest work 
 and calm happiness — even now my heart palpitates and my 
 hand trembles as I write these lines, which bring so vividly be- 
 fore me the terrors of that night, and of the time when I sought 
 for any means of escape from the labyrinth in which I wan- 
 dered in despair. 
 
 Let no one cast a stone at me that I strayed so far from 
 the right path. Well for thee, be thou who thou mayst, 
 whose brow falls into severe judicial folds upon reading this 
 — well for thee if the happy temper of thy blood has pre- 
 served thee from the blind fury of raging passions, if a 
 
t 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 237 
 
 judicious education has early given thee a clear view of life,. 
 
 and kindly smoothed thy path before thee. Then thank thy 
 
 beneficent stars that have granted thee all this, and perhaps 
 
 kept thee from going widely astray. For when is this not 
 
 possible ? It is a peril to which all are exposed. Then de- 
 
 ; voutly pray that thou mayst not be led into temptation, that 
 
 I no such night may come to thee as that through which I 
 
 I suffered ; a night in which it is not only dark without, but 
 
 I within ; a night which, when thirty years have passed, you 
 
 I will still shudder to think of. 
 
 When the dawning light entered my cell, it found me with 
 burning temples, and shivering with chill. I probably looked 
 pale and haggard, for the sergeant's first word when he saw 
 me was, "Sick: no work to-day." 
 
 I was sick ; I felt it but too plainly. I had never felt thus 
 in my life before. Was this the hand of fate, I thought, 
 which forbade our designs ? If I did not go to work to day, 
 the attempt would not be made. Cat-Kaspar reckoned on 
 my strength, courage, and decision. My example — the ex- 
 ample of one who was to a certain extent a volunteer, and 
 whom they all felt to be their superior — must exert an irre- 
 sistible influence upon them. Cat-Kaspar fully calculated 
 upon this, and he neither could nor would venture without me. 
 
 " No work to-day," said the sergeant. " Look as misera- 
 ble as a cat. Overdid it yesterday. Not got seven senses 
 like a bear." 
 
 This last mysterious phrase — a favorite one with the ser- 
 geant — was beyond my comprehension ; but its meaning could 
 only be a friendly one, for his blue eyes rested upon me as 
 he spoke with an expression of sincere solicitude. 
 
 " Not at all," I said. " I think I shall feel better out of 
 doors : the prison air does not suit me." 
 
 " Doesn't suit anybody that I know of," growled the ser- 
 geant. 
 
 1 1 " And me first of all," I said ; " so badly that I have a 
 
 strong inclination to go away pretty soon." 
 
 I looked the old man fixedly in the eye. I wanted him to 
 read my intention in my looks. But he only smiled and 
 replied : 
 
 " Not many would stay if all went that wanted to — ^Would 
 go away myself." 
 
■21 8 Hammer and Anvtl. 
 
 ■\ 
 
 " Why do you not ?" 
 
 " Been with the captain now five-and-twenty years. Stay 
 with him till I die." 
 
 *' That may happen any day." 
 
 Again I looked at him steadily in the face. This time the 
 expression of my look struck him. 
 
 " Look like a bear with seven senses. Got a robber- 
 murderous-gallows look,"* said he. 
 
 "What I am not, I may be yet," I said ; "what if I were 
 to throttle you this moment ? I am thrice as strong as you." 
 
 " No stupid jokes," said the sergeant. '' Not a bear ; and 
 an old soldier is no toothpick." 
 
 In this way the worthy Herr Siissmilch disposed of the 
 matter. As I would neither remain in my cell nor see the 
 prison-doctor, we started for the work-place. 
 
 On the way I had to stop more than once, for everything 
 grew dark before my eyes, and I thought that I was about 
 to die. The same sensations returned several times during 
 the day, which was unusually hot. A fierce fever was 
 raging in my veins, a terrible malady was swiftly coming on 
 me, or indeed had already come. 
 
 " Dr. Snellius said to me afterwards, and indeed repeated 
 the remark to me but a few days ago, over our wine at 
 table, that he cannot to this day understand how a man in 
 the condition in which I must have been, could not only 
 remain upon his feet all day long, but do hard work. He 
 said it was the strongest proof he had ever met, of how far 
 an intense will could prevail contra naturam, against the 
 course of nature. " To be sure," he added, clapping me on 
 the shoulder, " only blacksmiths can do it ; tailors die in the 
 attempt." 
 
 How dreadfully I suffered ! When the dream-god has a 
 mind to play me a malicious trick, he places me in a deep 
 excavation into which pour the rays of a pitiless sun ; he 
 claps a pick into my hand, with which I smite furious blows 
 upon a soil' hard as rock, but the soil is my own head, and 
 every blow pierces to my brain ; and then he fills the exca- 
 vation with fiends in the shape of men, who are all working 
 like myself with picks or with spades, shovels and barrows, 
 
 * '' RaubmSrdergalgenmassig." ~- i 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 239 
 
 and these fiends have all flat, brutal faces and evil eyes that 
 they keep fixed upon me, giving me signs of intelligence and 
 readiness for the devilish work I am to do. And among 
 them rises from time to time a head that has eyes more evil 
 than all the rest, and the head opens its horrible mouth to 
 yawn, and from the distended jaws come the words : " Sun- 
 set soon — ready, comrade — I take Rollmann, you sergeant 
 — smash skulls ! " 
 
 But the most dreadful part is to come. 
 
 It is half an hour before sunset. In half an hour the bell 
 will ring to stop work. This is the last day ; the excava- 
 tion is done and the foundation-stones are brought. To- 
 morrow regular masons will take the work in hand. Some 
 of the convicts will help them, but others will be employed 
 elsewhere ; it is the last evening on which the eleven of 
 whom I am to be the twelfth will be together. Now or 
 never is to be the time, and the signal has been already 
 given. 
 
 Cat-Kaspar commences a dispute with his neighbor, in 
 which the others join, one by one. The quarrel gets hot ; 
 the men appear to grow furious ; while the overseers, with 
 the sergeant at their head, endeavor to separate them, and 
 threaten them with solitary confinement on bread and water 
 for such unheard-of insubordination. The rioters pay no 
 attention ; from words they come to blows, and pushing and 
 striking, they get into a confused melee, into which they en- 
 deavor to involve the overseers. 
 
 This prelude has lasted but a few moments, and it can 
 be continued no longer, lest the unusual noise should bring 
 other officers upon the spot, and so the whole plan be de- 
 feated. 
 
 Whether I was drawn into the melee, or whether I sprang 
 into it voluntarily, I cannot say — I find myself in the midst. 
 I do not know if I am helping the overseers to drag the 
 men apart, or if I am trying to increase the confusion ; but 
 I shout, I rave, I seize two by their necks and hurl them to 
 the ground as if they were puppets ; I behave like a mad- 
 man — I am really mad, though neither I nor the rest know 
 it ; even Cat-Kaspar does not perceive it, but rushes up to 
 my side and shouts : " Now, comrade ! " 
 
 At this instant I see a man of tall stature emerge from the 
 
240 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 garden-gate and hasten towards us. It is the superintendent. 
 A maiden of about fifteen, of whose slender figure I have 
 more than once caught a glimpse through the garden-gate, 
 holds him by the hand, and seems to endeavor to detain him, 
 or else to share the danger. Two boys appear at the gate, 
 and hurrah loudly ; they have no idea of the terrible serious- 
 ness of the affair. 
 
 The tall superintendent confronts us. He draws his left 
 hand gently from the hand of the maiden and presses it upon 
 his weak chest, which is laboring with the exertion of his 
 rapid walk. The other hand he has raised to command si- 
 lence, as he is not yet able to speak. His usually pale 
 cheeks are suffused with a feverish glow ; his large eyes flash, 
 as if they must speak, since his lips cannot. 
 
 And the raging, furious crew understand their language. 
 They have all learned to look up in reverence to the pale 
 man who is always grave and always kind, even when he 
 must punish, and whom no one has yet known to punish un- 
 justly. They are prepared for everything except this, that at 
 the last moment this man should confront them. They feel 
 that their plan has failed : indeed they abandon it. 
 
 One does not. One is resolved to win the game or lose 
 all. In truth, is not the chance now better than ever .'' Let 
 yonder man once lie prostrate, who or what could restrain 
 him and the rest? 
 
 Giving a yell more horrible than ever issued from the 
 throat of the fiercest beast of prey, he swings high his pick 
 and rushes upon the superintendent. The maiden throws 
 herself before her father. But a better defender is still 
 swifter than she. With one bound he springs between them 
 and seizes the miscreant's arm. The pick, in descending, 
 grazes his head, but what is that to the torments that have 
 been raging in it for hours ? 
 
 " Cursed hound ! " roars Cat-Kaspar, " have you betrayed 
 us.^" and swings his pick again, but has hardly raised it 
 when he is lying upon the ground, and on his breast is kneel- 
 ing one to whom the delirium of fever has now given the 
 strength of a giant, and whom in this moment no living man 
 could resist.. 
 
 In a moment it is all over. For an instant he sees the 
 horribly distorted face of Cat-Kaspar — he feels hands striv- 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 241 
 
 ing to wrench his hands from the man's throat, and then a 
 black night swallows up all. 
 
 -o- 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A BLACK night which is but a long, long continuation 
 of the dreadful dream, until at last it is broken by 
 rare gleams of soft, dim light, at which the forms of 
 fear grow faint and give way to more friendly shapes. These 
 also melt into deep night, but it is not the old terrible 
 gloom, but rather a blissful sinking into happy annihilation ; 
 and whenever I emerge from it the figures are clearer, so 
 that I sometimes now succeed in distinguishing them 
 from each other, whereas at first they melted indistinguish- 
 ably into one another. Now I know that when the long 
 gray moustache nods up and down before my face, there is 
 always an honest, good-natured old mastiff there, who 
 growls out of his deep chest ; only I never get sight of the 
 mastiff, and sometimes think that it is the long gray mous- 
 tache itself that growls so. When the moustache is dark, I 
 hear a soft voice, the sound of which is inexpressibly sooth- 
 ing to me, so that I cannot refrain from happy smiles, while 
 when I hear the mastiff I would laugh aloud, only I have no 
 body, but am a soap-bubble which floats out of the garret- 
 window in my father's house, into the sunny air, until two 
 spectacle-glasses which have no moustache, are reflected in 
 it. These spectacle-glasses perplex me ; for although they 
 never have a moustache, they are sometimes blue, and then 
 they are a woman ; but when they are white they are a man 
 and have a creaking voice, while the blue glasses have the 
 softest voice — softer even than that of the dark moustache. 
 
 I cannot make out how all this is, and puzzle myself over 
 it until I fall asleep, and when I awake some one is leaning 
 over me who has a dark moustache and brown eyes, and 
 exactly resembles some one that I know, although I cannot 
 recall where and when I have seen him. But I feel both glad 
 and sad at the sight of this unknown acquaintance, for it seems 
 II 
 
242 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 to me that I owe him boundless gratitude for something — I 
 know not what. And this feeling of gratitude is so strong 
 that I draw his hand, which he has laid upon mine, very 
 slowly and softly, for I have little or no strength, to my lips, 
 and close my eyes, from which happy tears are streaming. I 
 have something to say, but cannot recall it, and fall to think- 
 ing it over, and when I again open my eyes the form is gone, 
 and the room vacant and filled with a dim light, and I look 
 around in surprise. 
 
 It is a moderately-large, two-windowed room ; the white 
 window-curtains are pulled down, and on them I can see the 
 shadows of vine-branches waving to and fro. I watch the 
 motion with delight ; it is an image of my thoughts that float 
 and waver thus without being able to fix themselves on any 
 point. I look again into the room, and my eyes find an ob- 
 ject on which they rest. It is a picture which hangs directly 
 opposite to me on a plain light-gray wall ; it represents a 
 young and beautiful woman with a child in her arms. The 
 eyes of the young mother, who is calm and almost sad, as 
 though she were pondering over some wondrous mystery, are 
 mild and gentle ; while those of the boy, under his full brow, 
 have a dignity beyond his years, and look out into the far 
 distance with an air of majesty as if their glances compre- 
 hended the world. 
 
 I can scarcely turn my eyes from the picture. My admira- 
 tion is pure and artless ; I have no knowledge of the original ; 
 I do not know that it is an exquisite copy in crayons of the 
 most celebrated painting of the Master of masters ; I only 
 know that never in my life have I seen anything so beautiful. 
 
 Under this picture hangs a little etagere with two rows of 
 neatly-bound books. Under the etaghre stands a bureau of 
 antique form with brass handles, and on it lie drawing-mate- 
 rials, and, between two terra-cotta vases, a little work-basket 
 with ends of red worsted hanging over its edge. 
 
 Between the windows and the bureau, evidently set on one 
 side, is an easel, upon which is a drawing-board with the face 
 inwards ; and on the other side of the door a cottage piano, 
 the upper part of which has a peculiar, lyre-shaped figure. 
 
 I do not know what it is that suddenly brings to my mind 
 Constance von Zehren. Perhaps it is that the lyre-shaped 
 instrument reminds me of a guitar ; and indeed this must be 
 
-^ 
 
 V 
 
 i 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 243 
 
 the reason, for in nothing else does the room bear any re- 
 semblance to Constance's. As there all was neglect and 
 confusion, here all is orderly and cheerful ; no torn thread- 
 bare carpet covers the white floor upon which the windows 
 throw squares of sunlight, and the shadows of the vine- 
 branches play, but fainter than upon the curtains. No, I am 
 not at Castle Zehren. In all that castle there was no apart- 
 ment like this, so bright, so cheerful, so clean ; and now I 
 remember Castle Zehren is burnt down — to the very ground, 
 some one told me — so I cannot be at Castle Zehren ; but 
 where am I, then ? 
 
 I turn my eyes to the beautiful young mother of the pic- 
 ture, as if she could answer me ; but looking at her, I forget 
 what it was that I had intended to ask. I have only the 
 feeling that one can sleep peacefully when such eyes are 
 watching him ; and I wonder that the fair boy does not rest 
 his head upon the shoulder or the bosom of his mother, 
 close his great thoughtful eyes, and sleep sweetly — oh ! so 
 sweetly ! 
 
 The long sweet sleep wonderfully strengthens me. When 
 I awake, I at once raise my head, rest myself upon my elbow, 
 and stare with surprise at the brown furrowed face, the blue 
 eyes, the great hooked nose, and the long gray moustache of 
 Sergeant Stissmilch, who sits at my bed-side. 
 
 The old man, on his part, looks at me with no less surprise. 
 Then a pleasant smile shoots from the moustache through a 
 pair of the deepest furrows up to the blue eyes, where it stays 
 and blinks and twinkles joyously. He brings three fingers 
 of his right hand to his forehead, and says, " Serviteur ! " 
 
 This comes so droUy from him that I have to laugh, for I 
 can laugh now, and the old feltow laughs too, and says, 
 " Had a good nap ? " 
 
 " Splendid," I answer. " Have I been sleeping long ? " 
 
 " Pretty well. To-morrow it will be eight weeks," he re- 
 plies cheerily. 
 
 " Eight weeks," I repeated, mechanically ; " that is a long 
 time ; " and thinking of this, I pass my hand over my head. 
 My head was naturally covered with very thick, curly, soft 
 auburn hair, inclining to red ; but I now feel nothing but 
 short bristles, as of a brush, a brush too in which time has 
 made considerable ravages. 
 
244 Hammer and Anvil. . , 
 
 " This is very strange," I said. 
 
 " Soon grow," said the sergeant, encouragingly. " Shaved 
 me bald as a turnip after this " — he pointed to a deep scar 
 on his right temple, running up into his thick gray hair, atid 
 which I now noticed for the first time — " and yet I had a 
 crop afterwards like a bear " 
 
 " With seven senses," I added, and had to laugh at my own 
 wit. It seems that I have a child's head on my broad shoul- 
 ders. 
 
 The old man laughed heartily, then suddenly grew serious 
 and said : 1 . 
 
 " Now keep still, and go to sleep again like a " 
 
 He did not finish his favorite simile, apparently in fear 
 lest he should set me to laughing again ; but I laughed in 
 spite of his precautions, and while doing so pulled up the 
 sleeve of my shirt, which struck me as singularly loose. But 
 it was not that the sleeve was wider, but my arm thinner ; so 
 thin that I could scarcely believe it to be mine. 
 
 " Soon get strong again," said the sergeant. 
 
 " I have been very sick, then ? " 
 
 " Well," said he, " it was very near tattoo ; but I always 
 said : weeds won't die/' and he rubbed his hands with sat- 
 isfaction. " Talk enough now," he added, in a tone of au- 
 thority. " Strict orders, when awake, to allow no discussion, 
 and report fact ; which shall be done forthwith." 
 
 The sergeant is about rising, but I take one of his brown 
 hands and beg him to stay. I feel myself quite strong, I 
 say ; speaking does not fatigue me at all, and of course 
 hearing does not ; and I should like to hear how I came into 
 this condition, who the persons are that have been about 
 me, and whose faces I have seen floating through the mist 
 of my dreams ; and if there has not been a great good-na- 
 tured mastiff" that guarded me, and had a way of growling 
 deeply. 
 
 The old man looks at me attentively, as if he thought all 
 was not yet quite right under myl^ristly, half-bald skull, and 
 that it was high time he made his report. He placed my 
 hand upon the coverlid, and said, " So ! so ! " smoothes the 
 pillow, and again says, " So ! so ! " so to please him I shut 
 my eyes and hear how he rises softly and goes away on tip- 
 toe \ but the door has hardly closed behind him when I open 
 
Hammer and Arwil. 245 
 
 my eyes again, and apply myself resolutely to the task of 
 
 solving the questions which I had addressed to the old man. 
 
 As when we look down from a high mountain upon a sea 
 
 Uof mist, we note bright points emerging, one by one — a sun- 
 lit corn-field, a cottage, a bit of road, a little lake with grassy 
 shores, until at last the whole landscape lies plain before us, 
 except a few spots over which gray wreaths of vapor still 
 float, which more slowly than the rest roll up the ravines — 
 just so before my mental vision dissolved the night of obliv- 
 ion which during my illness had covered the recent events 
 of my life. Now I again remembered that I was in prison 
 and how I came there ; that the old man with the gray 
 i moustache was not my friend and nurse, but my keeper ; 
 
 * that I had had thoughts of killing him, if necessary, to gain 
 
 my liberty ; and so everything that had happened, up to that 
 last frightful day ; but that- was confused and obscure — as 
 confused and obscure as it has ever since remained in my 
 memory to this hour. Dark and painful ; but strange to say, 
 this painful feeling was turned exclusively against myself. 
 The Ijiate, the bitterness, the rancor, the desperation, the 
 frenzy — all the demons which had dwelt in my soul, were 
 at gone, as though an angel with flaming sword — ^perhaps the 
 
 - Angel of Death, who had hovered over me — had driven 
 
 them away. Even the remains of pain melted away in thank- 
 fulness that the most fearful of all had been spared me — 
 that I could look upon my white, wasted hands without a 
 shudder. 
 
 As I lay here, pondering these things, and my eyes rested 
 > upon that fair young mother, who bore her boy so securely 
 
 % ypon her strong, faithful arm, my hands involuntarily folded, 
 
 I and I thought of my own mother so early lost — far too early 
 
 I for me — and how all would have happened differently if she 
 
 I had ever encircled me with her protecting arms ; if in my 
 
 I young sorrows and doubts I could have sought refuge, coun- 
 
 sel, and consolation upon her faithful breast And I thought 
 too of my father, who was so lonely now, whose hopes I had 
 so cruelly blighted, whose pride I had so deeply wounded ; 
 and I thought of him for the first time without animosity, 
 with only a feeling of deepest pity for the poor old forsaken 
 man. 
 
 " But he will live," I said to myself, " and I am not dead ; 
 
246 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 and all shall be well again. No, not all. The lost past can- 
 not be recalled ; but the future still is mine, even in a 
 prison." 
 
 In a prison. But was this a prison in which I was ? — this 
 pleasant room with windows barred only by nodding vine- 
 branches ; a room in which everything spoke of the peace- 
 fully cheerful life of its fair inhabitant. 
 
 How I came to this idea I do not know, but I could not 
 rid myself of it ; and there were the ends of red worsted 
 hanging from the little work-basket. What had a work- 
 basket to do in the room of a man ? 
 
 I thought and thought, but could arrive at no conclusion ; 
 the streak of mist would not move. Indeed it rather widen- 
 ed and spread to a thin veil, which threatened gradually to 
 envelope the whole prospect. I did not care ; I had seen 
 it once and knew that I should see it again ; knew that I 
 should hear the voices again which now fell faintly on my 
 ear as if from a vast distance, among which I could distin- 
 guish the muttered growl of my faithful mastiff, and the soft 
 voice that accompanied the eyes whose gentle light had 
 shone through my darkness. 
 
 When I again awaked, it was really night, or at least so 
 late that the little astral lamp by my bedside was already 
 lighted, and by its feeble glimmer I saw some one sitting by 
 my bed whom I did not recognize, as his head was hidden in 
 his hand. But when I moved, and he raised his head and 
 asked, " How are you now ? " I knew him at once. The low 
 gentle voice I would have recognized among a thousand. 
 And now, strangely enough, without having to give a mo- 
 ment's thought to the matter, but just as if sonie one had told 
 me everything in my sleep, I knew that the house in which I 
 had been for the last eight weeks, and in which I had all 
 this time been tended as carefully as if I had been one of the 
 family, was the house of the superintendent, of the man who 
 certainly not to-day for the first time was watching by my 
 bed, and who spoke to me in a tone of affection, as might a 
 kind father to his son. 
 
 Leaning over me, he had taken my hand while he went 
 on speaking ; but I could only half hear his words for an- 
 other voice that cried out within me, loud and ever louder, 
 in the words of Scripture : " I am not worthy ! 
 
 » 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 247 
 
 I could not silence this voice. " I am not worthy ! " it 
 continually cried, until at last I exclaimed aloud : " I am not 
 worthy ! " 
 
 " You are, my friend," said the soft voice ; " I know that 
 you are, even though you know it not yourself." 
 
 " No, no, I am not," I said, in great agitation. " You do 
 not know whom you are caring for ; you do not know whose 
 hand you are holding in yours." 
 
 And now, following that irresistible impulse which urges 
 every nature that is upright at heart to refuse at all hazards 
 gratitude which it is conscious of not deserving, I confessed 
 my grievous fault ; how I had been resolved to run every risk to 
 gain my liberty ; that I had not, it is true, invited the overtures 
 of the ruffian, but nevertheless had permitted them ; how I 
 had known of the plot and of the hour when it was to be 
 carried out, and that I did not know why in the last moment 
 the courage to do my part in it had failed me so that I turned 
 my hand against the man whom I had voluntarily admitted 
 as my comrade, and whose accomplice I must necessarily 
 consider myself 
 
 The superintendent allowed me to speak to an end, only 
 retaining with a gentle pressure my hand, whenever I at- 
 tempted to withdraw it. When I ceased speaking, he said 
 — and even now, after so many years, on awaking in the night, 
 I fancy I hear his voice : 
 
 " My dear young friend, it is not what our fancies, inten- 
 tions, desires, represent to us as possible or even necessary, 
 not what we believe we can do or ought to do, not what we 
 have resolved to do, but it is what at any given moment we 
 really do, that makes us what we are. The coward believes 
 himself a hero until the moment of trial convicts him of 
 cowardice ; the brave man fancies that he will prudently 
 avoid all perils, and plunges headlong into danger as soon 
 as a cry for help reaches his ear. You believed yourself 
 capable of lifting your hand against a defenceless man, and 
 when you saw him attacked by a murderer, you sprang to his 
 assistance. And do not say that you did not know what you 
 were doing ; or if you really did not know, you were following 
 the irresistible promptings of your nature, and were just at 
 that moment your real self I and mine will evermore see 
 in you the man who saved my life at the peril of his own." 
 
248 Hammer and Anvil. \ 
 
 " You would make me out better than I really am," I mur- 
 mured. 
 
 " Even were that so," he answered, " few have my oppor- 
 tunity for knowing that the surest, often the only way to make 
 a man better, is to take him for better than he is. Would to 
 heaven that this secret of my craft were always as easy of 
 employment as with you. And if I can help, as I joyfully 
 trust I can, in refining the noble metal of your nature from 
 the dross with which it may yet be mingled ; if I can help to 
 enlighten you in regard to yourself, to light up the path of 
 your life which lies but dark before you, and from which you 
 believe you have — and perhaps really have — ^wandered ; in a 
 word, to make you what you can be, and therefore ought to 
 be — that would be but dealing you out justice in return for 
 the sharp injustice which has brought you here ; and I might 
 thus repay the debt of gratitude which I owed you before 
 you set foot in this house, let alone before you preserved for 
 my children their father's life." 
 
 The soft light of the lamp fell upon his beautiful pale face, 
 which seemed to beam upon me with mild radiance like a 
 star out of the surrounding gloom ; and his gentle voice 
 came to my ear like the voice of some good spirit that in the 
 stillness of the night speaks to some needy and stricken 
 soul. I lay there without moving, without turning my eyes 
 from him, and softly begged him to speak on. 
 
 " It is perhaps selfish in me to do so," he said, " if I now 
 seize the moment when your soul awakes to fresh life, and is 
 disposed to look with trusting child-like eyes upon the world 
 it has regained, to teach you to know me, and, if possible, to 
 love me, as I know and love you — I repeat it, not now for 
 the first time. I knew you before you came here. You look 
 at me with surprise, and yet nothing could be more simple. 
 I always deeply loved my eldest brother, although in reality 
 we only passed our childhood and boyhood together, and 
 were then separated, never again to associate, nor indeed 
 even to see each other, for the last fourteen years. For, 
 whatever the world and his passions may have made of him, 
 his was originally the fairest, noblest, bravest soul that ever 
 was bestowed upon man. You can imagine what a blow to 
 me was the news of his death ; with what painful care I 
 strove to learn everything connected with his death and its 
 
Hamjner and Anvil. 249 
 
 cause j how eagerly I seized an opportunity that oflFered to 
 read the reports of the trial in which the name and actions 
 of my unfortunate brother figured so conspicuously, and in 
 which you were yourself so unhappily involved. From these 
 reports I first learned to know you, I have long been ac- 
 customed to inspect reports of this kind, and know how to 
 read between the lines of the text. Never was this skill 
 more necessary to me than in this case ; for never has the 
 juristic understanding — or rather imbecility— divested of all 
 psychological insight, committed grosser wrong than in your 
 case ; never did the hand of a dauber produce from an easily- 
 outlined, sun-clear, youthful face, a more hideous caricature 
 in black upon black. In almost every feature with which 
 the accusation furnished it, I thought I could perceive and 
 prove exactly the contrary. And had it not been my dearly- 
 loved brother whose fault you were to expiate — if the whole 
 trial had been foreign to me, instead of touching me nearly, 
 and in a thousand painful ways, I would have made your 
 cause my own, and tried to save you, if in my power. But 
 I could do nothing for you ; I could only exert all my influ- 
 ence to have you brought here instead of to N., where it was 
 originally intended to send you. 
 
 "You came, I saw you as I had pictured you to myself; 
 I found you just as I had thought. There may have been 
 some apparent difference, but that was not the youth who, 
 to rescue my brother, had rushed upon ruin ; who had 
 given himself up to justice that men might not say his father 
 was his accomplice ; who during the trial had knowingly 
 damaged his own cause by obstinately refusing all informa- 
 tion implicating others ; whose manly candor in all other 
 points would have touched any heart but the shriveled heart 
 of a man of acts and processes. This was a man who had 
 been wronged under the forms of law, whose clear soul had 
 been darkened by the gloom of a dungeon. 
 
 " It was worthy of you that you attempted no concealment 
 of your feeling of hatred, that you proudly rejected what was 
 offered you here, which others would have greedily seized. 
 Let me be brief The malady that had been so long incu- 
 bating, which nothing but your unusually strong constitution 
 was able to withstand so long, at last declared itself In 
 the frenzy of your disturbed mind you wished to show : 
 11* 
 
250 Haimner and Anvil. 
 
 * This is what you have made out of me ! ' and the result 
 showed that you had remained what you always were. You 
 were carried away for dead from the place ; a physician 
 hastily called in gave some hope, but said that only the most 
 unremitting care could save you. Where could you receive 
 that care but here ? Who could more faithfully watch over 
 your life than he who owed you his own ? What, in such a 
 case, were to me the rules of the house, or the talk of 
 men ? We carried you into the first room, which happened 
 to be the best for our purpose. We — that is, my wife, my 
 daughter, who is older than her years, the faithful old Sils.s- 
 milch, the physician, whom you will learn to love as he 
 deserves, and myself — we have fought faithfully and bravely 
 with the death that threatened you ; and the women wept, 
 and the men shook each other by the hand when your 
 strong nature triumphed over its enemy, and the physician 
 said to us — a week ago — ' He is saved.' And now enough; 
 perhaps too much for to-day. If from our conversation you 
 have received the impression, and will bear it with you into 
 your sleep, that you are among friends that love you, that is 
 all I wish. I hear S iissmilch coming ; I wanted to relieve 
 him to-night, but he says he cannot leave his prisoner. And 
 now good night and good rest." 
 
 He passed his hand softly over my brow and eyes, and left 
 the room. My soul was filled with his words. No man had 
 ever spoken to me like this. Was it really myself? Had 
 my gloomy soul departed during my long sickness, and given 
 place to a purer, brighter spirit ? Be it as it might, it was 
 sweet — ^almost too sweet to last. But I would keep it as 
 long as I could, as one holds fast the refrain of some lovely 
 melody. I did not move, I did not open my eyes, when I 
 heard by a slight rustling in the room that my faithful guar- 
 dian was making his preparations for the night. 
 
 How could I do otherwise than rest sweetly, so richly 
 blessed ; than rest calmly, so faithfully guarded ? 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 251 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 IN the shady garden, especially reserved for the use of the 
 superintendent and his family, there was at the farthest 
 corner a little garden-house, which stood upon the old 
 city-wall, and in the family rejoiced in the pompous name of 
 Belvedere, because from it a charming view might have been 
 had, over the ramparts, of a large part of the strait and a still 
 larger part of the island, if one could only have opened the 
 windows. But the window-frames were very old, and rotten 
 and warped with age ; the sashes were narrow, and the reg- 
 ular pattern they once presented could scarcely now be dis- 
 cerned in the small, lead-set panes of stained glass which 
 had once belonged to an adjacent chapel, now in ruins. 
 The house was to a certain extent a ruin, as the wood of 
 which it was built had not entirely resisted for so many years 
 the influences of the sun, the rain, and the sea-breeze ; and 
 it was in consequence but seldom used, far more rarely than 
 the space immediately in front of it, which was, in reality, 
 the summer residence of the family, where they passed the 
 best part of the time in fine weather. 
 
 This spot fully deserved their preference. On a level with 
 the garden-house and the crest of the wall, and thus consid- 
 erably higher than the rest of the garden, it was reached by a 
 refreshing breeze from the near sea, while but rarely did a 
 ray of the noon sun pierce the thick foliage of the old plane- 
 trees that surrounded it. The spaces between the trunks of 
 these trees were filled up with the green wall of a living 
 hedge, which added to the cosy, secluded character of the 
 spot, and threw into bold relief the figures of six hermce of 
 sandstone. Two round pine tables, painted green, stood on 
 either side, with the needfiil chairs, and invited to work or 
 to reverie. 
 
 Of the two persons who were sitting here one fine after- 
 noon in August, about a fortnight after I had been able to 
 leave my room, the one was occupied — if day-dreaming may 
 be called an occupation with the other ; while the other was 
 really diligently at work. The dreamer was myself; and a 
 light covering, which, despite the warmth of the day, was 
 
252 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 thrown across my lap, seemed meant to indicate that I was 
 still a convalescent, to whom dreaming is allowed and work 
 forbidden ; while the other was a young maiden of about 
 fourteen years, and her work consisted in drawing a life-size 
 head d, deux crayons upon a sketching-board. During her 
 work she frequently raised her eyes from her sketching- 
 board to me, and if I must name the subject of my dreams, I 
 must confess that it was these eyes of hers. 
 
 And indeed one did not need to be twenty years old, and 
 a convalescent, and in addition precisely the one upon whom 
 these eyes were so often fixed with that peculiar look at 
 once decisive and doubtful, piercing and superficial, which 
 the painter casts upon his model — I say one did not need to 
 be either of these, let alone all three at once, to be fettered 
 by these eyes. They were large and blue, with that depth 
 in them which has a surface on which play every emotion of 
 feeling, every glancing light and passing shadow, and which 
 yet remains in itself something unfathomable. Once already, 
 and that not so long before, I had looked into eyes that 
 were unfathomable, at least for me, but how different were 
 these ! I felt the difference, and yet was not able precisely 
 to define it. I only knew that these eyes did not confuse 
 and disquiet me, did not kindle me into a flame to-day to 
 chill me as with ice to-morrow ; but that I could gaze into 
 them again and again as one gazes into the clear sky, full 
 of blissful calm, and no wish, no desire awakens within us, 
 unless it be the longing to have wings. 
 
 What possibly may have caused these large deep eyes of 
 the maiden to appear larger and deeper, was the circum- 
 stance that they were by far the chief beauty of her face. 
 Some said the only beauty ; but I could not at that time 
 agree with this opinion. Her features were indeed not per- 
 fectly regular, and certainly not at all what is called striking, 
 but there was nothing ignoble about them ; on the contrary, 
 all was refined and full of character, at once bright and 
 thoughtful, designed in soft yet well-marked lines. Espe- 
 cially did this apply to the mouth, which seemed to speak 
 even when the lips were shut. And this bright, intelligent, 
 rather pale face was inclosed by two thick plaits of the rich- 
 est blond hair, which, as was then the fashion, commenced 
 at the temples and were carried under the ears to the back 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 253 
 
 of the head — almost too heavy a frame, one would have said, 
 for the delicate head, which was usually inclined a little for- 
 ward or to one side. This attitude, combined with her 
 usual seriousness of expression, gave the maiden an appear- 
 ance of being several years older than she really was. But 
 work and care soon brush away the first lustre of youth ; 
 and she, though hardly more than a child, knew what work 
 was but too well, and over her young life care had already 
 cast its gloomy shadow. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 AT this moment, however, a smile played over her se- 
 rious face. She looked over her sketching-board at 
 me and said : "You can get up, if you wish." 
 
 " Have you finished ?" I asked, availing myself of the per- 
 mission, and going behind her chair. " Why, you are still at 
 work on the eyes. How can you have so much patience ?" 
 
 " And you so much impatience ?" she asked in return, 
 quietly going on with her drawing. " You are just like our 
 little Oscar. When he has planted a bean, five minutes af- 
 terwards he digs it up again to see if it has grown at all." 
 
 "But he is only seven years old." 
 
 " Old enough to know that beans do not grow so fast as 
 that." 
 
 " You always find fault with Oscar, and after all he is your 
 pet." ^ 
 
 " Who says so ?" 
 
 " Benno told me so yesterday, in strictest confidence. I 
 was not to tell you." 
 
 " Then vou ought not to have told me." 
 
 "But he is right." 
 
 " No, he is not right. Oscar is the smallest, and therefore 
 I must look after him the most. Benno and Kurt can get 
 along without me." 
 
 " Except their exercises, which you correct for them." 
 
 " Now take your seat again." 
 
2 54 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 " I may speak, may I not ?" 
 
 "Certainly." 
 
 I had taken my seat, but several minutes passed while I 
 sat silently watching her work. A ray of the evening sun, 
 which pierced the thick foliage of the great plane, fell upon 
 her head and surrounded it with an aureole, 
 
 "Fraulein Paula," I said. 
 
 " Paula," she answered, without looking up. 
 
 " Paula, then." 
 
 "Well?" : 
 
 " I wish I had a sister like you." 1 
 
 "You have a sister." 
 
 " But she is so much older than I, and never cared much 
 for me ; and now she of course will have nothing more to 
 do with me." , 
 
 " Where did you say that she lives ?" 
 
 " On the Polish frontier. She has been married, these ten 
 years, to an officer in the customs. She has a number of 
 children." 
 
 " Then she has enough to do with them ; you must not be 
 angry with her." 
 
 " I am not angry with her ; I hardly know her ; I believe 
 I should pass her by if I met her on the street." 
 
 " That is not well ; brothers and sisters should hold to- 
 gether. If I thought that ten or twenty years hence I should 
 meet Benno or Kurt or my little Oscar on the street and they 
 would not know me, I should be very unhappy." 
 
 "They would know you, even if fifty years had passed." 
 
 " I should be an old woman then ; but I shall never be so 
 old." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " By that time the boys will have long been men, and will 
 have wives and children, and my father and my mother will 
 long have been buried, and what should I then do in the 
 world ? " , , 
 
 " But you will marry too." 
 
 "Never," she replied. '- >--'.■-•-.• •• • j 
 
 Her voice was so serious, and her great blue eyes that 
 looked over the board at my forehead, which she was then 
 drawing, had so grave an expression, that I could not laugh, 
 as I at first felt disposed to do. '^ ..... - . 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 255 
 
 « Why ? " I inquired. 
 
 " When the boys can do without me, I will be too old." 
 " But you cannot always go on correcting their exercises." 
 " I do not know ; it seems to me as if I should always do 
 
 it." 
 
 " Even when they are learning Latin and Greek ? " 
 
 " I learn Latin with them now ; why should I not learn 
 Greek too ? " 
 
 " Greek is so desperately hard ; I tell you, Paula, the 
 irregular verbs — no human creature can learn them unless it 
 be gymnasium professors, and I never can believe that they 
 are exactly men." 
 
 " That is one of your jokes, which you must not let Benno 
 hear : he wants to be a teacher." 
 
 " I think I will get that notion out of his head." 
 
 " Do not do so. Why should he not be a teacher if he has 
 a liking for it, and talent enough ? I do not know anything 
 more delightful than to teach any one something which I be- 
 lieve to be good and useful to him. And then it is a good 
 position for one in Benno's circumstances. I have heard it 
 said that when one makes no great pretensions, he can soon 
 secure a modest sufficiency. My father, it is true, has other 
 views : he would like Benno to be a physician or naturalist. 
 But these are expensive professions to learn ; and although 
 my father always takes a hopeful view — but I am not sure 
 that he always does." 
 
 Paula bent her head over her sketching-board, and went 
 on with her drawing more assiduously than ever ; but I saw 
 that once or twice she raised her handkerchief to her eyes. 
 It gave me pain to see it. I knew what anxiety, and that 
 too well-founded, Paula felt for her father's health, whom she 
 loved devotedly. 
 
 " Fraulein Paula," I said. 
 
 She did not correct me this time — ^perhaps did not hear 
 me. 
 
 "Fraulein Paula," I said again, "you must not cherish 
 such gloomy thoughts. Your father is not so ill : and then 
 you would not believe what a race the Zehrens are. Herr 
 von Zehren used to call the steuerrath a weakling, and yet 
 he might take an undisputed place among those who account 
 themselves robust men ; but Herr von Zehren himself was a 
 
256 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 man of steel, and yet he once told me that his youngest 
 brother was a match for two like him. And you see a strong 
 constitution is everything, Doctor Snellius says, and so I say 
 too." . I 
 
 " To be sure, if you say so " 
 
 Paula looked up, and a melancholy smile played about 
 her beautiful lips. 
 
 " You mean that a miserable scarecrow, such as I sit here, 
 has no business to be talking about strength ?" 
 
 " O no ; I know how strong you were before you were ill ; 
 and how soon you would be strong again, if you would take 
 proper care of yourself, which you do not always do. For ex- 
 ample, you ought never to be sitting here without some wrap- 
 pings, and you have let the coverlid fall off your lap ; but- 
 
 (( 
 
 But ?" said I, obediently drawing up the coverlid 
 
 over my knees. 
 
 " I mean that it is not quite right to say that a strong con- 
 stitution is everything. Kurt there is certainly the strongest 
 of the boys, and yet Oscar can read, write, and cipher as 
 well as he, though Kurt is nine years old, and Oscar only 
 
 seven." 
 
 " But you see Oscar is your favorite." 
 
 " That is not kind of you," Paula said. 
 
 She said it gently and pleasantly, without a trace of offence, 
 and yet I felt the blood rush to my cheeks. I felt as though 
 I had struck a defenceless child. 
 
 " No, it was not at all kind," I said, with warmth ; " it was 
 a very unfeeling speech ; I do not know how I could say it. 
 But clever boys have always been held up to me as models, 
 and the comparison always carried with it so many disagree- 
 able allusions to myself, that the blood always rises to my 
 head when I hear them talked about. It always makes me 
 think how stupid I am." 
 
 "You ought not to call yourself stupid." 
 
 " Well then, that I know so little ; that I have learned so 
 very little." 
 
 " But that is nobody's fault but yours — that is, supposing 
 it to be really the case." 
 
 " It is the case," I answered. " It is frightful how little 
 I know. To say nothing at all about Greek, which I main- 
 tain to be too hard, and only invented by teachers on pur- 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 257 
 
 pose to torment us, my Latin does not amount to much, and 
 that is certainly my fault, for I have seen how Arthur, who I 
 don't believe is a bit cleverer than I am, could get along with 
 it very well when he tried. Your English books, in which 
 you read so much, might all be Greek for me ; and as for 
 French — perhaps I can still conjugate avoir and ttre, but I 
 doubt it. And yesterday, when Benno could not get his ex- 
 ercises right, and asked me, and I told him he must get them 
 right himself — I don't mind telling you that I had not the 
 slightest notion how to begin them — and when he afterwards 
 got them right by himself, I felt shamed by a boy eleven 
 years old ; just as I have felt ashamed before Dr. Busch, 
 our professor of mathematics, whenever, as he always did, 
 he wrote under my work, ' Thoroughly bad,' or ' Quite re- 
 markably bad,' or 'Very well copied,' or some such ma- 
 liciousness." 
 
 While I thus remorsefully confessed my shortcomings, 
 Paula looked steadily at me with her great eyes, from time to 
 time shaking her head, as if she could not believe her ears. 
 
 " If this is really so " 
 
 "Why do you always say 'if,' Paula.? Little as I have 
 learned, I have at least learned to tell the truth,' and I would 
 never attempt a falsehood with you." 
 
 The maiden blushed to her blond tresses. 
 
 " Forgive me," she said ; " I did not mean to wound you ; 
 although I can scarcely believe that you — that you spent so 
 ill your time at school. I only meant to say that you must 
 make it good again ; you must make up for that lost time." 
 
 "Easily said, Paula! How am I to begin? Benno 
 knows more French, geography, and mathematics than I, 
 and he is only eleven years old, and next month I am 
 twenty." 
 
 Paula pushed the drawing-board away from her upon the 
 table, and leaned her head upon her hand, apparently in 
 order better to ponder over so desperate a case. Suddenly 
 she raised her head and said : 
 
 " You must speak to my father." 
 
 • What shall I tell him ? " 
 
 ■' All that you have told me." 
 
 " He will not be able to help me either." 
 
 "He will, be sure. You do not know how much my 
 
aS^ Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 father knows. He knows everything — understands every- 
 thing." 
 
 " That I well believe, Paula ; but how can that help me ? 
 He can give me no part of his knowledge, even if he were so 
 kind as to wish it." 
 
 " True, he cannot do that ; you must work yourself ; but 
 how to work the best, and how to succeed the soonest, he 
 knows, and will tell you if you ask him. Will you ? " 
 
 « Yes, I will ; but " 
 
 "No — no 'buts.' I am not to say *if,' so you must not 
 say 'but' Will you.?" , 
 
 "Yes." " ^ 
 
 As to utter this " yes " required some determination on 
 my part, I spoke it in a firm loud voice. Paula folded her 
 hands and bent her head, as if she were inwardly praying 
 that my resolution might be blessed. Everything was calm 
 around ; only a bird twittered, and the red sunset-rays 
 glanced through the twigs. It may have been a remnant of 
 weakness which still clung to me, but a strange and solemn 
 feeling possessed me. It was as though I were in a temple, 
 and had just pronounced a solemn vow by which I broke 
 away from my entire past, and devoted myself to a new life 
 and to new obligations. And while thus thinking I gazed 
 with fixed eyes at the dear maiden, who sat still, her hands 
 folded, her thoughtful head bent — ^gazed until the tears came 
 into my eyes, and trees, sunlight, and maiden were lost 
 behind a misty veil. 
 
 At this moment clear voices came ringing from the garden ; 
 it was Paula's brothers, who had finished their task in the 
 house, and now were joyously hurrying to their favorite spot 
 where they were certain of finding their sister. Paula gath- 
 ered up her drawing materials, and was spreading a sheet of 
 tissue-paper over her drawing, when the boys came bounding 
 up the hill at full speed to us. 
 
 " I am first ! " cried little Oscar, springing into his sister's 
 arms. 
 
 " Because we let you," said Kurt, jumping upon my knee. 
 
 " Let's see, Paula," said Benno, laying his hand upon his 
 sister's arm. 
 
 Paula threw back the tissue-paper. Benno looked atten- 
 tively at the drawing, and then carefully compared it with the 
 
^■<«r?B;5«»f:^,?l'^Tis™««;;; . 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 259 
 
 original. Kurt jumped down from my knee to examine his 
 sister's work too. Even Oscar stuck his curly head from un- 
 der her arm to see what was going on. It was a charming 
 group, the three boys clustered around the sister, now turn- 
 ing their bright eyes upon me, and then fixing them on the 
 picture, 
 
 " That is Uncle Doctor ! " said Oscar.- 
 
 Paula smiled and gently stroked the pretty boy's blond 
 curls. 
 
 " You are silly," said Kurt ; " he wears spectacles." 
 
 " It is well done, Paula," said Benno, with the air of a 
 connoisseur. 
 
 " Do you think so ? " she asked. 
 
 " Yes ; only he is not so good-looking." 
 
 " Now you have all seen it," said Paula, in a tone of de- 
 cision. " Benno, carry it into the Belvedere." 
 
 " I will carry it ! " said Kurt. 
 
 " No, I ! " cried Oscar. 
 
 " Have you not heard that I am to carry it ? " said Benno. 
 " You are too little." 
 
 " O yes, you are the big one ! " said Kurt, scornfully. 
 
 " Hush, hush ! " said Paula. " No disputes about it. 
 He who is older is bigger, and cannot help it ; and he who 
 is younger is smaller, and cannot help it either." 
 
 " No, Paula," said Kurt, " that is not so, George is 
 younger than father, and bigger too." 
 
 " Here comes father," said Paula, " and mother with him ; 
 and now be quiet." 
 
 The superintendent came up the path ; his wife held his 
 arm, and he was leading her slowly. Her eyes were covered 
 with a broad green shade. Behind them, now on the left 
 and now on the right side of the path, turning his uncovered 
 head first in one way and then in another, with a hat and 
 stick that he kept changing from hand to hand, came a short 
 compact figure with a disproportionately large head, whose 
 perfectly bald surface shone in the light of the evening 
 sun. 
 
 This was Dr. Willibrod Snellius, resident physician and 
 friend of the family. 
 
 I had arisen, and advanced a few paces to meet them. 
 
 " How are you now ? " asked the superintendent, giving 
 
26o Hammer and Anvil. | 
 
 ■■ . f ■■ 
 
 me his hand ; " has your first long stay in the open air done 
 you good ? " 
 
 " We will ask about that early to-morrow morning — hm, 
 hm, hm ! " said the doctor. 
 
 Doctor Snellius had a habit of accompanying his remarks 
 with a peculiar nasal sound which was half a grunt and half 
 a snort, and always just an octave below his ordinary voice, 
 which was very thin and of an unusually high pitch. This 
 shrill voice was the trial of his life to the doctor, who was a 
 man of great taste; and by the deep, growling sound he 
 emitted from time to time, he strove, according to his own 
 explanation, to convince himself that he was really a man 
 and not a cock, as his voice would indicate. 
 
 " But you ordered it yourself, doctor," said the superin- 
 tendent. 
 
 " Can I know from that that it will do him good ? — hm, hm, 
 hm ! " said Dr. Snellius. " It was a medicine like another. 
 If I always knew what effect my prescriptions would have, I 
 would die Baron Willibrod Snellius of Snelliusburg — hm, hm, 
 hm !" 
 
 " Any one to hear you would think that all your science 
 was mere illusion," said Frau von Zehren, taking her seat 
 upon a chair which Paula had placed for her. 
 
 " You have certainly but slight reason to consider us wiz- 
 ards, gnddige Frau I " 
 
 " Just because I do not so consider you, I do not expect 
 from you what is probably impossible." 
 
 Frau von Zehren removed the disfiguring shade and raised 
 her eyes with a look of thankfulness to the foliage of the trees 
 which kindly softened the daylight for them. How lovely 
 must those eyes have been while they were yet radiant with 
 youth and happiness ! How fair this face before sickness 
 had wasted its beauteous features, and far too soon — for 
 Frau von Zehren was hardly forty years of age — whitened the 
 luxuriant hair ! Pale and wasted as she was, she was still 
 beautiful — at least to me, who, short a time as I had been 
 near her, had already learned her angelic goodness, and 
 how with the inexpressible devotion with which she clung to 
 her husband and her children, her heart was full of sympathy 
 for all who suffered or sorrowed. 
 
 "We shall soon have a visit from your friend Arthur," said 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 261 
 
 the superintendent to me, drawing me a little to one side ; 
 " but I think you said he had not dealt with you in the most 
 friendly manner." 
 
 " He has not," I answered. " I should speak falsely to 
 say otherwise. But what brings him here t" 
 
 " He passed his examination at Easter, and is ordered to 
 the battalion stationed here, with the rank of ensign. We 
 shall probably see his parents also ; and it may be the com- 
 merzienrath, if he condescends to manage his affairs in per- 
 son. The matter in question is the inheritance of my brother, 
 or so much of it as has thus far escaped the hands of justice 
 and of his creditors, among whom, as you know, the commer- 
 zienrath holds the first place. The affair is rendered more 
 difficult from the fact that all his papers were destroyed when 
 the castle was burned. Constance has sent from Naples a 
 formal renunciation of the inheritance, and so there remain 
 really only my brother and the commerzienrath, as I for my 
 part prefer to have nothing to do with the whole affair ; in- 
 deed I will add that if it were not a duty to meet with dig- 
 nity what is inevitable, I should look forward to the meeting 
 with great repugnance. What will not be brought up at such 
 a conference ? What do you want, my child ?" 
 
 Oscar must needs show his father an unlucky beetle that 
 had run across his path. I remained sitting in the garden- 
 house, ^unk in painful reflection such as had not entered my 
 mind since I had risen from my bed of sickness. Arthur ! 
 Constance ! Arthur, who had so cruelly turned against me ; 
 Constance, who had so shamefully deceived me ! The steu- 
 errath, whom I knew to have been the cowardly accomplice 
 of his brave brother ; and the commerzienrath, who had 
 traded in the recklessness of the Wild Zehren, and, in all 
 likelihood, had hastened, if not brought about his ruin. 
 What a tumult of emotions did not these names arouse within 
 qie ! How hateful appeared to me all my past, into which 
 these names and these persons were forever interwoven ! — 
 hateful as the island even now appeared through a dingy 
 sulphur-yellow pane of the window at which I was standing. 
 And now, as I turned away with a sigh, my glance fell through 
 the open door upon the space under the plane-trees, filled 
 with the pure bright evening light, and upon the persons that 
 were moving in it. The superintendent and the doctor were 
 
262 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 walking, the latter first on the right and then on the left, and 
 both in animated conversation ; the two eldest boys were 
 playing about the knees of their mother, who, sitting in her 
 easy-chair, laughed and sported with them ; Paula had taken 
 the tea-things from the maid, and was setting the table, as 
 they were about to take tea in the open air, as was their cus- 
 tom in fine weather. How deftly she did it all ; how silently, 
 that the gentlemen might not be disturbed in their conversa- 
 tion, and that no clatter of plates should annoy her mother's 
 sensitive nerves ! And how with it all she had time to chat 
 with the little Oscar, who kept close at her side, and to look 
 if I was not exposing myself too much to the wind ! Yes, 
 the bright peaceful present was fairer than my dark stormy 
 past ; and yet it seemed as though a shadow was cast across 
 this also. If Arthur came here ; if, as was to be expected, 
 he was received into the family as a kinsman ; if, with his 
 plausible address, he wormed his way into the confidence of 
 these unsuspicious people, and won their favor with his insin- 
 uating manners — if he, who as a mere boy had practised 
 the wiles of the rake, should dare — and his insolence would 
 dare anything — to pay his insidious court to Paula, his cousin ! 
 I must still have been very weak, for I trembled at this 
 thought from head to foot, and started violently as I per- 
 ceived some one coming up the garden path towards the plane- 
 trees. I thought for a moment it must be he whom I had 
 once loved so dearly, and now so hated. 
 
 But it was no dandy ensign glittering in his new uniform, 
 but a lean man dressed in black, wearing an extremely nar- 
 row white cravat, and a low-crowned hat with very broad 
 brim, and whose sleek dark hair, unfashionably long, was 
 seen, when he took off" his hat in a polite salutation, to be 
 parted in the middle, and combed back behind his ears. I 
 knew the gentleman well ; I had seen him often enough 
 crossing the prison-yard with slow pace and bowed head, en- 
 tering this or that cell, and after a while coming out again, 
 always in the same attitude of humility. Indeed I already 
 enjoyed the happiness of a personal acquaintance, as he had 
 one day unexpectedly entered my sick-room, and begun to 
 talk about the welfare of my soul ; and I should more fre- 
 quently have enjoyed this felicity, had not Dr. Snellius, who 
 came in, put a stop to it by giving him to understand that at 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 263 
 
 the time the question was not that of the welfare of my 
 soul, but that of my body, which was not likely to be bene- 
 fited by such exciting topics. Indeed this difference of opin- 
 ion led to a rather lively dispute at the door of my room, 
 and, as it seemed, they came to pretty hard words ; so that 
 it was clearly a proof of the placable disposition of the 
 Deacon and Prison-Chaplain Ewald von Krossow, that he 
 now, after bidding the family good evening, politely saluted 
 the doctor, and even offered me his hand. 
 
 " How are you, my friend ? " he asked, in his soft voice. 
 " But how can it be other than well with you, since I find 
 you still in the open air, though it is already growing some- 
 what chilly. This is no impeachment of your better knowl- 
 edge, doctor. I well know \\\.2X prcssente medico nihil nocet. " 
 
 The doctor gave a scrape with his right foot, like a cock 
 who is preparing for battle, and crowed in his sharpest tones : 
 
 " It was unfortunate, then, that when Adam ate that unlucky 
 apple, there was no doctor by. The poor fellow would prob- 
 ably be living now. Hm, hm ! " 
 
 He glared wrathfully through his spectacles at the chap- 
 lain to see if his shot had told, but the chaplain only smiled. 
 
 " Still sitting in the seat of the scorner, doctor } " 
 
 " I must stay where I am ; I do not belong to those who 
 are never squeamish about pushing for a good place." 
 
 " But to those who are never at a loss for a sharp answer." 
 
 " Sharp only for souls as soft as butter." 
 
 " You know that I am a minister of peace." 
 
 " But you may change your service." 
 
 " And that it is my office to forgive." 
 
 " If you hold your office from above, probably the neces- 
 sary understanding for it has not been forgotten." 
 
 " Doctor ! " 
 
 " Herr von Krossow." 
 
 This conversation was hardly meant for my ears, at least 
 on the chaplain's side, who spoke throughout, even to his 
 last exclamation, in the gentle, deprecatory tone of wounded 
 innocence, and now, with a pitjdng shrug of the shoulders, 
 turned away and joined the others. 
 
 That game-cock, the doctor, whose antagonist had so un- 
 expectedly quitted the field, wore an air of blank surprise 
 for a moment, then burst into a hoarse crowing laugh, shook 
 
264 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 his arms like a pair of wings, and turned suddenly to me, as 
 if he felt the greatest desire to turn his baffled pugnacity 
 upon me. 
 
 "You would be acting more sensibly to go to your room." 
 
 "I have only been waiting for your orders." 
 
 " And now you have them ; and I will see to their prompt 
 execution myself." 
 
 He took my arm and hurried me so rapidly away, that I 
 had hardly time to bid the company good-night. His ire 
 had not evaporated : he snorted, he grunted, he clicked with 
 his tongue, and growled at intervals : " The scamp — the 
 scamp — the scamp ! " 
 
 " You seem to have no very high opinion of our chaplain," 
 I said. 
 
 " Don't you grow ironical, young man ! " said the doctor, 
 looking up at me. " High opinion ! high fiddlesticks ! 
 How can there be but one opinion of such a fellow ? " 
 
 " Yet the superintendent is always friendly to him." ' 
 
 " Because he is friendly to every one ; and besides it does 
 not occur to him that this is not a man but a snake. Yes, 
 that is easy enough to do, when other honest folks are left 
 to do the rudeness." I 
 
 " That is no great trouble for you, doctor." 
 
 " Young man, I say, do not exasperate me. I tell you the 
 thing is no trifling matter ; for if I cannot drive the fellow 
 away, he will sooner or later oust us all, and his kind friend 
 the superintendent, the very first. He has done you an ill 
 turn already." 
 
 " Me ? " 
 
 "Yes, you, the superintendent, myself. He would like 
 well to kill three birds v/ith one stone." 
 
 " Tell me about it, doctor, I beg you." ] 
 
 " I would tell you without your asking. Sit down in your 
 easy-chair and make yourself comfortable : it is likely to be 
 the last time you will sit in it." 
 
 We had reached my room ; the doctor pushed me into the 
 easy-chair, while he stood before me — sometimes on one leg, 
 sometimes on the other, but rarely on both at once — and 
 spoke as follows : 
 
 *' The case is simple, and therefore plain. To this pietis- 
 tic, aristocratic, beggarly mawworm, who has had hiniself 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 265 
 
 appointed prison-chaplain to let the light of his Christian 
 humility shine before men, the humanitarian superintendent 
 and the materialist doctor are an abomination. To a fellow 
 like that, humanity is a democratic weakness, and matter he 
 does not respect, unless it is eatable. With the deceased 
 pastor Michaelis, a man of the good old rationalistic school, 
 we lived as if we were in paradise ; he and Herr von Zehren, 
 or rather Herr von Zehren and he, in the twenty years that 
 they worked together, made the establishment what it is ; 
 that is, a model, in every sense of the word ; and during the 
 five years that I have been here I have done all in my power 
 to imbue myself with the spirit of these men, and I believe 
 that I have indifferently well succeeded. Now for this half 
 year, since Michaelis is dead, and this pietistic snake has 
 wormed himself into our paradise, our peace has gone to the 
 deuce ; the snake crawls into every corner, and leaves the 
 track of his slimy nature wherever he goes. The officers are 
 demoralized, the prisoners mutinous. Such a plot as that 
 which Cat-Kaspar hatched — thank heaven we are rid of the 
 rascal ; he is transferred to-day to N., where he ought to 
 have been sent at first — would formerly have been impossi- 
 ble. Cat-Kaspar was a pet of Mr. Chaplain, who saw in 
 him a precious, though not over-cleanly vessel, whose purifi- 
 cation was his allotted task ; and he begged the scoundrel 
 out of the solitary confinement in which the superintendent 
 had judiciously placed him. So it goes on ; divine worship 
 publice, prayers privatim, soul-saving exhortations prwatis- 
 sime. The Judas intrigues against us wherever and when- 
 ever he can, flatters the superintendent to his face, swallows 
 down my rudeness, and thinks, " I shall have you both soon," 
 like the owl when he heard the two bulfinches singing round 
 the corner. And he thinks he has us by the wings already. 
 You know, the president of the council, who is just such an- 
 other mawworm, is his uncle, and uncle and nephew are 
 hand and glove. The president, who is the superintendent's 
 immediate superior, would have removed him long ago, if 
 Minister von Altenberg, one of the last pillars left standing 
 from the good old times, and Herr vort Zehren's friend and 
 patron, did not support him, though^with but a feeble arm, it 
 is true ; for Altenberg is advanced in years, in ill health, and 
 may die any day. In the meantime they work as they can, 
 12 
 
 1 
 
266 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 and collect materials to be water to the mill of the next excel- 
 lency. And now listen : Assessor Lerch, my good friend, 
 was with the president yesterday. ' My dear Lerch,' said 
 the president, ' you perhaps can give me some information. 
 There is another complaint against Superintendent von 
 Zehren.' * Another, Herr President ? ' asked Lerch. 'Un- 
 happily, another. I have hitherto taken no action in these 
 matters, though I have not disregarded them ; but this case 
 is so flagrant that I must take it in hand and report it to his 
 excellency. Only think, my dear Lerch, Von Zehren has 
 been guilty of the — folly, I will call it, of allowing the young 
 man who gained such an unhappy notoriety in connection 
 
 with the smuggling case in Uselin -' and now it all comes 
 
 out that the superintendent, immediately after the catastrophe 
 — out of which the denouncer had spun a pretty story, you 
 may suppose — did not send you to the mouldy old infirmary, 
 where you would infallibly have died, but took you into his 
 own house, kept you here, and still keeps you, though you 
 have been a convalescent for three weeks now ; that he 
 associates with you as with his equal • that he has brought 
 you into his family, and indeed made you a member of it, so 
 to speak. Why need I go into all the particulars ? hm, hm, 
 hm!" 
 
 The doctor had crowed up to the very highest note of 
 his upper register, and had to grunt at least two octaves lower 
 to obtain his usual satisfactory reassurance. 
 
 " And you really hold that man as the denouncer ? " I 
 cried, angrily springing from my chair. 
 
 " I know it. Would I otherwise have been so rude to- 
 day?" 1 
 
 I could not help laughing. As if growler needed any 
 special provocation before he made free with the calves of an 
 intrusive clodhopper ! But the affair had a serious side. 
 The thought that Herr von Zehren, to whom I owed such 
 limitless gratitude, whom I so revered, should through me be 
 brought into so unpleasant a position, was intolerable. 
 
 " Advise me, help me, doctor ! " I besought him earnestly. 
 
 " Yes, advise, help — when I always told you that this state 
 of things could not go on. However, you are so far right : 
 the thing must be helped. And in truth there is but one ex- 
 pedient. We must be beforehand with the viper, and so for 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 267 
 
 this time we shall draw his fangs. I know the sup>erintend- 
 ent. If he had an idea that they wished to take you from 
 him, he would let his hand be hewn off before he would give 
 you up. Now this evening do you complain of headache, 
 and again to-morrow evening at the same time. Your room 
 is on the ground-floor ; at this moment there is not another 
 vacant. Intermittent — quinine — a higher, more airy apart- 
 ment — day after to-morrow you will be back in your old cell. 
 Let me manage it." 
 
 So I let Doctor Willibrod Snellius manage it ; and two 
 days later I was sleeping, if not under lock and bolt, at least 
 behind the iron gratings of my old cell. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 I STOOD behind these iron gratings on the following 
 morning, and looked sadly out of the window. Strange- 
 ly enough, I had not thought the evening before that 
 these gratings could produce any unpleasant sensations in 
 me now, and yet such was the case. They served ais a 
 grave reminder to me of what lately I had almost forgotten, 
 that I was, after all, a prisoner. " It makes no difference," 
 the superintendent said, when I took leave of him, and all 
 had vied to make a family festival of the last day that I was 
 to spend under their roof ; but be that as it might, there was 
 a difference. My breakfast was not now as appetizing as it 
 had been when I sat at it under the high trees of the quiet 
 garden with Frau von Zehren and Paula ; and even though 
 I could go, if I chose, into the garden, which seemed to give 
 me a friendly greeting, I must after a certain time return 
 here again. 
 
 I looked around the cell, and now first remarked what 
 pains they had taken to make me forget where I was. There 
 was the picture of the Sistine Madonna with the child, which 
 I had grown to love so during my illness, and which was 
 hung opposite my bed, just as it had hung in Paula's roorii. 
 There stood upon the bureau the same two terra-cotta vases, 
 
268 Hammer and Am'il. 
 
 and in each a couple of fresh roses. There was the easy- 
 chair in which Dr. Snellius had falsely predicted that I had 
 sat for the last time, and over the back hung a cover of 
 crotchet-work on which I had seen Paula engaged the pre- 
 vious evening. There hung the same etagbre with the same 
 neatly-bound books ; Goethe's Faust, Schiller's and Lessing's 
 works, which Paula had so often urgently recommended 
 me to read, and into which I had as yet hardly looked. 
 They had done all they could to make my prison as endura- 
 ble, as pleasant as possible ; but did not the very pains they 
 took show that it was a prison, and that the episode of my 
 apparent freedom was at an end. Yes, they had been kind, 
 inexpressibly kind to me, under the friendly smiling mask of 
 Samaritan compassion to one sick unto death — a mask that 
 must be laid aside, as soon as a Pharisee passed that way 
 and looked askance upon the moving sight. No, no ; I was 
 and remained a prisoner, whether my chains were decked 
 with roses or not. 
 
 Why had I not been able to break these chains ? True, 
 as I had begun, it was impossible ; but why did I begin so 
 clumsily "i Why did I not keep to myself, calmly trusting in 
 my own strength and my own craft, and in some lucky chance 
 that must have offered sooner or later ? Now, as things had 
 happened, after I had incurred such a debt of gratitude to 
 these people, after I had grown so attached to them, I was 
 twice and thrice a prisoner. For the tempting pottage of 
 friendship and love, I had bartered the first inalienable birth- 
 right of man, which is the very breath of his soul — the right 
 of liberty. Seven years ! Seven long, long years ! 
 
 I strode up and down my cell. For the first time since 
 my sickness I felt something of my former strength ; it was 
 but a remnant, but enough to bring back a part of my old 
 roving humor, of my old restlessness. How would it be then 
 when I felt myself all that I had ever been ? Would it not, 
 combined with the knowledge that nothing held me but my 
 own will, drive me to frenzy ? Would it. not have been better 
 if they had left me in my old slavery, with the dream that 
 some day I should be able to break their bonds, even if this 
 dream was never verified ? 
 
 " Here is a young man who wants to speak with us," 
 announced the sergeant. Since my sickness when " we " had 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 269 
 
 come through so much together, he frequently used in speak- 
 ing to me the same plural which he employed with all who, 
 in his opinion, had acquired an entire claim on his honest 
 heart ; for example, the superintendent and all his family, 
 including the doctor, and now myself. 
 
 " What sort of a man ! " I asked, while a joyous shiver 
 ran through me. As long as I had been in confinement this 
 was the first time that any one had come to see me ; and 
 somehow I connected the extraordinary event of a visitor 
 with the thoughts that had been passing through my mind. 
 
 " Looks like a sailor," answered the sergeant. " Says he 
 has news of our dead brother." 
 
 This sounded extremely improbable. My brother Fritz 
 had been dead for five years ; he had fallen from the fore- 
 yard overboard one stormy night, and was drowned. The 
 ship had returned in safety ; there was no mystery of any 
 sort connected with his death ; and if any one now brought 
 me intelligence of his end, there must be some other purpose 
 involved with it. 
 
 " Can I speak with him, Sussmilch ? " I asked, in the 
 most indifferent tone I could assume, while my heart seemed 
 to rise in my throat. 
 
 *' We can speak to whom we like." 
 
 " Then let him in ; and, Siissmilch, if he is a sailor he 
 would like a glass of something ; perhaps you could get me 
 something of the kind ? " 
 
 What superfluous trouble a man with an evil conscience 
 gives himself and others ! I must needs lie, always a trial 
 to me, to get the old man out of the way ; and the honest 
 Sussmilch, who had not a thought of being present at my 
 interview with the stranger, had to go down two flights of 
 stairs into the cellar. 
 
 " But we mustn't touch a drop ourselves," said the old 
 man, warningly. 
 
 "Have no fear." 
 
 He went, after first introducing the visitor — a broad-shoul- 
 dered deeply-bronzed man in sailor dress who was an 
 entire stranger to me. 
 
270 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 CHAPTER VI I. 
 
 I GAZED in mute astonishment at the stranger, whose 
 looks and manner were, to use the mildest expression, 
 very singular ; but was really frightened when he, so 
 soon as the door had closed behind the sergeant, without a 
 word and with the haste of a man completely out of his 
 senses, but still with the dexterity of a clown in a circus, 
 began to tear off his clothes, and to my utter amazement ap- 
 peared in precisely the same dress as that which now lay in 
 its various elements at his feet, while a triumphant smile dis- 
 closed two rows of the whitest teeth in the world. 
 
 " Klaus ! " I exclaimed, in joyous amazement. 
 
 The white teeth were now visible to the very last grinder. 
 He seized both my extended hands, but remembered at once 
 that such friendly manifestations did not belong to his part, 
 and hurriedly whispered : 
 
 " Into them, quick ! They will fit — folds will open out of 
 themselves — only quick before he comes back ! " 
 
 " And you, Klaus ? " 
 
 "I stay here." 
 
 " In my place .'' " i 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " But they will find it out in five minutes." 
 
 " Still you have time to get out ; and getting out and get- 
 ting off is one and the same thing to you." 
 
 " And do you suppose that you can do such a thing with- 
 out being punished ? " 
 
 " At the worst, they can but shut me up in your place, and 
 that will not be for long. With the locks I can easily deal, 
 and here" — he showed me a watch-spring-saw, which he drew 
 out of his thick hair — "with this I will cut that grating 
 through in a quarter of an hour." 
 
 "Klaus, all that cannot have come out of your own 
 head." 
 
 " No, out of Christel's ; but I beg you make haste." 
 
 I kicked the sailor-dress, which still lay upon the floor, 
 under the bed, for I heard the sergeant coming along the 
 corridor. He knocked at the door, and when I opened it, 
 handed me a bottle of brandy and a glass. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 271 
 
 " But we are no bear, and won't drink a drop ourselves, 
 will we ?" 
 
 Klaus stared in astonishment when he saw the dreaded 
 keeper turned into so obliging an attendant. 
 
 I closed the door again, and then fell on the good fellow's 
 neck. The tears stood in my eyes. 
 
 " Dear, good Klaus," I cried, " you and Christel are the 
 kindest hearts in the world, but I cannot accept your gen- 
 erous offer. I would not have accepted it under any circum- 
 stances ; and as it is, it is not to be thought of. I could go 
 away from here at an}' moment, but I will not, Klaus, I will 
 not." 
 
 Here I embraced Klaus again, and gave free course to 
 the tears which I had been repressing. I felt as if now for 
 the first time I knew what a prisoner was, since I had de- 
 clared that I wished to be one, and thus made myself one 
 of my own choice. Klaus, who naturally had no concep- 
 tion of what was passing within me, constantly endeavored, 
 while casting uneasy glances at the door, to persuade me to 
 let him take my place ; he would wager his head that he 
 would be out in twenty-four hours. 
 
 " Klaus, Klaus !" I cried, clapping him on the plump 
 cheeks, "you want to deceive me. Confess now, you have 
 no expectation of getting out so soon." 
 
 " Well, anyhow," he answered, very shame-facedly, " my 
 wife thought " 
 
 " Your wife, Klaus ! your wife !" 
 
 " We have been married these two months." 
 
 I thrust Klaus into the easy-chair, sat down before him, 
 and begged him to tell me everything. It would be the 
 greatest kindness he could do me, I said, if he could tell me 
 that all was going well with him ; that I was by no means in 
 so evil a straight as he imagined in his true heart of friend- 
 ship ; and I gave him in brief words a sketch of my adven- 
 tures in the prison, my attempt to escape, my illness, and my 
 friendly relations with the superintendent and his family. 
 
 " You see," I concluded, " that in every sense I am well 
 taken care of ; and now I must know how things have gone 
 with you and Christel, and how you managed so soon to be- 
 come man and wife. Only twenty-two, Klaus, and married 
 already ! How do you expect to get on ? And your Chris- 
 
2 "J 2 Hammer and Afn'il. 
 
 tel has let you come away? Klaus, Klaus, I don't like the 
 look of that." 
 
 I laughed at him, and Klaus, who now at last perceived 
 that nothing could come of his plan to rescue me, laughed 
 also, but not very heartily. 
 
 " There it is," said he. " How will she look when I come 
 back without you.-" " 
 
 " ' Without thei\' * I said, Klaus. I am not going to put 
 up with any breach of our old brotherhood now, or I shall 
 think you too proud to be on terms of thee and thou with 
 a prisoner. And how will she look when you come back 
 without me ? " 
 
 " There it is," said Klaus, " how will she, indeed ! We 
 are so happy ; but one or the other of us was always saying, 
 ' and he is shut up there ! ' and then there was an end of all 
 our happiness, especially because in a manner it is Christel's 
 fault that you are here ; for that morning at Zanowitz " 
 
 " Klaus," I interrupted him, " do you know then that for 
 a while I believed that Christel herself gave the information 
 to get rid of your father ? " 
 
 " No," said Klaus, " she did not do that, thank God ; 
 though more than once she was quite desperate and thought 
 of killing herself" 
 
 He wiped his forehead with his hand ; I had touched a 
 painful subject. We sat awhile without speaking, when 
 Klaus commenced again : 
 
 " One good result it has had : ' he ' " — Klaus had already 
 adopted Christel's habit of never calling ' him ' by his name 
 — " ' he ' of course had to give up the guardianship of Christel, 
 and as a person of damaged reputation, could not interfere 
 much with me. Aunt Julchen in Zanowitz, with whom 
 Christel stayed after that day, fitted Christel out, and we 
 might have lived like angels, if — " and Klaus, with a mel- 
 ancholy look at me, shook his big head. 
 
 " And you are still in Berlin, in the commerzienrath's ma- 
 chine-shops ? " I asked, to give his thoughts another direction. 
 
 " Of course," he said, " I have been promoted already ; I 
 am now foreman in my shop." 
 
 * From this point the conversation is continued in the familiar second person, 
 which does not convey tlie same association in English, and is therefore not 
 adopted in the translation. — Tr. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 273 
 
 '* And you earn plenty of money ? " 
 
 " So much that we don't know what to do with it." 
 
 " Your Christel is an excellent housekeeper " 
 
 " And washes and irons to that extent that our whole 
 house smells of nothing but soap and flat-irons." 
 
 Klaus showed his teeth ; I pressed his hand in token of 
 sympathy with his happiness, though I had never been espe- 
 cially ravished by the perfumes he so highly prized ; but 
 now more urgently than ever I desired to know how this 
 happy young pair ever made up their minds so cruelly to 
 risk their good fortune. 
 
 " I told you already," answered Klaus, " that we never 
 were quite happy. Wherever we went or stood, and above 
 all when we were in real good humor about anything, the 
 thought always came up : if he could only be here ! And 
 four weeks ago yesterday, when we had some Bierkaltschale* 
 — no, no, we could stand it no longer." 
 
 " Some Bierkaltschale ? " I asked, in some surprise. 
 
 " Yes ; don't you know how you always used to have some 
 made for you at the forge, in the summer-time, when you 
 wanted to give yourself a treat ? Christel often made it for 
 you. Well, then, just four weeks ago we were drinking some 
 — they have an excellent beer for it in Berlin, much better 
 than ours, that was always a little bitter — and I was enjoying 
 it, when Christel on a sudden let the ladle fall and began to 
 howl, and I knew at once what she was thinking of, and then 
 I began, and we kept on drinking and howling, and when 
 we had finished, we both said together : It can't go on this 
 way ! So then we put our heads together " 
 
 " As you did that evening when I met you on the heath ? " 
 
 " And contrived apian at last," continued Klaus, who would 
 have turned red at my indiscreet remark, had the color of 
 his complexion allowed it, " that is to say, Christel contrived 
 it. She had read just such a story, only the prisoner was a 
 king's son, and his deliverer was a knight, who disguised 
 himself as a priest — of course that wouldn't do, but a sailor 
 would do, Christel said, for here in the workhouse there was 
 sure to be many a tarpaulin, and of course there would be 
 some coming to see them. And anyhow, Christel said, a 
 
 * " Bierkaltschale," a beverage composed of beer, sweetened with fruit sliced 
 into it. — Tr. 
 
 12* . . 
 
2 74 Hammer and Anvil. ' 
 
 sailor's dress was the best disguise in a sea-port. So we 
 
 practised the whole thing " 
 
 " You practised it ? " 
 
 « ' 
 
 To be sure \ it wasn't so easy ; we went through it every 
 night for a week when I came home from work, until Christel 
 said at last she thought it would do at a pinch." 
 
 " It went capitally, Klaus ! " 
 
 " Yes, but what good has it done ? " asked Klaus, with a 
 regretful look at the bed under which the disguise was lying, 
 " when I had my ears bored to put these rings in ? and when 
 Christel every morning rubbed my face with bacon " 
 
 " With bacon ? " 
 
 " I must look like a sailor from the other side, Christel said, 
 and for that there is nothing so good as to rub your face with 
 bacon and then scorch it at a furnace." 
 
 "You look like a mulatto, Klaus." ' ' 
 
 " So Christel said ; but what good would it do if I looked 
 like a negro, when you won't come out ? " 
 
 " It does this good, Klaus," I cried, catching the faithful 
 fellow round the neck, " that you two have given me one of 
 the happiest moments of my life, and which I should not 
 have had had I taken your generous offer. God bless you 
 both for your love to me ; and when I am free again and am 
 a rich man, I will repay it with interest. And now, my dear 
 good fellow, you must go ; I have to go and see the super- 
 intendent. And do you hear, Klaus, you go right back with- 
 out wasting a minute. And one thing more : if your eldest 
 is a boy " 
 
 " He is to be named George ; we settled that some time 
 ago," said Klaus, showing his very farthest grinders. 
 
 I put Klaus out of the door, and was pacing up and down 
 the room, somewhat agitated by what had just passed, when 
 I bethought me of the disguise which I had pushed under 
 the bed, and which, in our excitement, we had quite forgot- 
 ten. I now drew it out, and could not resist the temptation 
 to try on the jacket of rough cloth. It was as Klaus had 
 said. In the sleeves, the back, and the skirts, there were 
 folds so dexterously made and caught with stitches, that 
 I had only to give a smart pull and they came out ; and al- 
 though I was a head taller and six inches wider across the 
 shoulders than Klaus, the garment fitted me as if it had 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 275 
 
 been made for me. So was it with the waistcoat and the 
 trousers : all were so accurately made that — now that my 
 illness had left me much thinner than I had been — I could 
 very conveniently put them on over the clothes I was wearing. 
 
 Just as I had finished doing so, some one knocked at the 
 door. It could only be the sergeant or the superintendent, 
 who usually came at this hour. I seated myself at the table 
 with my back to the door and called, " Come in !" 
 
 It was the sergeant. 
 
 He thrust in his head and began : " We are to go to the 
 
 captain at eleven o'clock to-day, because " here he 
 
 checked himself, as it looked odd that the strange sailor sat 
 there so still and I was nowhere to be seen. He came into 
 the room and asked : " Where are we, then ?" 
 
 " Gone to the devil !" I answered without turning round, 
 imitating as well as I could the broad Plattdeutsch which 
 Klaus had used as a part of his stratagem. 
 
 "No stupid jokes !" said the old man. 
 
 " And now it is my turn !" I cried, rushing past the aston- 
 ished sergeant out at the door, which I flung to, and turned 
 the key. 
 
 There lay the long corridor before me : not a soul was to 
 be seen. It was an easy thing to run down the steps and 
 into the house-yard, and from this by a side-gate which I 
 knew was never closed at this hour, to get into the adjoining 
 alley. To find out Klaus's lodging would be an easy matter; 
 probably I should reach it before him — in ten minutes we 
 could be out of the town, and 
 
 " Good morning, Herr Sttssmilch, how are we ?'M asked, 
 opening the door again. 
 
 The sergeant was standing just where I had left him ; and 
 to judge from the confounded look of his honest face, had 
 not been able to comprehend what it all meant. I pulled 
 off the broad-brimmed hat, made him a low bow with a 
 scrape of the right foot, and said : " Have the honor to 
 place myself again under your worshipful charge." 
 
 " After that, one can take a toothpick for a barn door !" 
 exclaimed the old man, who began now to get a glimmering 
 of the real state of the case. " That codfish of a smoke-dried 
 flounder ! Isn't it enough to turn a body into a bear with 
 seven senses .-"' 
 
276 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 " Hush !" I cried, " I hear the doctor coming. Not a 
 word, my good SQssmilch !" and I pushed the old man out 
 of the door, by which Doctor Snellius entered in his usual 
 hasty fashion, with his hat in his hand. 
 
 He started when he saw me, gave a glance round the 
 room, looked at me again, and went out without saying a 
 word. 
 
 I pulled off my sailor-dress in a moment, thrust it under 
 the bed, and called after him in my natural voice : 
 
 " Why do you go away, doctor ?" I 
 
 He turned back instantly, came into the room, sat down 
 upon a chair in front of me, and stared steadily at me 
 through his round spectacles. I fancied he looked paler ; 
 and feared that perhaps I had carried the jest too far, and 
 offended my irascible friend. , 
 
 " Doctor " I began. 
 
 " Something very singular has just happened to me," he 
 interrupted me, always with the same fixed look. 
 
 " What is the matter, doctor ?" I inquired, startled at his 
 looks and the unaccustomed gentleness of his tone. 
 
 " Nothing at this moment ; but I have just been the sub- 
 ject of a most remarkable hallucination." 
 
 " Of what, did you say .-■ " 
 
 A hallucination. A complete and perfect hallucination. 
 When I first entered your chamber, my friend, I saw, stand- 
 ing before me, a sailor of just your height, or possibly an inch 
 or an inch and a half shorter, but of your breadth across the 
 shoulders, in a rough sailor jacket, gray trousers, wide straw- 
 hat like the traders to the West Indies wear ; with exactly — 
 no, not exactly, but very nearly your features. I saw the 
 figure as plainly as I see you at this moment — it could not 
 have been more distinct. The illusion was so perfect that 
 I supposed they had put you in another room, and went to 
 ask Sussmilch what he meant by giving our healthiest room 
 to the first comer. Do not smile, my friend ; it is no laughing 
 matter — at least for me. It is the first time that anything 
 of the kind has happened to me, though my frequent con- 
 gestions of the head might have prepared me to expect it, 
 I know that I shall die of apoplexy ; and even if I had not 
 known it before, I should know it now." 
 
 He took out his watch and examined his pulse. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 277 
 
 *' Strange to say, my pulse is perfectly normal ; and all 
 this morning I have felt unusually well and cheerful." 
 
 " My dear doctor," I said, " who knows what you saw ? 
 You learned men have such singular notions, and out of the 
 merest gnat you will make a scientific elephant." 
 
 " Scientific elephant is good," said the doctor ; " nobody 
 would have expected such an expression from an unscientific 
 mammoth like you — very good ! but you are mistaken. 
 That may apply to others, but not to me. I observe too 
 coolly to commit gross blunders. I have told you already 
 that my pulse is normal, exactly normal, and all my functions 
 in perfect order ; therefore the thing must have a deeper 
 psychological cause, which just now escapes my perceptions ; 
 for the psychological cause " 
 
 " Then at all events you have a psychological cause," said 
 I, who was mischievous enough to be delighted at the serious 
 scruples of my learned friend. 
 
 " I have ; and I will tell it to you, even at the risk of more 
 of your malicious grins. I was dreaming all night long of 
 you, you mammoth, and always the same dream, though in 
 different forms, namely, that you either were escaping, or had 
 escaped, or were about to escape from here. Sometimes 
 you were lowering yourself by a rope from the window, or 
 clambering over the roofs, or leaping down from the wall, or 
 any other neck-breaking trick that one might expect from a 
 fellow of your physical and moral peculiarities ; and you were 
 every time in a different dress, now a chimney-sweep, now a 
 mason, a rope-dancer, and so forth. As soon as I awaked, 
 I asked myself what this dream could mean, and I said to 
 myself — True, George Hartwig is now again in his prison, 
 but the exceptional position in which he stands still continues, 
 and so does the danger for our valued friend the superintendent, 
 which lies in an arrangement which we must acknowledge to 
 be not merely irregular, but contrary to the rules. For every 
 creature is only content in the element to which it is born. 
 The frog would spring from a golden chair into his native 
 swamp ; and the bird escapes when he can, though you cram 
 his cage with sugar. Will it not be so with this youth, who 
 of all men must most long for liberty ? May he not in a 
 moment of weakness forget what consideration he owes to 
 Herr von Zehren, that the latter to a certain extent risks his 
 
2 78 Hammer mid Anvil. I 
 
 position on his account, and in this moment of weakness and 
 forgetfulness make his escape ? And do you know, young 
 mammoth, I determined that, as I also had some claim upon 
 you, I would privately and in all friendship ask you to give 
 me your word that if such a temptation seizes you, you will 
 only think of your own honor. This was what I had in my 
 mind when I came up the corridor, and I was in some degree 
 undecided, for I thought he will have taken this resolution 
 already, and to give his word to me will be superfluous. 
 But now, after this singular projection of my dream into 
 reality — a memento morito me, moreover—;-! beg you earnestly 
 to give me your word. Hm, hm, hm ! " 
 
 I had ceased to laugh, long before he had reached this 
 conclusion ; and now, while the worthy doctor tuned down 
 his voice, extended him my hand, and said with emotion : 
 
 " With all my heart I give you my word, although it is true 
 that I have given it to myself, and that not ten minutes ago. 
 And as for the hallucination, you may make your mind easy, 
 doctor; here lies your memento moriy 
 
 With these words I pulled out the sailor's dress from 
 under the bed, slipped on the jacket, and put on the hat, to 
 make the proof more convincing. 
 
 " So you did really think of escaping, then .'' " said the doc- 
 tor, adroitly dropping the hallucination, in order at least to 
 preserve the dream. 
 
 " No," I answered, " but others tempted me, and I strove 
 with them, and they fled leaving this garment behind them." 
 
 "•Which you may hang as a votive offering on the temple- 
 wall," replied Doctor Snellius, thoughtfully ; " for though I 
 do not know how it happened, I see this much, that you 
 have escaped a great danger ; and now — now for the first 
 time you belong to us." 
 
 There was a saying in the prison that one could tell a lie 
 to any one, but not to the superintendent. 
 
 Superintendent von Zehren had a way of looking at the 
 person with whom he was speaking, to which none but a 
 front of brass could have been callous. Not that one could 
 read in his glance the endeavor to be as comprehensive and 
 as penetrating as possible ; his eye had in it nothing of the 
 spy or the inquisitor ; on the contrary, it was large and lim- 
 pid as the eye of a child, and just in this lay the power 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 279 
 
 which few men could resist. As he sincerely wished well to 
 every one with whom he spoke, and on his own part had 
 nothing to conceal, this large, clear, dark eye rested steadily 
 upon one, with the gaze of the sun-bright gods, who do not 
 wink like weak mortals living in twilight and concealment. 
 
 When, with this look fixed upon me, he asked me about 
 the man whom he had sent to me that morning, I told him 
 at once who the man was, and what was his object in coming. 
 And I further told him in what frame of mind he had found 
 me, and how strong the temptation had been, but that, even 
 without the assistance of the good doctor, I had conquered 
 it, I might venture to say, at once and for ever. 
 
 The superintendent listened to my narrative with all the 
 signs of the most lively interest. When I ceased, he pressed 
 my hand, and then turning to his writing-table, handed me a 
 paper, which he said he had just received, and which he de- 
 sired me to read. 
 
 The paper was an inquiry from the president, couched in 
 polite but very decided phraseology, as to the facts referred 
 to in a certain anonymous charge which had reached him, 
 and the superintendent was called upon at once to put an 
 end to an arrangement which compromised his position and 
 character, and to treat the young man in question with the 
 severity which the dignity of the law, of the judges, and his 
 own, alike demanded. 
 
 " You wish to know," said the superintendent, as I laid 
 down the paper with an inquiring look, " what I intend to do. 
 Exactly as if I had never received this. I do not desire to 
 know whether Doctor Snellius, whose friendship for me often 
 gives him a sharper insight in matters that concern me, than 
 I have myself, was playing a little comedy when he hurried 
 you off so abruptly yesterday, but I am very glad it so hap- 
 pened. For it would have wounded my pride to be com- 
 pelled to sacrifice you, to whom I am so much attached, to 
 a pitiful bit of chicanery. According to the letter of the law, 
 they are right in insisting that a prisoner cannot be a guest 
 in the superintendent's family ; and this point I should have 
 had to yield ; but beyond this I am fully determined not to 
 yield a single step. To decide in what kind of work a pris- 
 oner shall be engaged, and how he shall employ his hours of 
 recreation, is my incontestable right, which I will not suffer 
 
28o Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 to be curtailed by a hair's breadth, and which I will maintain 
 through all the tribunals, even though it should be brought 
 before the king. And I am not sorry that this has happened, 
 since it gives us an occasion to speak of our mutual relations, 
 and to have a clear understanding of the way we shall pursue 
 in future. If you are disposed to hear what I think on the 
 subject, we will go into the garden. My lungs suffer to-day 
 from the confined air of a room." 
 
 We stepped from his office into the garden. I offered him 
 my arm, as my strength was now sufficient for this service, 
 and we walked in silence between the flower-beds, from which 
 the warm south wind wafted us the perfume of wallflowers 
 and mignonnette, to the grateful shade of the plane-trees. 
 The superintendent took his seat upon one of the benches, 
 motioned to me to place myself at his side, and after a silent 
 glance of gratitude at the leafy crowns of the noble trees that 
 afforded the refreshing coolness, he said : 
 
 " If we are to believe the jurists, by whose words the stu- 
 dents everywhere swear, Punishment is the right of Wrong. 
 This definition, by its simplicity, recommends itself to the 
 logicians at their desks, but I doubt extremely whether the 
 Founder of the Faith would have been content with it. He 
 did not declare that to be stoned was the right of the guilty 
 woman ; on the contrary, by summoning him who was with- 
 out sin to cast the first stone, he showed that under the 
 smooth logical surface of the legal code there lay a deeper 
 principle, which only reveals itself to the eye that can see 
 and the heart that can feel. To such an eye and such a 
 heart it soon is clear that every wrong which is to be pun- 
 ished in order that it may have its right, is, if not always, 
 almost always, a wrong at second, third, or hundredth hand ; 
 and thus the punishment rarely reaches the one who may 
 have deserved it. So the justest judge, whether he will or 
 not, resembles the sanguinary general who orders every 
 tenth man to be led off to execution, not because he is guil- 
 tier than the other nine, but because he is the tenth. 
 
 " But this is not apparent to the logician, who smiles with 
 satisfaction if he does not come into conflict with his princi- 
 ple of Identity and his principle of Contradiction ; nor to 
 j the judge who has before him but an isolated fact, torn from 
 ■ its connections, and who has to give judgment when he has 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 281 
 
 not all the parts in his hand, not to mention the visible and 
 invisible threads upon which these parts are necessarily 
 strung. They both are like the crowd which judges a pic- 
 ture by its effect alone ; while the connoisseur knows how it 
 came into existence, what colors the painter had upon his 
 palette, how he blended them, how he handled his brush, 
 what difficulties he encountered, and how he overcame them, 
 or why it was that he failed of his aim. And as the only 
 true criticism is creative, which takes the secrets of art as 
 the starting-point of its judgment, so that none but an artist 
 can be a real critic, even so men's actions can only be judged 
 by those to whom the old wise word applies, that nothing 
 human is alien to them, because they have experienced in 
 themselves and in their brethren the whole misery of hu- 
 manity. But for this are necessary, as I said before, the 
 feeling heart and the seeing eye, and an ample opportunity 
 for training and using both. 
 
 " Who has a better opportunity for this purpose than the 
 superintendent of a prison ? He and the physician, when 
 their views coincide and they strive together towards the same 
 ends, alone can know what the most conscientious judge has 
 no means of learning, how the man whom mankind have 
 thrust out from among them for a time or forever, became 
 what he now is ; how, born thus, and of such parents, 
 brought up in such associations, he acted thus and not oth- 
 erwise at such a critical moment. Then when the superin- 
 tendent, who is of necessity the confessor of the criminal, 
 has learned his life in all its details, and the physician has 
 discovered the defects with which he has suffered for years, 
 when they consult upon his case, the question only is if he 
 can be helped and how ; and in the so-called prison they 
 see, respectively, but a reformatory and an infirmary. For — ^ 
 and this is a point of infinite importance, which physiology | 
 will yet compel jurisprudence to acknowledge — nearly all ' 
 who come here are diseased in the ordinary acceptation of 
 the word ; nearly all suffer from organic defects, and in 
 almost every case the brain lacks the proper volume which a 
 normal man needs for normal activity, for a life which shall 
 not bring him into conflict with the law. 
 
 " And how could it be otherwise ? Almost without excep- 
 tion they are children of want, of wretchedness, of moral 
 
282 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 and physical malformation, the Pariahs of Society which in 
 its brutal egotism sweeps by with garments gathered up for 
 fear of defilement, or thrusts them away with cruel violence 
 from its path. The right of wrong ! Insolence of Phari- 
 seeism ! A time will come when this invention of the philos- 
 / ophers will be placed on a level with that other of the theolo- 
 gians, that death is the atonement for sin, and men will thank 
 God that at last they have awaked from the night of igno- 
 rance which gave birth to such monsters. 
 
 " That day will come, but not so soon. | 
 
 " We are still deeply sunk in the mire of the Middle Ages, 
 and no man can yet see when this flood of blood and tears 
 will have passed away. However far the glances of a few 
 brighter intellects may reach into the coming ages, the prog- 
 ress of humanity is unspeakably slow. Wherever we look 
 abroad into our own time, we behold the unbeautiful relics 
 of a past that we had believed to be overthrown long ago. 
 Our systems of government, our nobility, our religious insti- 
 tutions, our official arrangements, the organization of our 
 armies, the condition of the laboring classes — everywhere 
 the scarcely hidden relation between masters and slaves ; 
 everjrwhere the critical choice whether we will be hamnier or 
 anvil. All our experience, all our observation seems to 
 prove that there is no third alternative. And yet no greater 
 misconception of the real state of the case is possible. Not 
 hammer or anvil, hammer and anvil is the true word, for 
 every man is both, and both at once, in every moment of his 
 life. With the same force with which the hammer strikes 
 the anvil, the anvil strikes the hammer ; the ball is thrown 
 off from the wall at the same angle under which it impinges 
 upon it ; the elements which the plant has appropriated in 
 its growth, it must exactly restore in its decomposition — and 
 so throughout all nature. But if nature unconsciously obeys 
 this great law of action and reaction, and is thereby a cos- 
 mos and not a chaos, then should man, whose existence is 
 subordinated to precisely the same law, acquire an intelligent 
 knowledge of it, and endeavor intelligently to shape his life 
 in conformity with it ; and his worth increases or diminishes 
 exactly in proportion as he does this or neglects it. For 
 though the law remains the same, whether the man knows it 
 or knows it not, yet for himself it is not the same. Where 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 283 
 
 it is known, where the inseparableness, the unity of human 
 interests, the inevitableness of action and reaction, are rec- 
 ognized, there bloom freedom, equity, justice, which are all 
 but varying expressions for the same law. Where it is not 
 known, and he fancies in his blindness that he can with im- 
 punity make a tool of his fellow-man, there flourish rankly 
 slavery and tyranny, superstition and priestcraft, hatred and 
 contempt, in all their poisonous luxuriance. What man 
 would not naturally wish rather to be hammer than anvil, so 
 long as he believes that the choice lies open to him ? But 
 what reasonable man will not cheerfully renounce the part 
 of hammer, when he has learned that the part of anvil will 
 not and cannot be spared him, and that every blow that he 
 gives smites also his own cheek ; that the serf corrupts the 
 master as well as the master the serf, and that in politics the 
 guardian and the ward are rendered equally stupid. Would 
 that the consciousness of this might at last penetrate to the 
 mind of the German peoples, who stand so sorely in need 
 of it ! 
 
 " So sorely in need ! For I must say it that at this mo- 
 ment, hardly twenty years after our war of freedom, that fun- 
 damental principle of human existence is probably by no 
 enlightened nation so thoroughly and universally ignored as 
 by us Germans, fond though we are of calling ourselves the 
 intellectual flower of the nations, the people of thinkers. 
 Where is the young plant of humanity subjected with more 
 intolerable schoolmasterly pedantry to a too early, too strict, 
 and incredibly narrow training ? Where is its free, beautiful 
 development more systematically hindered and maimed than it 
 is with us ? The shameful wrongs that we perpetrated by aid 
 of school-benches and church-benches, the drill-sergeant's 
 stick, the Procrustes-bed of examination, the many-rounded 
 ladder of official hierarchy — to think of them sends the 
 blush of shame to the cheeks and the glow of indignation to 
 the brow of those who can perceive it ; it is justly the inex- 
 haustible theme of derision for our neighbors. The frenzy 
 of ruling, the slavish desire of being ruled, these are the two 
 serpents that have coiled around the German Hercules, and 
 are crushing him ; they it is that are everywhere impeding 
 the free circulation, and producing here a condition of hj'per- 
 trophy, and there of atrophy, that cruelly injure the body of 
 
284 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 the nation ; they it is that, injecting their venom into the 
 veins of the people, poison its blood and marrow, and 
 degrade the race itself ; they it is, finall)', that we have to 
 thank for the fact that our penitentiaries and jails can no 
 longer contain the multitude of the prisoners. For it is not 
 an exaggeration if I say that nine out of ten that come here 
 would never have come had they not been made anvils by 
 force, in order that the lords of the hammer might have some- 
 thing to vent their courage on. And as the natural right of 
 every man to maintain himself in the way most suitable to 
 his powers and capabilities has been impeded in them as 
 much as possible by hindering them systematically from be- 
 coming sound strong members of the commonwealth, they 
 have finally been brought here to the workhouse. The 
 workhouse is at bottom nothing but the last consequence of 
 our conditions, the problem of our life reduced to its sim- 
 plest terms. Here they must accomplish a strictly pre- 
 scribed task in a strictly prescribed manner ; but when were 
 they ever allowed freely to choose their work ? Here they 
 must be silent ; but when were they ever allowed to speak 
 freely ? Here they must pay implicit obedience to the low- 
 est overseer ; but without having read Shakspeare, do they 
 not know that a dog in office is obeyed ? Here they must 
 walk, stand, lie down, sleep, wake, pray, work, idle, at the 
 word of command ; but are they not admirably trained for 
 it ? — are they not all born workhouse men ? My heart aches 
 when I think of it ; yet how can I help thinking of it espe- 
 cially at this moment when I see you before me, and ask my- 
 self: how comes this youth with the frame of a strong man, 
 and the frank blue eyes of a child, in this abode of vice and 
 crime ? 
 
 " My dear young friend, I would that the answer were 
 more difficult. Would that it were not the same formula by 
 which I can calculate the equation of your life also. Would 
 that I did not know that the unnaturalness of our relations 
 is like a poisonous simoon that withers the grass and even 
 strips the leaves from the oak. 
 
 " I have endeavored from what I before knew of you, and 
 from what you so frankly have confided to me of your ear- 
 lier life, of your family affairs, of the life and customs of 
 the citizens of your native town, to form a background upon 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 285 
 
 which I might design your portrait. And how cheerless it 
 is, lying in the dim light in which all things now seem to lie 
 with us ! Everywhere littleness, narrow-mindedness, restric- 
 tions, blind adhesion to old formulas, pedantic ceremonious* 
 ness, everywhere the free outlook into life shut out by high 
 walls of prejudice. You have told me that you besought 
 your father to let you go to sea, and that he steadfastly in- 
 sisted that you should be a man of learning, or at least fol- 
 low an official career. It was certainly not, as you accused 
 yourself, a mere inclination to idleness or a hankering after 
 adventures that again and again prompted this wish ; and 
 assuredly your father, whatever his reasons, did not do well 
 so obstinately to reject it. He had lost one son at sea — • 
 very well ; there is another sea, the sea of happy, active, en- 
 ergetic life, in which all faculties have their free play. This 
 he should not have forbidden you ; and this was really the 
 sea for which you longed, of which the ocean with its storms 
 was but the image, though you took it for the reality. 
 
 " Your father did not do well ; yet we cannot reckon with 
 him, rendered gloomy by domestic misfortune, too soon left 
 alone in the world, and irritated by his son's resistance. But 
 what can we say of your pedantic teachers, not one of whom 
 could comprehend a youth whose character is openness 
 itself .-• What of your worthy friends who raised a hue and 
 cry over the profligate who was leading their sons into mis- 
 chief, and who held it a devout work to widen the breach 
 between father and son ? Many an honest German youth 
 has been in your case, my friend ; brought up under such 
 desperately stringent social restrictions, that he thanks heaven, 
 when, in the far west of America, under the trees of the I 
 primeval forest, he hears no more about social order. True, 
 in your flight from the oppressive narrowness of your father's 
 house, you did not get so far as the American forests, but 
 unhappily, only as far as the woods of the Zehrenburg, and 
 this filled up the measure of your misfortunes. 
 
 " For there you met with one towards whom you must have 
 felt yourself drawn by an irresistible attraction, as his nature 
 in many points had a wonderful resemblance to your own ; 
 one whose ruin had been mainly due to the wretchedness of 
 our social relations, and who had made a wilderness around ; 
 him in which he could move in accordance with his unfet- 
 
2 86 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 \ tered will, which he called liberty. A wilderness in the 
 moral as well as the literal sense ; for as I learn from what 
 you have told me of his discourses, and as the result has 
 shown, in throwing away prejudice he also cast overboard 
 judgment, with precaution, discretion, with scrupulousness, 
 consideration, with the faults of the German character the 
 virtues of all ; and all that at last remained to him were his 
 adventurous spirit and a kind of fantastic magnanimity which 
 at times, as you have yourself experienced, could be more 
 fantastic than magnanimous. 
 
 " But be that as it may, he was a man with whom you 
 were at once struck, because he was the exact opposite of 
 all men whom you had hitherto met, and who still possessed 
 chivalrous qualities enough for a youth so inexperienced to 
 see in him his ideal. And then the free life upon the broad 
 heaths, the lofty cliffs, the far-reaching shore — how could this 
 do other than intoxicate and confuse a brain yet clouded with 
 the dust of the school-room ? 
 
 " But this freedom, this independence, this energetic life, 
 were all but a glittering reflection, the Fata-Morgana of a 
 Hesperian shore, which was destined to vanish, leaving be- 
 hind a guard-house and a penitentiary. 
 
 "To make this prison a Hesperian garden to you, is not 
 in my power, my friend ; nor would I do it if it were. But 
 one thing I hope to effect, and that is, that here, where the 
 errors that warped your early training can no longer reach 
 you, you may come to yourself, learn to know yourself, your 
 aims, and the measure of your powers — ^that in a workhouse 
 you may learn how to work." 
 
 -o- 
 
 CHAPTERVIII. 
 
 I WILL not maintain that the excellent man said all that 
 I have put into his mouth in the last chapter, in these 
 identical words, or upon this particular morning. It is 
 probable that I have thrown into connection his remarks upon 
 more than a single occasion, and perhaps have added a phrase 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 287 
 
 or a figure of my own. But hardly more than this ; for I 
 too deeply absorbed his philosophy, which descended upon 
 my thirsting soul like the fruitful shower upon a parched 
 field ; and while I attempt to repeat his thoughts, his image 
 stands so lively in my memory, that I fancy I hear the words 
 issuing from his lips. 
 
 And at this time I enjoyed the happiness of his converse 
 every day and often for hours at a time. It was not in my 
 power to keep the promise I had made to Paula, for her 
 father did not wait for me to put the question to him. I had 
 told him our conversation, however, at which he smiled. 
 
 " She wants to make a learned man of you," he said. " I 
 wish to make nothing of you ; I wish you to become what 
 you are capable of becoming ; and to find out your capabili- 
 ties we must experiment a little. One thing is certain : you 
 can become a first-rate hand-worker. You have shown that 
 already ; and I am well satisfied that you have gone through 
 this brief course, for the first touches of the artist follow the \ 
 last of the craftsman, and it is well that he should under- 
 stand the handiwork upon which his art rests ; not only be- 
 cause only thus is he able to see rightly and help with coun- 
 sel and hand wherever help is needed, but only then is it 
 truly his work, and belongs to him as a child to a parent — 
 not only spirit of his spirit, but also flesh of his flesh. Then 
 how much more sharply does the eye see where the hand has 
 been busy ? Here is the ground-plan of the new infirmary ; 
 this is the foundation which you yourself helped to clear out, 
 and for which you yourself helped to bring the stones. This 
 wall will be built upon that foundation ; it is of this height 
 and this thickness ; without a calculation you are satisfied 
 that such a foundation can support such a wall. Do you 
 not feel a pleasure in the neat, firm drawing in which a sin- 
 gle line represents the work of an hour, or perhaps of many 
 days ? Paula has told me that you have an accurate eye and 
 a sure hand. I need copies of these plans : would you like 
 to make them for me ? It is work suited to a convalescent ; 
 and the use of compass, ruler, and drawing-pen, I can show 
 you in five minutes." 
 
 From this day I worked in the superintendent's office, 
 copying simple outlines or the design of a front, or engross- 
 ing specifications, with a pleasure which I had never imag- 
 
288 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 ined could accompany work. But who then ever had such 
 a teacher — %o kind, so wise, so patient, who so well knew 
 how to lead the pupil to confidence in himself? How grate- 
 ful to me was his praise ; and how I stood in need of it. I 
 who at school had always been blamed and scolded, who 
 looked on it as a matter of course that my work was worse 
 than that of any of the others, and who had come to con- 
 sider myself as destitute of all capacity. My new teacher 
 taught me that my capacities were only dormant, and that I 
 could perfectly well understand anything that I thought worth 
 understanding. Thus I had resigned myself in mathematics 
 to make no progress beyond the first rudiments, and now to 
 my astonishment I discovered that these uncouth symbols 
 and crabbed formulas were composed of simple ideas and 
 figures, and constructed with a logical consequence which I 
 had no difficulty in perceiving, and in which I felt inexpress- 
 ible delight. 
 
 " It is singular," I said on one occasion, " that when I was 
 with Herr von Zehren I thought there could be nothing on 
 earth more delightful than shooting over a wide heath on a 
 sunny autumn morning ; but I now find that to correctly 
 employ a difiicult formula gives more pleasure than a good 
 shot that brings down an unlucky pheasant." 
 
 " The whole secret," replied my teacher, " lies in giving 
 free play to our powers and our talents in a direction which 
 is agreeable to our own nature. For in this manner we feel 
 that we are ; and every creature at every moment seeks for 
 nothing further. But if we can so contrive it that our activ- 
 ity, besides giving us the proof of our existence, turns to 
 the advantage of others — and happily that is almost always 
 in our power — so much the better for us. Would to heaven 
 my unfortunate brother had caught a sight of this truth." 
 
 Of course, especially in the earlier period of my imprison- 
 ment, our conversation frequently turned upon " the Wild 
 Zehren." 
 
 " As a boy he bore that name," said the superintendent ; 
 " everybody called him 'the Wild One,' and it was hardly 
 possible to give him another name. In his fiery nature lay 
 an impulse that he could not resist, to put forth his exuber- 
 ant strength even to excess, to venture whatever was most 
 hazardous, and to attempt even the impossible. You can 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 289 
 
 judge the field that our paternal estate offered to such a boy. 
 To dash on the wildest horses down the steep heights, to 
 put out to sea in a crazy boat during a raging storm, to roam 
 over the perilous moors by night, to climb the giant beeches 
 of the park to bring down a bird's nest, to dive into the tarn 
 in search of the treasure which they say was thrown into it 
 in the time of the Swedish invasion — these were his favorite 
 sports. I have no idea how often he found himself in danger 
 of death ; but in truth it might be said to be every moment, 
 for at any moment the impulse might seize him to do some- 
 thing which put his life in peril. Once we were standing at 
 an upper window and saw an infuriated bull chasing one of 
 the laborers around the court. Malte said, ' I must take 
 that fellow in hand,' sprang down twenty feet into the court 
 as another might arise from a chair, and ran to meet the bull, 
 whose rage had however spent itself, so that he allowed the 
 daring boy to drive him back to the cattle-yard. It was a 
 mere chance here that he did not break his bones and was 
 not gored ; but as chance always stood his friend, he grew 
 more and more reckless and daring. 
 
 " Chance, however, is a capricious deity, and unexpectedly 
 leaves its greatest favorites in the lurch. A far worse en- 
 emy to my brother were the circumstances in which he grew 
 up. The only thing he had been taught, was that the Zeh- 
 rens were the oldest race on the island, and that he was the 
 first-born. From these two articles of faith he constructed 
 a sort of religfion and mystical cultus which was all the more 
 fantastic that his pompous fancies contrasted so glaringly 
 with the threadbare reality. 
 
 " Our father was a nobleman of the old lawless school, 
 and of the wild ways of his class in the eighteenth century : 
 a man of all men least fitted to form the character of a 
 haughty, audacious boy like my brother. Our mother had 
 lived at courts, and in this unwholesome sphere frittered 
 away her really remarkable gifts. She yearned for the van- 
 ished splendors of her former life ; the solitude of a country 
 life wearied, and the rudeness with which she was surrounded, 
 shocked her. Their life was not a happy one : as she knew 
 she was no longer beloved by her husband, she soon ceased 
 to love her children, in whom she fancied — whether rightly 
 or wrongly is of no consequence — that she perceived only 
 13 
 
290 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 the traits of their father. Our father's regard was confined 
 to his first-born alone ; and when a wealthy, childless aunt 
 asked to be allowed to take charge of the second son, Ar- 
 thur, he willingly consented. Indeed I believe he would 
 have been glad to be rid of me also, the youngest son, only 
 no one was willing to take me. Thus I grew up as I best 
 could j sometimes I had a tutor and sometimes I had none ; 
 no one cared for me ; I should have been left entirely alone, 
 had not my eldest brother, after his fashion, taken me under 
 his charge. 
 
 " He loved me, who was ten years his junior, with pas- 
 sionate devotion^ with a wild, and, as it now appears to me, 
 a touching tenderness. Strong as I afterwards grew, I was 
 a frail and sickly child. He, the dauntless, shielded me 
 from every shadow of danger ; he watched and guarded me 
 as the apple of his eye ; played with me, when I was well, 
 for half-days at a time ; watched, when I was sick, night 
 after night by my bed. I was the only one who could con- 
 trol * the Wild One ' with a word, a look ; but what could 
 such influence avail } It was a thread that snapped, when 
 the youth of twenty, after a scene of unusual violence with 
 our father, left suddenly the paternal house, to enter it no 
 more for ten years. 
 
 " He was sent to travel, as the customary phrase then ran ; 
 but the always insufficient remittances which he received from 
 our father, whose means were daily diminishing, soon ceased 
 altogether. He had to live as he could ; and as he could 
 not live at his own expense, he lived at the expense of others, 
 like many a noble adventurer, to-day a beggar, to-morrow 
 rolling in gold ; to-day the comrade of the lowest rabble, to- 
 morrow the companion of princes ; with his irresistible power 
 of fascination, conquering all hearts wherever he came, yet 
 himself fixed nowhere, and roaming restlessly from one end 
 of Europe to the other. He was in England, Italy, Spain, 
 and longest in France ; in the wild life of Paris he found his 
 natural element, and he revelled in the arms of French ladies, 
 whose brothers and husbands were devastating his native 
 land with fire and sword. 
 
 " For five or six years we had heard nothing of him ; our 
 mother had died, and we had not known where to send him 
 the news of her death j our father, broken before his time, 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 291 
 
 was tottering to his grave ; the devastation of our estates by 
 the enemy, who had penetrated even to us, did not move his 
 apathy — he drank the last bottle of wine in his cellar in a 
 carouse with French officers. I could not endure all this 
 with patience. I challenged the French colonel, a Gascon, 
 who, seated at my father's table, with a guitar in his hands, 
 was singing ribald songs insulting to the Germans. He 
 laughed, and made his men take the sword from the boy of 
 seventeen — it was a dress-sword which hung on the wall by 
 a blue scarf as an ornament, and which I had snatched in 
 my fury — to punish his presumption by having him shot the 
 next morning. 
 
 " In the night appeared a deliverer whom I had least reason 
 to expect. At the rumors of an uprising in Germany — at 
 that time the first Frei corps was organizing — the Wild One 
 had hurried back from the arms of his paramours and the 
 salons of the Faubourg St. Germain, and his way had led him 
 to our native place, where just then the flames of war were 
 most fiercely burning. He could not reach the Frei ^orps^ 
 which was in the citadel, so he turned to the island with the 
 plan of stirring up a guerrilla warfare against the invaders. 
 He came just at the right moment to snatch his brother from 
 certain death. With a few trusty followers hastily collected, 
 he broke into the prison under circumstances of the most 
 daring audacity, and carried me away. 
 
 " From this time we were together for five years, and first 
 as simple volunteers, then as officers of the line, shared 
 perils and hardships like brothers. I was a good soldier, 
 but my brother's name was known throughout the whole 
 army, and again he was called ' the Wild Zehren,' as if to 
 such a man that was the only fitting epithet. Innumerable 
 were the stories told of his courage and foolhardiness. The 
 general opinion was that he was seeking death ; but he was j 
 not thinking of death — he only despised life. He laughed ' 
 when he heard others talking enthusiastically of the regene- 
 ration of Germany ; how we would rid our native soil both 
 of foreign and native tyrants, in order to establish a king- 
 dom of fraternity and equality in the liberated land. At 
 that time he often had the old phrase of ' hammer and anvil ' 
 on his lips, which, as he said, expressed his philosophy in 
 the simplest terms. ' Fraternity ! equality ! ' he scoffed— 
 
292 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 * away with such empty phrases ! This is a world of the 
 strong and the weak ; of masters and serfs. You have so 
 long been the anvil under that giant hammer Napoleon, that 
 now you want to play hammer yourselves. See how far you 
 will bring it. Not far, I fear. You have only talents for 
 the part of anvil.' 
 
 " * Why did you come to help us fight Napoleon ? ' I 
 asked. 
 
 " ' Because I was bored in Paris,' was his reply. 
 
 " But he did himself injustice. He was something more 
 than the blase cavalier of fortune which he pretended to be ; 
 he had squandered in a life of wild adventures the treasures 
 of a heart dearer than Plutus' mine ; but a fragment of this 
 heart was yet left him, and in this fragment lived — if not 
 genuine patriotism and philanthropy, at least the generous 
 impulse to side with the oppressed and resist the oppressor, 
 whether he be a brilliant conquerer or a stupid native prince 
 ruling by the grace of God. •■ ! 
 
 " And now that the conquerer was chained to the rock of 
 St. Helena, and he saw the heroes of so many battles taking 
 their old accustomed yoke once more upon their patient 
 necks ; when he saw that the whole proud torrent of liberty 
 was wasting in the sand of loyal obedience, then he broke 
 his sword, which he had gloriously carried through twenty 
 battles, bestowed a curse upon both despots and slaves, and 
 said that now, as before the war, the world was his home ; 
 the only home for a free-born man in a slavish age. 
 
 " I know well that his reasoning was strained and un- 
 sound ; but there was a kernel of truth in it. The result has 
 proven this ; the incredibly vapid, idealess time in which we 
 live, a time barren of thought and of deeds, a real age of the 
 Epigoni, has completely confirmed his prediction. And now 
 again he wandered, a homeless adventurer, through the land, 
 only with the difference that before with insolent power he 
 had sported with men, whom he now coldly preyed upon be- 
 cause he despised them. ' I endeavored to purchase with . 
 my blood a letter of indulgence for my past : it has been 
 refused me. What now is the present or the future to me ? ' 
 How often have I thought upon this expression of his to 
 me at the moment of our parting. It has always remained 
 with me a key to his enigmatical character. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 293 
 
 "Again for years I heard nothing more of him. Our 
 father was dead ; our estate sequestered ; my second brother, 
 Arthur, whom his aunt had deceived in his expectations, was 
 toiling in thankless public service ; I, who had set my heart 
 upon the regeneration of the public, and thought that I 
 could see that the work must be begun at the very begin- 
 ning, that is, at the bottom, had managed to obtain this 
 place through my patron, Altenburg ; had been here, a crip- 
 pled man, for four years, and was still studying the rudi- 
 ments of my vocation ; Malte was nowhere heard of. Sud- 
 denly he reappeared, and with a wife who had followed the 
 adventurer to his home. He declared his intention to take 
 the paternal estate in hand. I afforded him every facility ; 
 Arthur sold his rights for a sum of money, the receipt of 
 which, by the way, he still denies. The creditors were glad 
 to get at all events something, and one of them at least con- 
 soled himself with the thought that ' omittance was no quit- 
 tance,' and the hope — which has not deceived him — that the 
 2^hren estates were as secure to him under the new master 
 as under the old. 
 
 " We did not meet at his return ; just at that time I could 
 not well leave this place, and he, on his part, felt no desire to 
 renew the old friendship. When we parted, I was about to 
 contract a marriage, in which the first-bom of an ancient 
 line saw a criminal z«ei-d!^/a«f<f/ now for some years I had 
 been holding an official post; and to hold any post, but 
 especially such a post as this, was in his eyes throwing one's 
 self away, trampling under foot the inborn right of a knight 
 of the hammer, and making one's self a plebeian anviL 
 That I refused the compensation he had ofifered me for my 
 interest in the estate, wounded him deeply. By so doing, in 
 his eyes, I renounced my obedience and subordination to the 
 first-born, the chief of the family. He could not forgive me 
 that I had no more need of him ; that I had no debts which 
 he must plunge himself into debt to pay ; in a word, that I 
 was not like my brother Arthur, who was much more com- 
 pliant in this point — too compliant, I fear. 
 
 " On the other side, what I heard of him — and he took 
 care never to let men's tongues rest about him— confirmed 
 me in the sad conviction that between him and me a gulf 
 had opened, not to be crossed by even the sincere love I 
 
294 Hammer and Anvil. - 
 
 still felt for him. I heard of the wild life he was living with 
 the noblemen of his neighborhood, now impoverished by the 
 war ; of the drinking and gaming bouts, of mad exploits of 
 which he was the originator. At this time a dark rumor got 
 abroad that he was conducting the smuggling traffic, which 
 during the war had flourished greatly, being then encouraged 
 by the government, but now was strongly repressed. But 
 the worst rumors were those that spoke of the wretched life 
 he led with his unhappy wife. He ill-treated her, it was 
 said ; he had imprisoned her in a cellar ; it was unaccounta- 
 ble that the authorities did not interfere. 
 
 " I could not bear to hear these things, of which I did not 
 believe a word, for the charges were in too glaringly contra- 
 diction to the naturally noble and generous nature of my 
 brother. But I felt a natural hesitation to mix myself up in 
 these affairs, until a letter which I received brought me to a 
 decision. The letter was written in bad French, and the 
 very first words informed me that the unhappy woman who 
 wrote it must be out of her right mind. *I hear you know 
 the road to Spain,' it began, and ended with the words, * I 
 entreat you to tell me the road to Spain.' In an hour after 
 receiving it I set out, and, after so many years, saw my 
 father's house and my brother again. It was a painful meet- 
 ing. ,1 
 
 " My father's house a ruin, my brother a shadow — worse, 
 a caricature — of his former self. Ah, my friend, the ham- 
 mer-theory had shown itself cruel to its staunchest main- 
 tainer. How had the clumsy anvil beaten out the delicate 
 hammer ! How ignoble he had grown in the common world 
 which he so deeply despised ! ' Only despise reason and 
 knowledge,' Goethe makes the Spirit of Lies say, * and I 
 have you then safe.' And I say, only despise men, and you 
 will see how soon you grow despicable to others and to your- 
 self 
 
 " I told him why I had come ; he led me in silence into 
 the park, and pointed to a woman, who, in a fantastic dress, 
 flowers and weeds in her glossy-black, half-dishevelled hair, 
 in her hands a guitar with half its chords broken, was wan- 
 dering under the trees and among the shrubbery, sometimes 
 , raising her dark eyes, as if in ecstacy, to heaven, and again 
 dropping them, as in despair, to the earth. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 295 
 
 " * You see,' he said, ' it is a lie that I have imprisoned her. 
 Many another would do it, for it is not a pleasant thing to 
 afford the public such an exhibition.' 
 
 " Take her to her native place," I said. 
 
 " ' Try it,' he answered. ' She would leap out of the car- 
 riage ; she would throw herself into the sea. And if you 
 took her there in fetters and by force, what would be her 
 fate ? She would be thrown into the dungeon of a convent, 
 where they would try with hunger and blows to exorcize the 
 devil who tempted her to give her heart to a heretic. 
 Though I love her no longer, I once loved her, or at least 
 she has been mine ; and no priest's ungentle hand shall 
 touch what has once belonged to me.' 
 
 " I said how terrible it was to hear him speak thus of his 
 wife, the mother of his child. 
 
 " * Who says that she is my wife ? ' was his reply. 
 
 " I looked at him amazed and shocked ; he shrugged his 
 shoulders. 
 
 " ' That does not suit your citizen virtue,' he said. * I 
 would have made her Frau von Zehren, notwithstanding her 
 father is a hidalgo of very doubtful lineage, had the child 
 been a boy. What do I want with a girl ? She cannot con- 
 tinue our race ; let it then end with me.' 
 
 " It was indifferent to him whether these words wounded 
 me or not ; he had no desire to wound me ; he really looked 
 upon the superintendent of a prison, who had married a 
 poor painter's daughter, as not a Zehren. 
 
 " I besought him to give me the child, if, as he said, she 
 was nothing to him. I would bring her up with my Paula, 
 who was then just born. Here she must perish both mor- 
 ally and physically ; and there might be a time when he 
 would long for a child, whether son or daughter, legitimate 
 or illegitimate. 
 
 " ' Then my last hour must have come,' he answered, turn- 
 ing away from me with a contemptuous gesture. 
 
 " What was here to be done ? I was not here to hunt with 
 my brother, or to join him in his carouses and gaming par- 
 ties, to which he invited me, with ironical politeness. I spoke 
 with the poor lunatic, who did not understand me, and had 
 no idea that she had written to me, as to many others whose 
 names she had learned by chance. I shook hands with old 
 
296 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 Christian, who had always been fond of me, and was now the 
 only one who remembered me, and begged him to watch 
 over the poor forsaken creature. I wandered once more 
 through the park and greeted the scenes of my boyish sports \ 
 once more saw the sun set behind the house where my cradle 
 had stood, and came sorrowing away. Thus might a tree 
 feel that is torn from the earth with all its roots. But, thank 
 heaven, if man is driven from his home, he can win himself 
 a new one ; and when the gates of our childhood's paradise 
 are closed behind us, another world opens to us which we 
 must conquer and possess in the sweat of our brows, but 
 which for this reason alone is truly ours." 
 
 CHAPTER IX. . i 
 
 IT was certainly not with the intention of stimulating me 
 — for that was no longer needed — that my teacher in his 
 discourses ever returned to the same theme, that free, 
 voluntary labor, consecrated by love, the labor of all for all, 
 was the completion of wisdom, the proper aim and highest 
 happiness of mankind. This was the last result of his prac- 
 tical philosophy, to which of necessity all his reflections tended, 
 whether their subject was the destiny of the individual or the 
 race. And as these discourses were almost always carried on 
 in intervals of repose from work, from which we came and 
 to which we were about to return, they might be called sig- 
 nificant arabesques to the earnest, and — as it now looks to 
 me — moving pictures presented by the unresting, thoughtful 
 master, and the industrious, eager student, in their combined 
 occupation. 
 
 This occupation was strictly regulated. It so happened 
 that during my convalescence, an old clerk of the office, who 
 had long been ailing, died. As it was a fixed principle with 
 the superintendent that all work should be done by inmates 
 of the establishment, so far as that was practicable, he had, 
 in spite of the opposition of President von Krossow, by 
 means of an immediate application to the king, supported 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 2gj 
 
 by his friend, Minister von Altenburg, obtained liberty to 
 leave the clerk's place unfilled, and to give his work, as a 
 special favor, to me, for which I also received certain emolu- 
 ments, reduced to the proportion of other sums paid for 
 prison-work. Deacon von Krossow congratulated me, with 
 anything but cordiality, on my "promotion," but Dr. Snel- 
 lius crowed loudly with joy, and in the family the great event 
 was celebrated as a festival. As for me, this arrangement 
 had lifted a load from my breast. I had now no longer to 
 fear that the generous man who had already done so much 
 for. me, would be involved in serious inconveniences by his 
 kindness. In the president's circle they had even talked of 
 investigations, removal from office, of pensioning off at the 
 very least. Now, as my relation to him bore an official char- 
 acter, this danger was disposed of, and I could look with a 
 light heart through the open window by which my work-table 
 stood, into the leafy garden, where the bees were humming 
 around the flowers, where the birds sang in the trees, and 
 among the flowers and under the trees Frau von Zehren took 
 her morning walk, leaning on her daughter's arm, or in the 
 afternoon, after school-hours, the boys played or worked in 
 their flower-beds. 
 
 For each one, even Oscar, had his bed, which he had to 
 keep in order ; and it was always a fresh pleasure to me to see 
 the little men with their watering-pots and other implements, 
 which they handled with the skill of practiced gardeners. 
 And yet the pleasure which this sight gave me, was not with- 
 out a touch of sadness. It always brought to my mind my 
 own youth, and how joyless and fruitless it had been in com- 
 parison with this, which unfolded itself before me in such 
 fullness of beauty. Who had ever taught me to employ thus 
 usefully my youthful strength .'' Who, to bring a significance 
 even into my sports ? Alas, large and strong as I was, I 
 might have been nourished by the crumbs that fell from this 
 bounteous table. For I had scarcely known my mother, and 
 the deeply melancholy disposition of my father, who was 
 naturally grave, and had been rendered still more gloomy by 
 the loss of his deeply-loved wife, was to a vivacious high- 
 spirited boy at once mysterious and terrible. Later I well 
 understood what then I had but imperfect glimpses of — how 
 deeply and sincerely he desired my welfare, and strove, 
 13* 
 
298 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 according to his conscience and knowledge, to be a good 
 father to me ; but like Moses, my excellent father was slow 
 of speech, and there was no obliging Aaron at hand to ex- 
 plain to me the reasons of his stern commands. My brother 
 and sister were considerably older than myself I was eight 
 years old when my brother Fritz, then sixteen, went to sea, 
 and only ten when my sister, who was twenty, was married. 
 My brother was a lively, gay young fellow, and troubled him- 
 self about me as little as he did about anybody or anything 
 else in the world ; my sister had my father's sternness, but 
 without his feeling. After she was called to take the place 
 of a mother to me, she treated me always with pedantic 
 strictness, and often with petty cruelty. So I took refuge 
 with the old serving-woman who lived in a state of hostility 
 Avith her, and who, to reward me for my partisanship, told 
 me stories of robbers and ghosts ; and when Sarah married, 
 and with her parting kiss proceeded to give me a farewell 
 lecture, I told her in the presence of my father, her husband, 
 and all the wedding-company, that I wanted neither her 
 teaching nor her kiss, and that I was glad that in future I 
 should see and hear of her no more. This was held up as 
 an instance of the most frightful ingratitude on my part ; and 
 Justizrath Heckepfennig, who was also present on this oc- 
 casion, pronounced for the first time his deliberate convic- 
 tion, which subsequent experience was only too strongly to 
 confirm, that I " would die in my shoes." 
 
 No one can blame me, if while I looked through the win- 
 dow at my little friends, the wish arose in my mind that I 
 had also been so fortunate, that I had had a father at once 
 so wise and so kind, so gentle and tender a mother, such 
 merry companions in work and play, and above all such a 
 sister. 
 
 At first she always brought to my mind some old child's 
 story, but I could not remember precisely what it was. It 
 was not little Snow-white, for little Snow-white was a thous- 
 and times fairer than the fairest queen, and Paula was not 
 really beautiful ; it could not be little Red Riding-hood, for 
 she, when you came to look at it, was a little stupid thing 
 who could not tell the wicked wolf from her good old grand- 
 mother, and Paula was tall and slender, and so very wise ! 
 Cinderella .-' Paula was so neat that no cinders could ever 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 299 
 
 be seen about her, and she had no doves at her command to 
 help her gather the peas ; on the contrary, she had to do 
 everything for herself. 1 could not make it out, and con- 
 cluded at last that it was no special personage of whom she 
 reminded me, but rather that she was like one of the good 
 fairies whom one does not see either coming or going, and 
 only know that she has been here by the gift she has left 
 behind; or like the friendly little goblins who, while the 
 maids sleep, clean up parlor and kitchen, garret and cellar ; 
 and when the sleepers awake, they see that all their work is 
 done already, and far better than they could have done it 
 themselves. 
 
 Yes, she must be a fairy, who, out of the abundance of 
 her kindness to those whom she befriended, had taken the 
 form of a slender blue-eyed, blonde maiden. How other- 
 wise could it be that from early morning to late evening she 
 was always busy and yet never weary ; that she was always 
 at hand when wanted ; that she had ready attention for 
 every one, and that never the shadow of ill-humor passed 
 across her sweet face, much less an unkind word from her 
 lips ? True, her look was serious, and she rarely spoke more 
 than just what was needful, but her seriousness had no 
 admixture of gloom, and once or twice I even heard her 
 playfully chatting with a half-loud gentle voice, such as the 
 fairies have when they speak the language of mortals. 
 
 I confided my discovery to my friend, Dr. Snellius. 
 
 " Keep away from me with such nonsense ! " cried he. 
 " A fairy, indeed ! It is Lessing's old fable of the iron pot 
 that must needs be taken off the fire with a pair of silver 
 tongs. What does she do, then, that is so extraordinary ? 
 She is the housekeeper, the teacher of the children, her 
 father's friend, her mother's companion, and the nurse of 
 both. All good girls are all this : there is nothing so unu- 
 sual in it ; it all lies in system and order. But a fantastic 
 head of twenty years naturally cannot see men and things as 
 they really are. Do you marry her. That is the best means 
 of discovering that the angels with the longest azure wings 
 are but women after all." 
 
 I passed my hand through my hair, which was now percep- 
 tibly regaining its former luxuriance, and said thoughtfully : 
 
 " I marry Paula ? Never ! I cannot imagine the man 
 
300 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 who would be worthy to marry her ; but this I know cer- 
 tainly, that I am not he. What am I ? " 
 
 " For the present you are condemned to seven years' im- 
 prisonment, and have therefore fully that amount of time for 
 considering what you will be when you are released. I trust 
 that you will then be a worthy man, and I do not know what 
 girl, nor what seraph is too good for a worthy man." 
 
 " But I know another reason, doctor, why I shall not be 
 able to marry her then." 
 
 " What is that ? " 
 
 " Because by that time you will have married her your- 
 self." 
 
 " What a grinning, gnashing mammoth ! Do you suppose 
 a girl like that will marry an apoplectic billiard-ball .'* " 
 
 Whether the doctor was provoked at the contradiction into 
 which he had fallen in scouting, as regarded himself, the 
 possibility which he had just maintained in reference to me 
 — or whatever the cause may have been, the blood rushed 
 so violently to his bald head, that he really bore a striking 
 resemblance to the remarkable object to which he had just 
 compared himself, and his crow rose to such an extraordinary 
 height of pitch, that he did not even make the attempt to 
 tune himself down. 
 
 These sayings of the doctor haunted my memory for sev- 
 eral days. I was struck with the thought that a worthy man 
 was good enough for any girl, and therefore that in this re- 
 spect there was no reason why I should not, sooner or later, 
 marry Paula. But then again, I knew not how, my old no- 
 tions returned, and when I saw her arranging and ordering 
 all things with her heavenly patience, I said to myself — It is 
 not true that all girls, even the so-called good ones, are like 
 Paula ; and it is an absurd idea of the doctor that I can ever 
 be worthy of her. 
 
 The clear atmosphere, the splendid sunsets, the dry leaves 
 that here and there fluttered down from the trees, announced 
 the approach of another autumn. It was the season that I 
 had spent the year before at Castle Zehrendorf ; these were 
 the same signs that I had then so closely observed, and they 
 awakened in my soul a crowd of memories. I had believed 
 that these memories were deeply buried, and I now found that 
 only a thin covering had been spread over them, which every 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 301 
 
 light sighing of the melancholy autumn breeze sufficed to lift. 
 Indeed it often seemed to me that the wounds which had been 
 inflicted on me a year before were about to open once more. 
 I again lived over all that time, but it was as when a waking 
 man, in full consciousness, calls back a vivid dream. What 
 in a dream, with the incomplete activity of our intellectual 
 faculties, seemed to us natural and reasonable, appears to us, 
 when awake, as a strange phantasm ; and what then tor- 
 mented us as incomprehensible, we can now clearly under- 
 stand, because we can supply the vacant steps which our 
 dreaming fancy has leaped lightly over. I had only to com- 
 pare my position at that time with the present, to see how 
 wild a caricature my fancy had drawn. Then I imagined 
 myself free, and was really involved in a net of the most 
 unhappy, the most repulsive circumstances, as a fly in the web 
 of a spider ; now I slept every night behind bars of iron, 
 and felt as calm and safe as when one steps from a swaying 
 boat upon the steady land. Then I believed that I had 
 found my proper career, and now I saw that that life was only 
 a continuation, and to a certain extent the consequence of 
 a youth spent without plan or aim. And in what light now 
 did the persons in whose destinies I had taken such a pas- 
 sionate interest, now appear to me, when I compared them 
 with those whom I had learned to love so cordially — when I 
 compared, for instance, the Wild Zehren with his wise and 
 gentle brother ? And, as I had begun to draw comparisons, 
 that dejected, sleepy giant, Hans von Trantow — ^where now 
 was the good Hans, if he was not dead ? and there were 
 those who insisted that he was safe enough, and they knew 
 very well where he was — had to take his place by the side of 
 the little, intelligent Doctor Snellius, always full of life and 
 motion ; and even poor old Christian was compared with the 
 vigorous old Sergeant Siissmilch. But most vividly was the 
 comparison forced upon me between the beautiful, romantic 
 Constance, and the pure, refined Paula. 
 
 A sharper contrast could scarcely be imagined ; and for 
 this reason perhaps the image of the one always called up 
 that of the other. I felt for Paula, notwithstanding her 
 youth, a greater respect than I had ever felt for Constance, 
 who was several years older, and far more beautiful. True, 
 with the latter at first I had had a certain bashfulness to 
 
302 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 overcome in myself, but this bashfulness was of a very dif- 
 ferent nature, and I had so completely overcome it, that when 
 I left the castle that morning, I was resolved to marry her, 
 in spite of my nineteen years. And what surprised me was 
 the fact that I could not think of Constance, who had so 
 cruelly betrayed me, and whom I believed myself to hate, 
 without the wish that I might see her once more, and tell her 
 how much I had loved her, and how deeply she had wounded 
 me. Where was she now ? When last heard of, she was in 
 Paris. 
 
 Was she still there, and how was she living ? That she 
 had been abandoned by her lover, I knew already ; I had 
 laughed aloud when I first heard of it. Now I laughed 
 no longer; I could not think, without a feeling of the deep- 
 est pity, of her who had been so atrociously wronged, who 
 now perhaps — yes, beyond a doubt — was wandering home- 
 less and friendless about the world ; an adventuress, as her 
 father had been an adventurer. And yet she couiid not be 
 altogether vile ; had she not with pride and scorn renounced 
 every claim upon her father's inheritance ? Did she not 
 know that her father had never deigned to make her mother 
 his wife ? Had she perhaps known it before ? And if so, 
 did not this fact suffice to explain the hostile position she 
 maintained towards her father ? Could she love the man who 
 had plunged her mother into such unbounded wretchedness — 
 who had never been to her what a father should be, and who, 
 if the reports of his gaming companions were to be believed, 
 had only used her as a bait to allure the stupid fish to his 
 net ? Could one judge her so severely — her who had sprung 
 from such parents, grown up in isolation and amid such asso- 
 ciations, exposed from childhood to the clumsy attentions or 
 the impertinent familiarities of rude country squires^f she 
 had violated duties whose sacredness she had never compre- 
 hended ? — if she had been sacrificed by a profligate who 
 approached her with all the temptations of wealth and his 
 exalted rank, and with the whole magic of youth ? Unfortu- 
 nate Constance ! Your song of the " falsest-hearted, only 
 chosen " was cruelly prophetic. Your chosen one had in- 
 deed proved false-hearted to you. And the other, your 
 faithful George, who was to kill all the dragons lurking in 
 your path, you scorned his service ; and the mistrust which 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 303 
 
 you felt in the strength and wisdom of the squire who had 
 devoted himself to you, was but too well justified. Would 
 he ever see you again ? 
 
 I know that she had refused to be present at the family 
 conference which was soon to be held. And yet, as the day 
 drew nearer, the thought more frequently recurred to me, 
 that she might still change her mind, uncertain and impul- 
 sive as she was, and suddenly stand before me, just as my 
 friend Arthur one evening, as I was returning with Paula 
 from the Belvedere, appeared before me in all the splendor 
 of his new ensign's uniform. 
 
 ^ CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE day had been rainy and disagreeable, and my frame 
 of mind was as dull and gloomy as the weather. In 
 the morning the superintendent had had an attack of 
 hemorrhage. I was for the first time alone in the office, and 
 often looked over from my work to the place that was vacant 
 to-day, and again listened, when a light swift step came along 
 the corridor from the room where the superintendent was, to 
 the nursery, where the little Oscar had been lying for a week 
 with some infantile ailment. I was always hoping that the 
 light swift step would stop at my door ; but the fairy had to- 
 day too much to do, and with all, I thought, had probably 
 forgotten me. 
 
 But she had not forgotten me. 
 
 It was towards evening. As I could no longer see, I had 
 put by my work, and was still seated upon the office stool, with 
 my head resting on my hand, when there came a light tap 
 at the door. I hurried to open it — it was Paula. 
 
 " You have not been out of the room the whole day," she 
 said ; " the rain is over ; I have half an hour to spare ; shall 
 we walk in the garden a little ? " 
 
 " How are they ? " 
 
 " Better, much better." 
 
 She answered promptly, and yet her voice did not have a 
 reassuring sound ; and she was singularly silent as side by 
 
304 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 side we ascended the path to the Belvedere. I concealed 
 my solicitude, as well as I could, by encouraging words. 
 The little one, I said, was now out of all danger ; and it was 
 not the first attack of the kind which the superintendent had 
 had, and from which he always soon recovered his usual 
 strength. This was Dr. Snellius's opinion too, I added. 
 
 While I thus spoke, Paula had not once looked at me, and 
 as we now reached the summer-house, she entered it hastily. 
 I remained behind a moment to look at the clouds which the 
 sunset was coloring with hues of marvellous beauty, and called 
 Paula that she might not miss the splendid sight. She did 
 not answer ; I stepped to the door. She was sitting at the 
 table, her face buried in her hands, weeping. | 
 
 " Paula, dear Paula ! " I exclaimed. 
 
 She raised her head and strove to smile, but it was in vain ; 
 again she covered her face with her hands and wept aloud. 
 
 I had never seen her before in this state, and the unu- 
 sual and unexpected sight distressed me inexpressibly. In 
 my deep emotion I ventured for the first time gently to 
 smooth down her blond hair with my hand, speaking to her 
 asto a child whom I was trying to soothe and comfort. And 
 what was this maiden of fifteen but a helpless child to me, 
 who stood by her now in the plenitude of my fully restored 
 strength ? 
 
 " You are very kind," she sobbed, " very kind ! I do not 
 know why just to-day I see everything in so gloomy a light. 
 Perhaps it is because I have borne it so long in silence ; or 
 possibly it may be this gray, cheerless day ; but I cannot 
 keep my mind clear of dreadful thoughts. And what will 
 become of my mother and the boys ? " 
 
 She shook her head mournfully, and looked straight be- 
 fore her with eyes dim with tears. 
 
 It had begun to rain again ; the bright tints of the clouds 
 had changed to a dull gray ; the evening wind rustled in the 
 trees and the dry leaves came eddying down. I felt unut- 
 terably sad — sad and vexed at heart. Here again was I in 
 the most wretched of positions; compelled to witness the 
 distress of those I loved, while powerless to relieve it. It 
 might be that Constance and her father had not deserved 
 the sympathy I had felt for them ; but I still had endured 
 the grief and the pain ; and this family — this — I knew well 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 305 
 
 were worthy that a man should shed his heart's blood in 
 their service. Alas, again I had nothing but my blood that 
 I could give ! To give one's blood is perhaps the greatest, 
 and assuredly the last sacrifice that one man can bring to 
 another ; but how often does it prove a coinage that is not 
 current in the market of life. A handful of money would 
 bring rescue — a piece of bread — a blanket — a mere nothing 
 — and yet with all our blood we cannot provide this. 
 
 And as I stood, leaning in the door of the summer-house, 
 now glancing at the gentle, weeping girl, and now at the 
 dripping trees, my heart swelling with sorrow and helpless 
 indignation, I vowed to myself that in spite of all, I would 
 yet raise myself to a position where, in addition to my good 
 will, I should also have the power to help those whom I 
 loved. 
 
 How oft in my after life have I recurred in memory to this 
 vow ! It seemed so utterly impossible ; the object I pro- 
 posed to attain seemed so far away ; and yet that I now 
 stand where I do I chiefly owe to the conviction that filled 
 my soul at that moment. So the shipwrecked mariner, bat- 
 tling with the waves in a frail and leaky skiff, sees but for 
 a moment the shore where there is safety ; but that moment 
 suffices to show him the course he must steer to escape de- 
 struction. 
 
 " I must go in," said Paula. 
 
 We walked side by side along the path leading down from 
 the Belvedere. My heart was so full that I could not speak ; 
 Paula also was silent. A twig hung across the path, so low 
 that it would have brushed her head ; I raised it as she 
 passed, and a shower of drops fell upon her. She gave a 
 little cry, and then laughed when she saw me confused at my 
 awkwardness. 
 
 " That was refreshing," she said. 
 
 It sounded as if she were thanking me, though I had 
 really startled her. I could not help seizing the dear maid- 
 en's hand. 
 
 " How good you are, Paula," I said. 
 
 " And how bad you are," she replied, looking up in my 
 face with a radiant smile. 
 
 " Good-evening ! " a clear voice exclaimed close at hand. 
 
 The speaker had stepped out of a hedged path that opened 
 
3o6 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 at right-angles to the one in which we were walking, and now 
 stood facing us in a gay uniform, his left hand on the hilt of 
 his sword, three white-gloved fingers raised in a foppish sa- 
 lute to the peak of his cap, gazing curiously at us from his 
 brown eyes, and a half-mocking, half-vexed smile upon his 
 face, which in the pallid evening light looked paler and more 
 worn than ever. 
 
 "Allow me to present myself," he said — his three fingers 
 still raised to his cap — " Arthur von Zehren, ensign in the 
 i2oth. Have been^at the house already; learned to my re- 
 gret that my uncle is not perfectly well ; my aunt is not visi- 
 ble ; would at least not neglect to pay my devoirs to my 
 charming cousin." 
 
 He said all this in a drawling, affected tone, without look- 
 ing at me (who had released Paula's hand at once) or taking 
 the slightest notice of my presence. 
 
 " I am sorry that it has happened so unfortunately, Cousin 
 Arthur," said Paula. " We did not look for you before next 
 week." I 
 
 " That was my original plan," replied Arthur ; " but my 
 colonel, who is so good as to take a special interest in me, 
 hastened the issue of my commission, so that I was able to 
 leave yesterday, and present myself here to-day. Papa and 
 mamma send kind remembrances to my uncle and my aunt ; 
 they will be here the beginning of next week ; hope uncle 
 will be quite restored by that time. Am curious to see him ; 
 they say he is very like my grandfather Malte, whose picture 
 hangs in the parlor at home. Would not have known you, 
 dear cousin ; you have not the family face ; brown hair and 
 eyes is the Zehren style." 
 
 The path was not wide enough for three to walk abreast ; 
 so the two went on before, and I followed at a little distance, 
 but near enough to hear every word. I had lately been 
 thinking of my former friend with very mixed feelings ; but 
 now as he strutted along before me at the side of that dear 
 child, pouring his insipid chatter into her ear, calling her 
 thou and cousin, and just now, either accidentally or inten- 
 tionally, touching her with his elbow — my feelings were very 
 unmixed indeed. I could have wrung Master Ensign's dainty 
 little brown head round in his red collar with extreme satis- 
 faction. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 307 
 
 We reached the house. 
 
 " I will see if you cannot speak with my mother for a few 
 minutes at least," said Paula ; " please wait an instant here ; 
 you have not spoken to your old friend yet." 
 
 Paula ran up the steps ; Arthur saluted her — ^three fingers 
 to his cap — as she went, and then remained standing with 
 his back to me. Suddenly he turned upon his heel so as to 
 face me, and said in his most insolent tone : 
 
 " I will now bid you good-day ; but I request you to ob- 
 serve that before third parties we have no acquaintance — I 
 presume I need not enter into details why this is so." 
 
 Arthur was a head shorter than I, and he had to look up in 
 my face while he pronounced these severe words. This cir- 
 cumstance was not in his favor ; rudenesses are much best 
 said from above ; and it struck me so ludicrously that this 
 little fellow, whom I could have tumbled over with a light 
 push, should puff himself up to this extent before me, that I 
 laughed aloud. 
 
 An angry flush crimsoned Arthur's pale cheek. 
 
 " It seems you mean to insult me/' he said ; " happily in 
 my position I cannot be insulted by a person like you. I 
 have already heard on what footing you stand here ; my 
 uncle will have the choice between me and you. I do not 
 imagine that it will be a difficult one." 
 
 I no longer laughed. I had loved this youth with more 
 than brotherly affection ; I had, so to speak, knelt and wor- 
 shipped him ; I had rendered him a vassal's faithful service ; 
 had good-naturedly accompanied him in all his follies, and 
 taken — how often ! — their punishment upon myself. I had 
 guarded and protected him in every danger ; had shared with 
 him all that I possessed, only his share was always by far the 
 larger — and now, now, when I was in misfortune and he lux- 
 uriating in the sunshine of prosperity, now he could speak to 
 me thus! I could scarcely understand it ; but what I did 
 understand was inexpressibly odious to me. I gazed at him 
 with a look before which any other would have lowered his 
 eyes, turned my back upon him and went. A peal of derisive 
 laughter resounded behind me. 
 
 " Laugh away ! " I said to myself; " he laughs best who 
 laughs last." 
 
 But when I thought of Paula's behavior during this inter- 
 
3o8 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 view, I felt that it might well have been different. I thought 
 she might have taken my side more openly. She well knew 
 how Arthur had abandoned me as soon as I fell into misfor- 
 tune ; how he had had no single cheering word for his old 
 companion when in prison ; yes, had even openly renounced 
 me, and blackened my name with calumny like the rest. 
 
 " That was not right — that was very ill done of Arthur," 
 she had said to me more than once ; and now — I was very 
 dissatisfied with !^aula. 
 
 I was now to have opportunities enough for dissatisfac- 
 tion ; for in truth, all things taken together, the time which 
 followed was an unhappy time for me. Arthur presented 
 himself on the following day, and was received by the super- 
 intendent in his sick-room, and by all the family, in the 
 most friendly manner. I, who had always stood so much 
 alone, possessed in but slight degree the family feeling, the 
 respect for the claims of kindred, and could not comprehend 
 that the mere accident of the identity of name and origin 
 could in itself have such importance as was manifestly con- 
 ceded to it here. " Dear nephew," said the superintendent 
 and Frau von Zehren ; " Cousin Arthur," said Paula ; and 
 " Cousin Arthur," shout-ed the boys. And in truth, Nephew 
 Arthur and Cousin Arthur was amiability itself He was 
 respectful to his uncle, attentive to his aunt, full of chiv- 
 alrous politeness to Paula, and hand-and-glove with the 
 boys. I observed all from a distance. The superintendent 
 still had to keep his room ; and I took that for a pretext for 
 working more diligently than ever in the office, wliich I 
 quitted as seldom as possible, and where I buried myself in 
 my lists and drawings, in order to see and hear nothing of 
 what was going forward. 
 
 Unhappily, I still heard and saw too much. The weather 
 had cleared up again, and a lovely latter-autumn, peculiar to 
 this region, followed the stormy weather. The boys had 
 holiday, the family scarcely left the garden, and Cousin 
 Arthur was always of the company. Cousin Arthur must 
 have had precious little to do ; the colonel deserved arrest 
 for letting his ensigns run wild in this fashion ! 
 
 Alas, imprisonment had not changed me for the better, as 
 I sometimes flattered myself When before had even a feel- 
 ing of envy or of grudging arisen in my soul ? When had 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 309 
 
 I ever disavowed my motto, " Live and let live ? " And now 
 my heart beat with indignation whenever, raising my eyes, I 
 saw Arthur in the garden stroking the little moustache that 
 began to darken his lip, or heard his clear voice. I grudged 
 him his little dark moustache ; as a prisoner I could wear no 
 beard, and mine would anyhow have been of a very pro- 
 nounced red. I grudged him his clear voice ; my own was 
 deep, and had grown very rough since I had left off singing. 
 I grudged him his freedom, which, in my eyes, he so shame- 
 fully abused. I almost grudged him his life. Had he not 
 wretchedly darkened my own life, which of late had been so 
 pleasantly lightened, and was he not joyously basking in the 
 sunshine from which he had expelled me ? 
 
 And yet I had no real ground to complain. The superin- 
 tendent, who recovered from his attack less rapidly than we 
 had hoped, but occasionally came into the office, was as 
 sympathizing and kind as ever; and after I had persistently, 
 for one or two weeks, declined under various pretexts the 
 invitations to join them in the garden, I had no right to be 
 surprised if Frau von Zehren and Paula at last grew weary 
 of troubling themselves about me, and the boys preferred 
 their lively cousin Arthur, who taught them their drill, to the 
 melancholy George, who no longer played with them. In 
 my eyes, however, they had simply abandoned me ; and I 
 should have fallen into mere despair, had I not posisessed 
 two friends who held fast to me, and secretly or openly es- 
 poused my cause. 
 
 These two friends were Doctor Snellius and Sergeant 
 Silssmilch. 
 
 As for the sergeant, Master Ensign had got into his black 
 book on the second day. In his familiar fashion, he had 
 clapped him on the shoulder, and called him "Old fellow." 
 " One is not an old fellow for such youngsters as that," said 
 the honest sergeant, as, his face still red with anger, he told 
 me of the affront he had just received. " One might have a 
 major's epaulettes on the shoulders to-day, if one had cho- 
 sen — will let the youngster see that one is not a bear with 
 seven senses." 
 
 The doctor too had his complaint of the insolence of the 
 new-comer. He was walking in the garden one evening, his 
 hat in his hand as usual, when Arthur must show his wit in 
 
3IO Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 various allusions to the baldness of the worthy man, and 
 finally asked him in the politest manner, if he had never 
 tried Rowland's Oil of Macassar, whose extraordinary vir- 
 tues he had frequently heard celebrated. 
 
 " What do you think of that ?" asked the doctor. " I re- 
 plied to him that I made all the jests upon my bald head 
 myself, and desired no competition. You will say that was 
 rude — or you will not say it, for you like this glib-tongued, 
 insinuating, slippery specimen of his charming species as 
 little as I do. And the Jack-Pudding will not be at the end 
 of his part so soon,^ either. Our humane friend holds it his 
 duty to practise a truly Arabian hospitality to a kinsman, 
 especially if he be poor ; and the steuerrath, I hear, is in a 
 miserable strait. My only consolation is that this pitcher 
 too will go to the well until it breaks." 
 
 " How about the family conference? " I asked. I 
 
 " Will be solemnly opened to-morrow. Humanus has in- 
 vited them all to take up lodgings with him. Our half-pay 
 friend has accepted, naturally ; but what I am surprised at is, 
 that so has the other, the Croesus, and not only for himself, 
 but for his golden daughterkin and her governess. There 
 are one — two — five persons, who will shortly enliven our soli- 
 tude in the most charming manner. My notion is that one 
 or two deserve to remain here forever." 
 
 Thus crowed Doctor Snellius, then hopped on another leg 
 and tuned himself down. I, for my part, was not a little ex- 
 cited at the report of the speedy arrival of the long-expected 
 guests. Already had Arthur's presence placed a restraint 
 upon me ; what would it be when all these came ? How 
 should I meet the steuerrath i' — how the commerzienrath ? 
 The one that had so shamefully abused the generosity of his 
 nobler brother, and the other that had traded so skilfully in 
 the embarrassments in which his incautious nature had in- 
 volved him. My aversion to the pair was of ancient date, 
 and but too well founded. But why should I in any way 
 come in contact with them ? If I did not come to them, they 
 would hardly hunt me up. To be sure, there was the little 
 Hermine ! Had she still the same corn-flower blue eyes as 
 on that morning on the deck of the Penguin ? And the sen- 
 tentious governess, did she still wear those yellow locks ? It 
 was a bright sunny day when I last saw them both ; but the 
 
 - »)n 
 
 - «- 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 311 
 
 sun had set too soon, and the evening closed in rain — in rain 
 and dark mist, through which the face of my father, pale with 
 anger, looked threateningly at me. 
 
 " Why do you sigh ? " asked Doctor Snellius, who in the 
 meantime had been examining a ground-plan on which I had 
 been working for the last few days. " Your progress is per- 
 fectly fabulous ; I should never have believed that so neat 
 and charming a piece of work could come from the hands of 
 a mammoth. Good-by, mammoth ! " 
 
 The good doctor shook my hand cordially and hopped out 
 of the room. I gazed sadly after him, as sadly as if I had 
 really been a mammoth, and knew that I was doomed to lie - 
 for thirty thousand years under snow and ice, and to be after- 
 wards exhibited, stuffed, in a museum. 
 
 ^. CHAPTER XI. 
 
 MY wish and my hope to be allowed to keep out of sight 
 during the family conference, were to be frustrated 
 in the most singular manner. I was appointed to 
 play a part, and no insignificant one, in the family drama. 
 
 The guests had arrived, and were comfortably accommo- 
 dated in the superintendent's not very roomy house. In the 
 evening all had met at the table. Doctor Snellius also being 
 present. Early the next morning he came to me, to disbur- 
 den his full heart. 
 
 The worthy doctor was under considerable excitement. I 
 perceived that at his first word, which was pitched a full third 
 higher than usual. 
 
 " I knew it," he said. " It was perfect idiotcy to invite 
 this swarm of locusts ; they will utterly devour my poor Hu- 
 manus, who has not so many green leaves left. What sort 
 of a company is this ? You have not told me a hundredth 
 part of the evil that even a lamb-like disposition such as 
 mine can, and must, and will say of these people. People ! 
 It is scandalous how we misuse that word. Why people ? 
 Because they go upon two legs ? Then the revolting area- 
 
312 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 tures that Gulliver saw in the land of the noble horses, were 
 people too. But the English skeptic knew better, and called 
 them Yahoos. And such are our dear guests, or there is no 
 such thing as natural history. The commerzienrath with his 
 great paunch, and his cunning, blinking eyes, is one. I could 
 but look at his short clumsy fingers ; I believe the fellow has 
 worn them off handling his gold. And the steuerrath is an- 
 other, though he makes desperate efforts to appear a human 
 being. He has long fingers, very long ; but does a human 
 being ever twist such long fingers about in that fashion, 
 curve his back with such a cat-like pliancy, and wear such a 
 white, smooth, smiling, false thiefs face } As for the gracious 
 born Baroness Kippenreiter, any one will believe at her first 
 word that she has held a high place in the republic of those 
 fascinating creatures, and only came to Europe by the last 
 ship. She cannot deny her nature ; her Yahoo origin grins 
 unmistakably from her long vellow teeth. Hm, hm, hm ! " 
 
 "And Fraulein Duff.?" I asked. 
 
 " Duff? " cried he—" Who is Fraulein Duff? " |. 
 
 "The governess of the little Hermine." 
 
 " Of the little beauty whom I was called to attend ? Her 
 name is Fraulein Duff? A very good name ! Might be 
 Du/t [perfume], and would then be still more suitable. 
 Mignonnette blooming in pots, and dried between flannel- 
 jackets in a bureau-drawer ; faded ribbons, tarnished .leaves 
 of albums, and a little ring of gold which did not even snap 
 when the faithless lover deserted his Elvira. Is not her 
 name Elvira ? It must be. Amalie, you say ? Certainly an 
 error of the press ; nothing about her to remind one of The 
 Robbers — ^unless it be her long, languishing ringlets, which as- 
 suredly are stolen." 
 
 " Why were you called into the little girl ?" I 
 
 " She had eaten too many apple-tarts on the road. As if 
 such a thing could hurt a little millionairess ! Oh, if it had 
 been black bread, now ! I said so to the sorrowing father. 
 * In all her life she never tasted a crumb of black bread,' 
 the monster replied, patting his protuberant paunch. ' Who 
 never ate his bread with weeping,' sighed the governess, 
 and added, * that is an eternal truth.' The deuce only 
 knows what she meant." 
 
 The doctor went to visit his patients ; I started for the 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 313 
 
 office, keeping close tg the wall, and slipped into the houje 
 through the back-door, for fear of being noticed by some one 
 of the guests. But no one saw me. 
 
 However, in the course of the day I caught sight of them 
 from my window. First, the commerzienrath, taking his 
 morning promenade through the garden, a long pipe in his 
 mouth. He seemed to be pondering over important things. 
 From time to time he stopped, and gazed long into vacancy. 
 Doubtless, he was calculating. I observed how with his 
 stumpy fingers he was multiplying, and then wrote the pro- 
 duct in the air with the end of his pipe-stem. Once his face 
 puckered into a grin of delight ; what could he have reck- 
 oned out ? 
 
 The next was the steuerrath. He went an hour later, with 
 his brother, through the garden. The steuerrath was speak- 
 ing very animatedly ; he several times laid his right hand 
 upon his breast, as if in asseveration. The superintendent's 
 eyes were dropped ; the subject of "the conversation seemed 
 to distress him. When they came near my window, he looked 
 across with apparent uneasiness, and drew his brother behind 
 a hedge. Apparently he did not wish me to witness his 
 brother's gesticulations. 
 
 I had bent over my work again with the painful feeling 
 that I was a superfluity and in the way, when suddenly the 
 door leading from the office into the garden was opened, and 
 the steuerrath hastily entered. I was startled, as even a man 
 of courage is startled when unexpectedly a serpent glides 
 across his path. The steuerrath smiled very beni^antly, 
 and held out to me his white well-kept hand, which he again 
 withdrew with a graceful wave, as I showed no disposition to 
 take it. 
 
 " My dear young friend," he said, " must we meet again 
 thus r 
 
 I made him no answer ; what could I answer to a phrase 
 in which every word and every tone was a lie ? 
 
 " How would I deplore your fate," he proceeded, " hai^iot 
 fortune brought you here to my brother, who without doubt 
 is one of the noblest and best of men alive, and who even 
 now, while we were walking there, has said so many kind 
 and affectionate things of you. I was impelled to offer you 
 my hand, although I had a presentiment that you, like your 
 14 
 
314 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 father, would turn from one whom in truth fortune has bit- 
 terly enough persecuted." 
 
 And the victim of fortune threw himself into an arm-chair, 
 and covered his eyes with his long white hand, the ring-finger 
 of which was adorned with an enormous signet. 
 
 " I do not reproach him for it : Heaven forbid ! I have 
 known him for so many years. He is one of those strict 
 men, whose horror of dereliction to duty is so great, and at 
 the same time'" so blind, that in their eyes an accused person 
 always appears a guilty one." 
 
 The last observation was too just for me not to admit it 
 inwardly ; and probably my look expressed as much, for the 
 steuerrath said with a melancholy smile : 
 
 " Yes, you can sing a sad song to that tune ! Well, well, 
 I will not chafe the wound which pains you more than all the 
 rest ; but in truth you have only early learned what sooner 
 or later we must all learn, that we can least expect a correct 
 construction of our views and intentions, and even of our 
 position, from those who stand in the closest relation to us." 
 
 In this too there was truth ; and I could not refrain from 
 looking in a more friendly manner at the man. 
 
 " I have just now had proof of this. My brother Ernest 
 is, as I have already said, one of the best of men ; and yet 
 what trouble does it not give him to place himself in my sit- 
 uation. To be sure, he has always lived with so much regu- 
 larity that he does not know what it is in one night to lose 
 the half of one's receipts, which are anyhow dealt out in 
 such stinted measure ; he does not know what it is to have 
 to compromise with one's creditors — ^to risk one's own sub- 
 sistence and that of others, alas ! and what is bitterest of all, 
 to be dependent on the good-will of a hard-hearted man of 
 money ! " 
 
 Here the white hand wiped a tear which seemed to have 
 accumulated in the inner corner of his right eye, and then 
 resignedly glided to his lap, while a mild smile stole over his 
 aristocratic features. 
 
 He rose and said : 
 
 " Forgive me ; but an unfortunate one feels himself irre- 
 sistibly attracted to the unhappy, and you have always been 
 a friend of my house, and the best companion of my -Arthur. 
 You must not take it ill of the poor youth, if pride in his 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 315 
 
 new sword has turned his head a little. You know him ; 
 hardly once in ten times does his heart know what his 
 tongue is saying ; and he has already owned to me that in 
 the notion that he owed it to his dignity as an ensign, he 
 behaved very foolishly to you. You really must forgive 
 him." 
 
 He smiled again, nodded to me, was about to offer his 
 hand again, but remembered that I had refused it before, 
 and withdrew it, smiled again, but very sadly, and went to 
 the garden door, which he opened softly and softly closed 
 behind him. 
 
 I looked after him with a mingled feeling of astonishment 
 and contempt. Was this soft-speaking man, who in my pres- 
 ence could weep over his position, the same to whom as a boy 
 I had looked up as to a superior being ? And if his case 
 was so desperate — and as far as I could learn it might very 
 well be so — I might have behaved in a more friendly man- 
 ner to him, might have afforded him a word of sympathy, 
 above all, need not have repulsed his offered hand. 
 
 My face burned ; it was the first time I had ever rudely 
 repelled a supplicant. I asked myself again whether impris- 
 onment had not corrupted me ; and I was glad that I had 
 kept so silent in regard to the relations between the steuer- 
 rath and his deceased brother, and especially that I had 
 faithfully guarded the secret of that letter, even from the 
 superintendent, in whom, in all other respects, I place un- 
 bounded confidence. Had the steuerrath a suspicion that I 
 could have revealed something had I chosen ? and had he 
 come this morning to thank me for my silence? 
 
 The steuerrath appeared at once to me in an entirely dif- 
 ferent and much more favorable light We feel a certain 
 inclination towards persons whom we have laid under obliga- 
 tion, if they are acute enough to let us perceive that they 
 are penetrated by the feeling of that obligation, 
 
 I would also let Arthur see that I had forgiven his folly. 
 
 The steuerrath is right, I thought ; not once in ten times 
 does he know where his tongue is running to. 
 
 As I formed this magnanimous resolution, there came 
 another knock — this time at the door that led into the hall , 
 and I came very near laughing aloud when upon my calling 
 "Come in! " the commerzienrath presented himself on the 
 
3i6 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 threshold ; not this time in dressing-gown and slippers, with 
 his long pipe in his hand as before, but in a blue frock-coat 
 •with gold buttons, a wide black neckcloth, out of which pro- 
 jected fiercely, at least four inches, the long points of his 
 high-standing collar, a flowered waistcoat loose enough not 
 to incommode his prominent paunch, nor interfere with the 
 display of his neatly-ironed frill, black trousers which were 
 not so long but that one might see how firmly his two flat 
 feet stood in the shining boots. In this very costume did 
 this man pervade all the recollections of my earliest youth ; 
 and perhaps it was because then, in my childish innocence, 
 I had laughed at his grotesque appearance, that now, when 
 to say the least such behavior was far more unbecoming, I 
 was again seized with an impulse to laughter. 
 
 " How are you now, my dear young friend ? " said the 
 commerzienrath, in the tone with which one inquires into 
 the state of some one on his death-bed. 
 
 "I thank you for your kind inquiry, Herr Commerzien- 
 rath ; I am quite well, as you see." 
 
 " You are a tremendous fellow," cried the commerzienrath, 
 taking his tone from me at once. " But that is right ; we 
 can live but once ; one must take things as they come. I 
 said as much to your father only yesterday, when I met him 
 upon the street. * Good heavens ! ' I said, ' why do you 
 make such a terrible matter of it ? We have all been young 
 once ; and youn^ men will be young men. Why have you 
 stopped his allowance ? ' I asked. ' He is not condemned 
 to hard labor; he has not forfeited the right to wear the 
 national cockade ; he is only imprisoned. That might hap- 
 pen to any one ; and you,' I said, * are such an honorable 
 man that it would be an honor to us all to play Boston with 
 you, even if you had four sons in the penitentiary.' " 
 
 The commerzienrath's head sank again upon one side ; 
 it is possible that at his last words my face assumed a grave 
 expression. 
 
 " To be sure," said he, " there are many that take it more 
 easily. There is my brother-in-law. I would not be in his 
 shoes although his father was a nobleman of the empire and 
 mine only an ordinary needleman. The investigation let 
 him off, but it was with a black eye. Any one would sup- 
 pose he had had enough of intriguing for his life-time ; but 
 
 . Jn^ 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 317 
 
 he cannot keep out of it. Great heavens, it is a shame, the 
 amount that his family has cost me already. Would you be- 
 lieve it, that I had to pay for my wife's trousseau out of my 
 own pocket ? Then the one at Zehrendorf and his drafts ! 
 By the way, did he ever tell you that he had assigned all 
 Zehrendorf to me, years ago ? Try to think ; he must have 
 mentioned it to you on some occasion or other. He was 
 not one of those that keep their mouths close shut. And 
 therei's the steuerrath ! What have I not already done for 
 the man ; and now these pretensions of his ! Indemnifica- 
 tion ! A man must live ; and if one has not a son, who 
 naturally could not be set to earn his own living, still one 
 has a daughter that one does not want to let starve. You 
 must try to get out of here, my boy. The girl asks after 
 you ten times a day. You have bewitched her, you rascal 
 you ! " 
 
 And the commerzienrath, who had arisen and was stand- 
 ing by me with his hat and stick in his hand, gave me a little 
 poke in the ribs. 
 
 " The Fraulein is very kind," I said. 
 
 " Look there now, how you blush ! " said the commer- 
 zienrath ; " quite right ; I like that. Respect for the ladies ; 
 don't be an idle coxcomb ; a fellow of that sort is worth 
 nothing all his life. But you must not call my Hermann 
 Fraulein ; Fraulein Duff will never allow that ; she must be 
 called Fraulein herself, though she would give her two little 
 fingers if she did not need to be called Mamsell or Fraulein 
 any longer." 
 
 The commerzienrath winked as he said this, puffed out his 
 cheeks, and gave me another little poke. 
 
 " I shall hardly have the opportunity," I said. 
 
 " Pooh ! " said the commerzienrath, " don't be tragic. We 
 are to ourselves here. I spoke with my brother-in-law to-day 
 about it ; you must take supper with us this evening. Her- 
 mann—you know I call her Hermann — wants particularly to 
 see you. Adieu ! " 
 
 And he kissed the tips of his clumsy fingers and left the 
 room, giving me another wink as he passed out at the door. 
 
 What was the meaning of these visits "i What did the cere- 
 monious steuerrath and the purse-proud commerzienrath want 
 with me, a prisoner ? I might have racked my brain in vain 
 
3i8 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 for a solution of the enigma, had not the superintendent, 
 who came into the office that afternoon, let fall a word which 
 gave me the key to the mystery. 
 
 " I wish the next three days were over," said he. " You 
 would not believe, my dear George, how repulsive to me are 
 all these transactions, which have no material interest for 
 me. They really only want me to act as umpire, and flatter 
 me in the hope of influencing my decision beforehand. And 
 if I could only decide — but how is that possible in this case 
 where the parties themselves do all they can to obscure the 
 matter ? They count upon you, my dear George, as you are 
 the only one who was near my unhappy brother in the latter 
 part of his life, and thus may possibly be able to give informa- 
 tion on some points that need to be cleared up. And now 
 come with me into the garden. Snellius and you must help 
 me to entertain the company. My poor wife and I will 
 really not be able to go through with it." 
 
 Smiling as he said these words, he took my arm and let 
 me assist him down the steps into the garden and up the 
 path to the Belvedere, from which even at a distance there 
 reached us the joyous clamor of children. It was the first 
 time since my misfortunes that I had gone into society. I 
 had learned while in prison many things of which I was proud, 
 but also one of which I was ashamed, namely, the agitation 
 that overcame me as I heard nearer and nearer the voices 
 of the speakers, and saw the dresses of the ladies glancing 
 through the hedge, already thinned by the autumn winds. 
 
 I had cause to be content with my reception : the boys 
 rushed at me, and Kurt cried that I must play with them, for 
 Cousin Arthur kept with Hermine and Paula, and that was 
 tiresome ; and Hermine anyhow was only ten years old, and 
 did not need to be so proud. 
 
 " Hermine is not proud, but you are too wild," said Paula, 
 who was holding Hermine's hand, while Arthur kept a little 
 in the background and twirled his little sprout of a moustache 
 with visible embarrassment. 
 
 I caught up the boys and tossed each in succession high 
 in the air, to conceal my confusion as well as I could, while 
 I kept my eyes fixed upon Hermine. It was really not pos- 
 sible to find anything more dainty and charming than this 
 beautifuL creature, in her white dress, which again was trim- 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 319 
 
 med with cornflower blue ribbons, as when I saw her on the 
 steamer. And her great blue eyes looked as eagerly at me, 
 and her red lips were half parted, as if she had suddenly 
 caught sight of the prince of a fairy-tale. 
 
 " Is that he ? " I heard her whisper to Paula, " and can he 
 really conquer lions ? " 
 
 I did not catch Paula's answer to this singular question, 
 for I had now to turn to Frau von Zehren, who sat between 
 her sister-in-law and Fraulein Duff on the bench. Frau von 
 Zehren looked paler than usual, and her poor blind eyes 
 turned with an appealing look towards me, while a painfully- 
 confused smile played about her lips. 
 
 She offered me her hand at once, and half arose from the 
 bench, but remembered that she must remain sitting, and 
 smiled yet more sadly. 
 
 I wished the born Baroness Kippenreiter, with her long 
 yellow teeth, and the governess, with her long yellow ring- 
 lets, who were both staring at me through their eye-glasses, 
 a thousand miles away. 
 
 The superintendent had now joined us, and said : " Will 
 you not take my arm awhile, Elise ? You will be chilled ; 
 the ladies will certainly excuse you." 
 
 "Oh, allow me to walk with our dear friend," cried the 
 born Kippenreiter, springing up with decision. The super- 
 intendent slightly shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " You are not one of the most robust yourself, dear sister- 
 in-law," he said. 
 
 " I am strong whenever duty calls," cried the bom Kippen- 
 reiter, drawing Frau von Zehren away with her. 
 
 " That is a grand expression ! " sighed Fraulein Duff. 
 " Happy he who can say that of himself! " and the pale gov- 
 erness shook her yellow locks in a dejected way, then turned 
 her dim*eyes on me, and lisped : 
 
 "Richard — ah, just as in the old story! Alas that the 
 Blondel is wanting ! But do not despair ; faithfully seek, 
 and thou shalt find at last ; that is an immortal truth," 
 
 " How are you, Fraulein Duff .> " I asked, merely to say 
 something. 
 
 " And still this charming quality of taking an interest in 
 the welfare of others, with all his own misfortunes ! That is 
 beautiful ! that is great ! " whispered the governess. " I 
 
320 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 must, indeed I must, make an attempt to creep into your 
 heart " 
 
 She laid the tips of three fingers upon my arm and pointed 
 shyly with her parasol in the direction which the company, 
 who had now left the place under the plane-trees, had taken. 
 
 " And how do you live here ? " she again whispered, as we 
 descended into the garden. " But why need I ask — calm and 
 free from care as William Tell. Life here is an idyll. Do 
 not talk to me of a prison ! The whole world is a prison ; 
 no one knows that better than I." 
 
 " I should have thought, Fraulein Duff, that the education 
 of so charming a creature " 
 
 " Yes, she is charming," replied the pale lady, with a flush 
 of real emotion, "lovely as a May morning, but you can un- 
 derstand — the undisturbed happiness of life — that this child 
 should have such a " 
 
 She looked cautiously around, and then continued in a 
 hollow voice : 
 
 " Only think ! he calls her Hermann, and asks three times 
 a day why she is not a — Fi done ! I cannot utter it. Oh, 
 it lacerates my heart that such rough hands should clutch the 
 delicate chords of this virgin soul ! The world loves to 
 blacken whatever is bright and fair ; who knows not that } 
 but at least her own father — but I am the last who should 
 complain of him. He has — ^you are a noble soul, Carlos ; I 
 cast myself upon your breast — he has awakened hopes in me 
 which would render giddy a soul less strong than mine. To 
 acquire a million is great ; to throw it away is godlike — and 
 to be the mother of this child, I often think, must be heav- 
 enly ; but what will you say to my always talking of myself ? 
 what will you say to your satirical friend ? " 
 
 " My satirical friend ? " 
 
 Fraulein Duff stepped a pace backward, shaded ner eyes 
 from the rays of the evening sun with her transparent hand, 
 and said with a coquettish smile : 
 
 " Carlos, you are playing false. Confess now you want to 
 escape me by this serpentine turning. There is but one here 
 to whom this description applies, but he is a giant — in in- 
 tellect ! It is immense — sublime ! it really overcame me ! 
 And you call such a giant your friend, and yet complain that 
 you are in a prison ! Oh, my dear friend, who would not 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 321 
 
 willingly exchange his freedom for your imprisonment, to win 
 such a friend as this ! " 
 
 Fraulein Duff pressed her handkerchief to her eyelids, and 
 then gave a Joud shriek as she felt herself seized fast from 
 behind, and turning saw Hermine's little spaniel, who had 
 fastened his sharp teeth in the skirt of her dress, and looked 
 at her with a malevolent expression in his great black eyes. 
 At the same moment the whole company came up, so that 
 the governess had suddenly quite a concourse of spectators 
 to her combat with the little long-haired monster. I en- 
 deavored to release her, and only made matters worse ; 
 Zerlina would not let go, and shook and tore with all her 
 strength ; the boys pretended to help me, and secretly urged 
 her on ; no one could keep from laughing, and the commer- 
 zienrath literally roared. Nothing remained for Fraulein 
 Duff, under these circumstances, but to swoon away, and fall 
 into the arms of Doctor Snellius, who just then came up, 
 attracted by the noise. 
 
 " Do not be alarmed, ladies and gentlemen," said the 
 commerzienrath, "this happens three times every day." 
 
 " Barbarian ! " murmured the fainting damsel, with pale 
 lips, and raised herself from the arms of the doctor, who, 
 despite the sublimity attributed to him, wore at this moment 
 a very sheepish look. Fraulein Duff strove to cast, through 
 the tears that dimmed her water-blue eyes, an annihilating 
 look at the mocker, declined the doctor's proffered arm with 
 the words, " I thank you, but I need no assistance to the 
 house," and hastened away, holding her handkerchief to her 
 face, while Zerlina capered around her little mistress with 
 joyous barkings and triumphant fiourishings of her bushy 
 tail. 
 
 " I think she will lose her wits one of these days," said the 
 commerzienrath, as a sort of explanation of the scene which 
 had just occurred. 
 
 " So much the more should you spare her, especially in 
 the presence of others," said the superintendent. 
 
 I had seized this opportunity to make my escape from the 
 company, and was wandering about in the farther walks of 
 the garden, when I saw Paula and Hermine approaching at 
 a little distance. Paula had laid her hand on the little maid's 
 shoulder, who, in her turn, had wound one arm round her 
 14* 
 
322 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 cousin's waist. Hermine was looking up in Paula's face, 
 and speaking with great animation, while Paula smiled in a 
 friendly manner, and said from time to time something which 
 seemed to call forth vehement opposition from the little 
 maid. 
 
 The lovely child of ten years, with her glossy brown hair, 
 and her great sparkling blue eyes, her bright little face beam- 
 ing with animation, and the slender maiden of fifteen, with 
 the gentle smile on her delicate lips — both these beautiful 
 figures illuminated by the ruddy glow of an autumn sunset — 
 how often has this picture recurred to my memory in later 
 years ! 
 
 And now they caught sight of me. I heard Paula say : 
 " Ask him then yourself," and Hermine answered, " And so 
 I will ! " 
 
 She let Paula go, came springing up to me, stood before 
 me looking fearlessly at me with her great eyes, and asked : 
 
 " Can you conquer lions, or can you not ?" 
 
 " I think not," I answered ; " but why .?" 
 " Yes or no ?" she asked, giving the least possible stamp of 
 her little foot. 
 
 "Well then, no!" 
 
 " But you ought to," she replied, with an indignant look. 
 « I wish it." 
 
 " If you wish it, I will do my very best, the first chance 
 that offers." 
 
 " Do you see, Paula," said the little maid, turning to her 
 with a triumphant look. *' I told you so ! I told you so ! " 
 and she clapped her hands and sprang about like a little 
 Bacchante, and then ran scampering over the flower-beds, 
 Zerlina following her with loud barkings. 
 
 " What did the ckild mean with her curious question ? " I 
 asked Paula. 
 
 "It seems that Fraulein Duff keeps comparing you to 
 Richard the Lion-heart," replied Paula, with a smile. 
 
 " With Richard the Lion-heart— me ? " 
 
 " Yes, because you are blond, and so tall and strong, and 
 a prisoner ; so Hermine has taken it into her head that you 
 must be able to conquer lions. Whether she is in earnest 
 or in jest, I doubt whether she knows herself. But I wanted 
 to thank you for joining us in the garden to-day. It was 
 
Hammer and Amdl. 323 
 
 kind of you ; for I could see that you were not at ease in the 
 company." 
 
 " And you, yourself ? " 
 
 " I must not ask the question. They are our relations." 
 
 " Of course that excuses everything." 
 
 I said this not without some bitterness, with a reference to 
 her friendship to Arthur ; but I felt ashamed of myself when 
 she raised her sweet, gentle eyes to my face and innocently 
 asked : 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 Happily I was spared the necessity of an answer, for Doc- 
 tor Snellius came up at the moment, calling " Fraulein 
 Paula ! Fraulein Paula ! " while he was yet at a distance. 
 
 " I must go in," said Paula ; " there are many things to 
 see to ; and I beg you do not look so angry. You have been 
 of late not so friendly as usual ; are you displeased with 
 me ? " 
 
 I had not the courage to answer " Yes ! " when I looked 
 into the earnest fade that was lifted to mine. 
 
 "Who could be that?" I said. "You are a thousand 
 times better than all of us." 
 
 " That she is, God bless her ! " said Doctor Snellius, who 
 had caught the last words. 
 
 He looked after her as she hastened away, and a deep and 
 sorrowful shade passed over his grotesque face. Then with 
 both hands he draped his hat over his bald skull down to 
 his very ears, and said in a tone of irritation : 
 
 " The devil tajce it ! She is far too good ; she is so good 
 that she can only meet with trouble. The time is past — ^if ; 
 there ever was such a time — ^when all things worked together 
 for good to the good man. One must be bad — thoroughly 
 bad ; one must flatter, lie, cheat, trip up his neighbor, r^fard 
 the whole world as his private inheritance which by n^lect 
 has fallen into alien hands, and which is to be won back 
 again. But to do this one must be brought up to it, and how 
 are we brought up ? As if life were one of Gessner's idylls. 
 Modesty, love of our neighbors, love of truth ! Let any one 
 try it with this outfit ! Is the commerzienrath modest ? 
 Does he love his neighbor ? Does he love the truth ? Not 
 one whit And the man is a millionaire, and his neighbors 
 pull off caps when they meet him, and fame proclaims him 
 
324 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 one of the noblest of human-kind, because from time to time 
 he tosses a thaler that will not go into his crammed purse, 
 into a poor man's hat. But you will say he has his punish- 
 ment in his own breast. Much of it ! ' He considers him- 
 self a thoroughly good man, a splendid fellow, full of humor, 
 and when at night he lies down in his bed to snore his eight 
 hours, he says, 'This you have honestly earned.' Away 
 with your starving, hectic honesty ! " 
 
 " I did not say a word in its favor, doctor." 
 
 "But while I was declaiming you kept on smiling, as if 
 you would have said : * But you are dishonest' Do you see, 
 that is just my vexation. With this wretched bringing-up of 
 ours, one is filled so with honest notions that one cannot be 
 a scoundrel, however good his intentions, but has to keep 
 honest, in spite of his better insight. And if we cannot get 
 over this, how can women ? " 
 
 The doctor looked fixedly in the direction in which Paula 
 had disappeared, and then took off his great, round specta- 
 cles, the glasses of which seemed to have become dim. 
 
 "You must not abuse the women, doctor," I said. 
 " Fraulein Duff " 
 
 " Has made me a formal proposal," said Doctor Snellius, 
 hastily putting on his spectacles, " and here comes somebody 
 who will make you one. Beware of this Greek in uniform." 
 
 The doctor clapped his hat upon his head and hurried 
 away, without returning the very friendly salute with which 
 Arthur approached us from a side path. 
 
 " I am glad that he is gone," said Arthur, coming to my 
 side and taking my arm just as in old times ; " I have some- 
 thing to say to you, or rather I have something to beg of 
 you ; my father has already done it, it is true ; but it can do 
 no harm if I repeat it. You know what I mean." 
 
 " Yes," I answered. 
 
 " I behaved like a fool, I know," the ensign continued ; 
 " but you must really not think too hardly of me. I thought 
 
 it was due to this thing here " and he gave his sword a 
 
 kind of toss with his left leg. 
 
 " Arthur," I said, stopping and withdrawing my arm, " I 
 am not quite so clever as you, but you must not consider me 
 an absolute fool. You separated yourself from me, long 
 before you had that toasting-iron at your side. You did it 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 325 
 
 because you had no further use for me, because it suited 
 your purpose to join the hue and cry against me, because — " 
 
 " Well, yes," interrupted Arthur, " I don't deny it. I was 
 in such an infernally dependent position that I had to howl 
 with the wolves. If I had spoken out my real feelings, Le- 
 derer would have surely plucked me at the Easter Examina- 
 tion, and my uncle would never have paid foj my ensign's 
 outfit." 
 
 "And now," I said, " it seems the wind blows from an- 
 other quarter, and we must trim our sails accordingly." 
 
 " Oh, hang it ! " said Arthur, laughing, " you must not 
 bring a fellow to book in that way. I often say things that I 
 cannot maintain. You always knew that was a weakness of 
 mine, and yet you used to like me. I have not changed, 
 and why are you angry with me all at once ? You may be- 
 lieve that I am still the same, notwithstanding my new capar- 
 ison, which, by the way, I am not likely to wear so very 
 much longer. It cost no end of trouble to get me the 
 appointment ; the colonel told me himself that he only did it 
 out of regard for my uncle, who was his comrade in the war 
 for freedom, and that on this account he would shut his eyes 
 a little to his duty, and take no notice of the reports that 
 were afloat about my father. But even as it is I am not out 
 of the woods yet. Papa's affairs are in such a frightful con- 
 dition that no creditor is willing to give him the least delay ; 
 and unless things now take a favorable turn, he is ruined, 
 and I of course with him ; my name will be struck off" the 
 list of candidates for promotion." 
 
 " What is this favorable turn to consist in ?" I asked. 
 
 "Well, I don't precisely know myself," Arthur replied, 
 decapitating some weeds with the scabbard of his sword. 
 " Uncle Commerzienrath has to pay over to papa his share 
 of the inheritance, left by my grandfather, which papa has 
 never received ; and also what is coming to us from Uncle 
 Malte's estate. But the old Judas will pay nothing ; he says 
 papa has been paid already five and ten times over. As I 
 said, I don't understand it ; I only know that I never re- 
 ceived a groschen of cash from my uncle, and I even envy my 
 servant-fellow, who at least has enough to eat." * 
 
 I took a side look at my old friend ; he did look extremely 
 pale and thin. My own appetite had long since recovered 
 
326 ' Hammer and Amnl. 
 
 its vigor, and not to have enough to eat, struck me as a 
 most serious misfortune. 
 
 " Poor fellow !" I said, and took his arm again, which I had 
 previously let go. 
 
 " But that is the least," continued Arthur, in a querulous 
 tone. " * Your father is always running in debt,' the colonel 
 said ; * as soon as I see that you are following in his foot- 
 steps, we shall have to part.' But I ask you now, how with 
 a couple of groschen a day can one avoid running into debt ? 
 To-morrow I have to meet a little note which a villain of a 
 Jew swindled me out of. I spoke of it to papa and to mamma, 
 and they both say they have not money enough to take them 
 home, not to speak of giving me any. I must get out of the 
 scrape as best I can. Very well j I will get out of it, but 
 in another way." 
 
 And the ensign whistled softly, and assumed a look of 
 gloomy desperation. 
 
 " How much do you need, Arthur 1" I asked. . ,; 
 
 " A mere trifle — twenty-five thalers." .;-- 
 
 " I will give it to you." 
 
 "You?" 
 
 " I have about so much in the cashier's hands here ; and 
 if it falls a little short, he will give me credit." 
 
 " Will you really do that, you dear good old George ?" 
 cried Arthur, seizing both my hands and shaking them again 
 and again. 
 
 " But don't make such a fuss about it," I said, trying with 
 very mixed feelings to escape the ensign's rather too exu- 
 berant gratitude. . , f 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE two brothers Von Zehren, with the commerzienrath, 
 were occupied for an hour the next morning in a 
 conference which was the object of this family gath- 
 ering. The session must have been a lively one. The room 
 in which they were was just above the ofl&ce, and although the 
 
 .^.tfi 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 327 
 
 house was solidly built, I had more than once heard the shrill 
 voice of the commerzienratft' I felt a sort of disquiet, as if 
 my own fortunes were the matter at stake. Had I not been, 
 by the strangest combination of circumstances, held as it 
 were perforce in connection with this family ? I had taken 
 an active part, as a friend and confident, in the most impor- 
 tant events connected with it ; and my own fate had been 
 entirely determined by these events and my relation to var- 
 ious members of the family. If Arthur had not wanted to 
 have me with him at the oyster-feast on board the Penguin 
 that morning — if I had not met the Wild Zehren at Pinnow's 
 that evening after the scene with my father-^if 
 
 '* The gentlemen upstairs would like to see us," said Ser- 
 geant Stissmilch, thrusting his gray head in at the door. 
 
 " Well ! " said I, laying the pen from my hand, not with- 
 out a little quickening of my pulse. 
 
 " Well, what ? " asked the sergeant, coming in and latch- 
 ing the door after him. 
 
 " Well, I had hoped that they would not want me," I said, 
 getting down from my stool with a sigh. 
 
 "Want you for what.?" asked the veteran, stroking his 
 long moustache and looking at me half angrily. 
 
 " It is a long story," I answered, adjusting my necktie at 
 the great inkstand on the table, which offered me a very dis- 
 torted reflection of myself. 
 
 " Which one need not tell an old bear with seven senses, 
 as he would not be able to understand it," answered the ser- 
 geant, with a little irritation in his tone. 
 ^ "I will tell you another time," I said. 
 
 At this moment, in the upper room, two voices were raised 
 so high, and two chairs were simultaneously pushed back 
 with so much violence, that the sergeant and I gave each 
 other an expressive look. The sergeant came close to me 
 and said in a confidential hollow tone : 
 
 " Fling both those fellows down the steps, and when they 
 get down to me, I will pitch them out of the house." 
 
 " We'll see about it," I answered, shaking the hand of the 
 old Cerberus, who had growled these last words apparently 
 from the pit of his stomach. 
 
 When I opened the door of the room upstairs, a peculiar 
 spectacle was presented to my gaze. The superintendent 
 
328 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 alone, of the three gentlemen, sat at the round table, covered 
 with papers of all sorts. The commerzienrath stood with 
 one hand resting upon the back of his chair, and with the 
 other gesticulating vehemently at the steuerrath, who, like 
 one who is eager to speak, and whose adversary will not let 
 him get in a word, stamped about the room, stood still, raised 
 his hand, tried to- speak, then shrugged his shoulders and 
 stamped about the room again. No one appeared to notice 
 my entrance but the superintendent, who beckoned me to 
 him, and then called the commerzienrath's attention to my 
 presence, but it did not interrupt his harangue. 
 
 " And so," he went on, " I am to lie out of my money for 
 eighteen years, not receiving a groschen of interest, to have 
 such chicanery played on me at last ! You are a man of 
 honor, Herr Superintendent ; a man of honor, I say ; and in 
 the whole matter, from the beginning until now, have behaved 
 
 as nobly as possible, but that gentleman there " and he 
 
 pointed his clumsy finger at the steuerrath with an energetic 
 gesture, as if there had been any possibility of mistaking the 
 person meant — " that gentleman, your brother and my brother- 
 in-law, seems to have a very peculiar way of looking at money- 
 transactions. Oh yes, it would suit me exactly to have my 
 goods paid for two or three times over, only there happen to 
 stand certain passages in the law of the country " 
 
 " Brother-in-law ! " exclaimed the steuerrath, taking a 
 stride towards the speaker, and raising his hand in a threat- 
 ening manner. 
 
 The commerzienrath sprang with great agility behind a 
 chair, and cried : " Do you expect to intimidate me ? I 
 stand under the protection of the law " 
 
 " Don't scream so, Herr Commerzienrath," I said, laying 
 my hand upon his right shoulder, and forcing him down into 
 his chair. 
 
 I had noticed that the superintendent's pale cheeks were 
 growing redder and redder at every word of the furious man, 
 and the marks of pain under his eyes were becoming more 
 and more apparent. 
 
 The commerzienrath rubbed his shoulder, looked at me 
 with an expression of astonishment, and was silent, just as a 
 screaming child suddenly stops its crying when something 
 very extraordinary happens to it. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 529 
 
 The superintendent smiled, and availing himself of the 
 sudden pause, said : 
 
 " I invited our young friend to come up, because I really 
 did not know how the question which is the matter of imme- 
 diate dispute could be better or more promptly decided ; 
 for no one can give us surer information on this point than 
 he. We want to know, George, what there was in the house 
 at Zehrendorf : the furniture, the plate, and so forth ; and 
 we should like some account of the condition of the farm 
 buildings, and as correct an inventory as possible of the live 
 stock and other property, if you can inform us on this point. 
 Do you think you can do so ? " 
 
 " I will try," I said, and gave them as full an account as I 
 could. 
 
 While I spoke, the little gray eyes of the commerzienrath 
 were fixed immovably upon me, and I remarked that as I 
 proceeded with the description, his puckered face cleared up 
 more and more, while the steuerrath's grew longer and more 
 confused in the same proportion. 
 
 " You see, brother-in-law, that I was right," cried the 
 commerzienrath, " that " 
 
 " You agreed to leave the management of the matter to 
 me," said the superintendent ; and then turning to the steu- 
 errath : " It appears, Arthur, that George's account agrees 
 with the inventory which the commerzienrath had taken three 
 years before, except such trifling differences as the lapse of 
 time amply explains " 
 
 " And so," cried the commerzienrath, "the money which 
 I lent your deceased brother upon it, could scarcely have 
 been too little. As my brother-in-law has not yet given us 
 the proof that the sum which the deceased paid him, in the 
 year 18 18, through my hands, was not an indemnification for 
 his interest in the estate, he must consent to admit that even 
 during the life of his brother, I was the legal proprietor of 
 Zehrendorf, and that his pretensions are illusory, entirely 
 illusory " 
 
 And the commerzienrath threw himself back in his chair, 
 puckered up his eyes, and rubbed his hands as if with satis- 
 faction. 
 
 " I should have thought," began the steuerrath, with an 
 appearance of annoyance, " that these things were not pre- 
 
33© Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 cisely suitable to be discussed in the presence of a third 
 person " 
 
 I arose, with a look at the superintendent. 
 
 "Excuse me, my dear Arthur," said the latter, "you not 
 only were willing but even desirous that we should call in our 
 young friend here ; of course it was to be expected that in 
 his presence many things " 
 
 " would be spoken of, which would not be particu- 
 larly agreeable to the Herr Steuerrath," said the commer- 
 zienrath, turning over his papers with a malicious smile. 
 
 " I must entreat you, brother-in-law — " said the superin- 
 tendent. 
 
 " And I must further request," cried the steuerrath, " that 
 these matters be handled in a more becoming tone. If I 
 pledge my word as a nobleman that my deceased brother 
 more than once assured me that he had parted with only a 
 small, the very smallest part of the Zehrendorf forest " 
 
 " So ! " cried the commerzienrath ; " is that your scheme ? 
 First it was the house, then the inventory, now it is the for- 
 est — here is the bill of sale." 
 
 " I beg you," said the steuerrath, pushing away with the 
 back of his hand the paper which the commerzienrath ex- 
 tended to him across the table ; " I have already taken note 
 of it. This bill, moreover, is not indisputable." 
 
 " It is the handwriting of our brother," said the superin- 
 tendent, in a reproachful tone. 
 
 " But expressed in such general terms," replied the steu- 
 errath, shrugging his shoulders. 
 
 " Was I to have every tree separately described ? " cried 
 the commerzienrath. " It is unheard of, the way I am treated 
 here. I do not speak of you, Herr Superintendent. You are 
 a man of honor, every inch of you ; but when I am told here 
 every moment that I must respect the word of a nobleman, 
 and a paper like this is not of more validity, which is a noble- 
 man's word too, and written with his own hand " 
 
 The commerzienrath had fallen into a querulous tone. 
 
 " Perhaps our young friend here can give us information 
 on this point too," said the superintendent. " Do you re- 
 member, George, to have heard anything from the mouth of 
 our deceased brother bearing upon the point at issue ? " 
 
 The steuerrath cast a quick, anxious look first at me ; the 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 331 
 
 commerzienrath stealthily watched me, and then the steuer- 
 rath, as if to detect the signs of any secret collusion between 
 us ; the superintendent fixed his large, clear blue eyes upon 
 me with a look of inquiry. 
 
 " Certainly I can," I answered. 
 
 " Well then ? " cried the commerzienrath. 
 
 I told the gentlemen the expression which the Wild Zehren 
 had used when he came to my room the morning before his 
 death, that of the whole majestic forest no part belonged to 
 him, not even enough to make him a coffin. 
 
 My voice faltered as I told this. That morning when I 
 beheld for the last time the lovely park glittering in the glo- 
 rious sunshine, the portrait of the strange man who knew him- 
 self utterly ruined, and gave so passionate an expression to 
 his knowledge — his attitude, his words, the tone of his voice 
 — all came back to me with irresistible force ; I had to turn 
 ^ away to hide the tears which sprang to my eyes. 
 
 " The question is decided for me now, if it were not so 
 before," said the superintendent, rising and coming to me. 
 
 " And for me too," cried the commerzienrath, with a tri- 
 umphant look at his adversary. 
 
 " But not for me," said the steuerrath. " However dis- 
 posed I am to place the fullest confidence in the veracity, or, 
 more accurately, in the good memory of our young friend 
 here, his recollections differ too widely from what I have heard 
 from my brother's lips for me to abandon the ground I have 
 taken. I am sorry to have to be so obstinate, but I cannot 
 help it. I owe it to myself and to my family. The last 
 eighteen years of my life are a series of sacrifices made to 
 our eldest brother. But a few days before his tragical end 
 he appealed to me in the most moving terms to advance him 
 a considerable sum of money ; I ran about the whole town 
 to get it for him ; I came to you also, brother-in-law, as you 
 doubtless remember. You refused me — and, by the way, not 
 in the most delicate manner. I wrote to my unfortunate 
 brother that I would assist him, but he must wait. I adjured 
 him to take no desperate resolution. He did not regard my 
 entreaties. Had that letter only not been lost ! " 
 
 " You have no further occasion for me, Herr Superintend- 
 ent ? " I said, and, without awaiting his answer, left the room, 
 and hastened to the office in a state of agitation, at which 
 
33* Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 now I can but smile. What had happened of so much con- 
 sequence ? A man, speaking of matters of importance, had 
 been guilty of an audacious lie. Later I discovered that this 
 is not of such rare occurrence, and in matters of business 
 lying has a sort of charter ; but I was then very young, very 
 inexperienced, and, I may add, innocent, or my emotion at 
 this moment could not have been so violent. I stood in the 
 presence of a thing to me at once horrible and incomprehen- 
 sible. I could not grasp it. I felt as if the world was being 
 lifted from its pivots. Once before something like this had 
 happened to me — when I heard of Constance's flight, and 
 learned that she had deceived me and lied to me ; but there 
 was then still a kind of palliation for her in my eyes ; the 
 passion of love, which I could understand. But this I did 
 not understand. I could not conceive how, for a few 
 wretched hundred or thousand dollars, one could calumniate 
 the dead, defraud the living, and roll one's self in the mire. , 
 But one thing became clear to me at that moment, and all 
 my life since I have held to the conviction that truth is not 
 a mere form, by the side of which another might have 
 place, but that it is like nature, the foundation and the 
 essential condition of human existence ; and that every lie 
 shakes and upheaves this foundation, as far as its influence 
 reaches. 
 
 Since- then I have discovered that this influence is not so 
 extremely wide ; that as water naturally seeks its level, so 
 the moral world continually strives to keep truth erect, and 
 to cancel the injurious effect of falsehood. 
 
 But on this morning this consolatory thought did not pre- 
 sent itself to calm the agitation in my heart. " Liar, hateful, 
 disgusting liar ! " I murmured over and over to myself, 
 " you deserve that I should have you placed in the pillory ; 
 that I should reveal the real contents of the last letter you 
 wrote to your brother." 
 
 I think that if this state of things had continued, I should 
 not have been able to resist the impulse to revenge Truth on 
 her betrayer, however foreign to my nature was the part of 
 informer. But I now heard the gentlemen coming down the 
 stairs, and the next moment the superintendent entered the 
 office. His cheeks were now as pale as they had before 
 been flushed ; his eyes were glassy, as those of one who has 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 353 
 
 just undergone an agonizing operation ; he tottered to a 
 chair, and sank into it as I hastened to support him. 
 
 After a minute he pressed my hand, assumed an erect 
 position, and said, smiling : 
 
 " Thank you ; it is over now. Excuse this weakness, but it 
 has affected me more powerfully than I had thought. Such 
 a dispute about yours and mine is always the miDst disagree- 
 able thing in the world, even when one looks upon it as a 
 mere spectator ; how much more then when the dust raised 
 is thrown directly into one's face! Well, the matter is 
 ended. I had proposed a compromise before, and they have 
 agreed to sign it. My brother, for a very moderate indem- 
 nification, gives up all his claims, which your last words 
 deprived, with me, of all remains of credit. He calls him- 
 self a beggar ; but alas ! he is not one of those beggars who 
 might take their place by kings." 
 
 The pale man smiled bitterly, and continued in a low tone, 
 as if talking to himself: 
 
 " Thus the last remnant of the inheritance of our ances- 
 tors passes out of our hands. The old time is past — ^it has 
 lasted too long ! I regret the forest ; one does not like to 
 see the trees fall through whose foliage the earliest morning- 
 ray greeted our childish eyes, and under whose branches we 
 played our childish sports. And now they will fall ; to their 
 new possessor they are but wood, which he will convert into 
 money. Money ! True, it rules the world, and he knows 
 it ; he knows that the turn has come for him and those like 
 him, and they are now the knights of the hammer. It is the 
 old game in a somewhat different form. How long will they 
 play it ? Not long, I trust. Then " 
 
 He raised his eyes to me with a long loving look " then 
 
 will come our turn, ours, who have comprehended that there 
 is such a thing as justice, that this justice cannot be trifled 
 with, and that we must cleave to and desire with all oiu: 
 souls this justice, which is equity. Is it not so, George ? " 
 
334 . Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 DOCTOR WILLIBROb and I had hoped that, now that 
 their business was at an end, the burdensome guests 
 who had so long made the superintendent's house their 
 home, would take their leave ; but our hope was to be only 
 partially fulfilled. 
 
 " I do not wish to travel in the company of a man who has 
 made me a beggar," said the steuerrath. 
 
 " Fudge ! " said the commerzienrath, coming into the of- 
 fice that afternoon, in travelling dress, to bid me good-by ; 
 " he has been a beggar all his life. Would you believe it ? 
 five minutes ago he was begging from me again ; he has not 
 the money to take him home, I must advance him a hundred 
 thalers. I gave them to him ; I shall never see them again. 
 By the way, I must see you again. Really I like you better 
 every time I see you ; you are a capital fellow." 
 
 " You will make but little capital out of me, Herr Com- 
 merzienrath." 
 
 " Make capital ? N&rj good ! " said the jovial old fellow, 
 and poked me in the ribs. " We shall see, we shall see. 
 Your very first movement when you leave this place must be 
 to my house. Will soon find something for you ; am plan- 
 ning all sorts of improvements on the estate — ^here the com- 
 merzienrath shut his eyes — distillery, brick-yard, turf-cut- 
 ting, saw-mill — ^will find a place for you at once. How long 
 have you still to be here ? " 
 
 " Six years longer." 
 
 The commerzienrath puffed out his cheeks. " Whew ! 
 that is an awful time. Can I do nothing for you ? Could 
 I help you up there ? A little cash in hand, eh ? '^ 
 
 " I am greatly obliged to you, but cannot expect any ad- 
 vantage from your exertions." 
 
 " Pity, pity ! Would have been so glad to prove my grat- 
 itude to you. You have really done me a great service. The 
 man would have given me much trouble. Would a little 
 money be of service to you ? Speak freely. I am a man 
 of business, and a hundred thalers or so«are a trifle to me." 
 
 " If we are to part as friends, not another word of that," 
 I said, with decision. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 335 
 
 The commerzienrath hastily thrust back the thick pocket- 
 book which he had half drawn out of his pocket, and for the 
 greater security buttoned over it one button of his blue frock- 
 coat. 
 
 "A man's free-will is his heaven. Come anyhow and bid 
 my Hermine good-by. I believe the girl would refuse to 
 start if you do not come to the carriage. Perhaps you will 
 not do this either." 
 
 " Assuredly I will," I answered, and followed the commer- 
 zienrath to the spiace in front of the house, where already the 
 whole family was assembled around the great travelling-car- 
 riage of the millionaire. 
 
 While in his ostentatious way he was boasting of the con- 
 venience of the carriage and the beauty of the two powerful 
 brown horses, who were lazily switching their long tails 
 about, and at intervals bidding farewell to the company with 
 clumsy bows and awkward phrases, Hermine was flitting from 
 one to another, laughing, teasing, romping in rivalry with her 
 Zerlina, that seemed to be continually in the air, and kept up 
 the most outrageous barking. In this way she passed me 
 two or three times, without taking the least notice of me. 
 Suddenly some one touched my arm from behind. It was 
 Fraulein Duff. She beckoned me, by a look, a little to one 
 side, and said hurriedly and mysteriously : 
 
 " She loves you ! " 
 
 Fraulein Duff seemed so agitated ; her locks, usually so 
 artistically arranged, fluttered to-day in such disorder about 
 her narrow face j her water-blue eyes rolled so strangely in 
 their large sockets — I really believed for a moment that "the 
 good lady had quite lost her modicum of wits. 
 
 " Don't put on such a desperate look, Richard," she said. 
 
 " ' From the clouds must fortune fell, 
 From the lap of the Immortals.' 
 
 That is an eternal truth, which here once more is proven. 
 She confessed it to me this morning with such passionate 
 tears ; it rent my heart ; I wept with her ; I might well do 
 it, for I felt with her. 
 
 " ' And I, I too was born in Arcady, 
 But the shOTt spring-time brought me only tears.' " 
 
 Fraulein Duff wiped her water-blue eyes, and cast a Ian- 
 
3^6 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 guishing look at Doctor Snellius, who with a very mixed ex- 
 pression of countenance was receiving the thanks of the 
 commerzienrath. 
 
 " Both youth and man ! " she whispered : 
 
 *' ' The rind may have a bitter taste, 
 But surely not the fruit.' 
 
 " Good heavens ! what have I said ! You are in possession 
 of the secret of a virgin heart. You will not profane it. 
 And now, let us now part, Richard. One last word : Seek 
 truly and thou shalt find ! I come, I come ! " 
 
 She turned away, and waving the company a farewell with 
 her parasol, hurried to the carriage, in which the commer- 
 zienrath had already fixed himself comfortably, while Her- 
 mine held her spaniel out at the door and let it bark. Star- 
 tled at Fraulein Duffs extraordinary communication, I had 
 kept in the background ; the wild little creature had not a 
 single look for him whom, according to Fraulein DufTs re- 
 port, she loved. She laughed and jested, but at the moment 
 when the horses started, a painful spasm contracted her 
 charming face, and she threw herself passionately into her 
 governess's arms to hide the tears that burst from her eyes. 
 
 " Rid of these," said Doctor Snellius ; " hope to-morrow 
 we shall send the others after them." 
 
 But the doctor's hope was not fulfilled on the morrow, nor 
 yet on the next day. Fourteen days passed, and the steuer- 
 rath and the born Baroness Kippenreiter were still the guests 
 of the superintendent. 
 
 " I shall poison them if they don't leave soon," crowed 
 the doctor. 
 
 " One could turn to a bear with seven senses on the spot," 
 growled the sergeant. 
 
 It was in truth a genuine calamity that had befallen the 
 house of the excellent man ; and we three allies bemoaned 
 it, each in his own way, but none louder and more passion- 
 ately than the doctor. 
 
 " You will see," he said, " these people will take up their 
 winter-quarters here. The house is not large, but the hedge- 
 hog knows how to make himself comfortable with the mar- 
 mot ; they are well cared for, and as for the friendliness of 
 intercourse — though they care less for that — there is no lack 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 337 
 
 of it How can Humanus have the patience ? He must 
 have a Potosi at his disposal. For he suffers, very seriously 
 suffers, under the hypocritical spaniel-like humility of this 
 brotherly parasite, as does his angelic wife under the sharp 
 claws and yellow teeth of the born Kippenreiter. Good 
 heavens ! that we should breathe the same air with such 
 creatures — that we must eat from the same dish with them ! 
 What crime Jiave we committed ? " 
 
 " The born Kippenreiters would say the same thing of us." 
 
 " You want to provoke me, but you are right. Doubly 
 right ; for the born Kippenreiters not only say it "but act ac- 
 cordingly, and forbid us, whenever they can, the air that they 
 breathe and the dishes out of which they eat, without in the 
 least caring whether we suffocate or starve ; indeed most 
 likely with the wish that these events may come to pass." 
 
 " A contribution to the superintendent's hammer and anvil 
 theory," I said. 
 
 The doctor's bald crown glowed a lively red. 
 
 " Don't talk to me of this good-natured folly," he cried, in 
 his shrillest tones. " Whoever is weak or good-natured, or 
 both — and he most likely will be both — ^has been hammered 
 by the strong and evil-disposed, as long as the world stands ; 
 and he will continue to be hammered until water runs up-hill 
 and the lamb eats the wolf Hammer and anvil ! Old Goethe 
 knew the world, and knew better." 
 
 " And what would you do, doctor, if some poor relations 
 took up quarters with you, and became burdensome to you 
 in time ? " 
 
 " I ? I would — that is a stupid question. I don't know 
 what I would do. But that proves nothing — ^nothing at all ; 
 or at the most only that I, spite of all my rhodomontades, am 
 only a wretched piece of anvil. And finally— yes, now I 
 have it ! We are neither relations nor connections of theirs ; 
 we have no consideration to observe, and we must drive them 
 off." 
 
 " A happy thought, doctor !" 
 
 " That is it !" said the doctor, and hopped from one leg to 
 other. " I am ready for anything — for anything ! We 
 must spoil their life here, embitter it, drench it with gall : in 
 a word, make it impossible." 
 
 " But how ?" 
 
 15 
 
 the other. 
 
^;^S Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 a 
 
 How ? You lazy mammoth ! Devise your own scheme. 
 The born Kippenreiter I take upon myself. She thinks that 
 she has a diseased heart, because she has a bad one. She 
 is as afraid of death as if she had tried a week's experiment 
 in the lower regions. She shall believe me." 
 
 -' On the very same day, Doctor Willibrod Snellius com- 
 menced his diabolical plan. Whenever he was within hear- 
 ing of the born Kippenreiter he began talking of the circu- 
 lation of the blood, of veins, of arteries, of valvular defects, 
 inflammation of the pericardium, spasm of the heart. He 
 knew, he said, that such conversation must be wearisome to 
 her ladyship, but he was writing a monograph on the subject, 
 and out of the fulness of the heart the mouth speaks. Indeed 
 he could not deny that it was not entirely without a motive 
 that he had drawn her attention precisely to this point. He 
 could not and would not positively assert, without a previous 
 and thorough examination, that the valves of her ladyship's 
 heart were not performing their functions regularly ; but there 
 were certain symptoms of which probably she might have 
 experienced one or another, and prudence was not merely 
 the mother of wisdom, but often the bestower of, if not a 
 
 Jong life, at least one lengthened by several years. 
 
 The gnadige was by no means a person to whom I felt an 
 especial inclination, and yet I sometimes felt a kind of pity 
 when I saw how the unhappy victim twisted and writhed 
 under the knife of her tormentor. How could she escape 
 him ? As a lady who piqued herself upon her culture, she 
 could not well avoid a scientific conversation ; as a guest of 
 the house she owed consideration to a friend of the family ; 
 and in reality this topic, which she dreaded as a child dreads 
 goblins, had for her a frightful fascination. She turned pale 
 as often as Doctor Willibrod entered the room, and yet fixed 
 her small round eyes upon him with the agonizing look of 
 the bird that sees a serpent gazing into its nest ; she could 
 not resist the attraction, and in a minute she had beckoned 
 the fearful man to her and asked him how far he had pro- 
 gressed with his essay. 
 
 " It is enough to drive one mad," said Doctor Willibrod ; 
 " soon she will not be able to live without me and my tales 
 of horror. I told her to-day of the case of a lady, exactly of her 
 age, her mode of life, habit of body, and so forth, who, while 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 339 
 
 conversing with her physician about congestions of the heart, 
 was struck with one ; she smiles upon me with pale lips, and 
 is on the verge of fainting — I suppose she is going to ring 
 for her carriage — and what is the result ? * You must tell 
 me more about it to-morrow,' she says, and dismisses me 
 with a gracious wave of her hand." 
 
 "She is sword-and-bullet-proof, doctor," I said. "You 
 will not be rid of her so easily." 
 
 " But we must be rid of her, rid of the whole pack," cried 
 the doctor. " I am resolved upon it as man, as friend, as 
 physician." 
 
 I laughed, but in my heart I was entirely of the doctor's 
 opinion. The presence of these people was a too intolerable 
 burden for the family of the superintendent. How could I 
 avoid seeing it, when I had so attached myself to these 
 noble and good souls, that I had for everything that concerned 
 them the piercing eyes of the deepest and most reverent 
 affection ? I saw how the superintendent's face wore every 
 day a graver look ; how he forced himself to answer the ever- 
 lasting " Is it not so, dear brother ? " or, " Is not that your 
 opinion, dear brother ? " I saw the painful contraction which 
 passed over the beautiful pale face of the blind lady, when 
 the harsh voice of her talkative sister-in-law smote upon her 
 sensitive ear ; I saw how Paula bore these, in addition to her 
 other burdens, with silence and patience ; but I also saw how 
 heavy a task it was. 
 
 I was sitting one day in the office, pondering all this in 
 my indignant heart, as I cut up a quill under pretence of mak- 
 ing a pen, when through the window which I had left half 
 open to admit one of the rare sunbeams, my ear caught the 
 hateful metallic voice of the born Kippenreiter. 
 
 " I am sure you will do me this kindness, dear Paula ; I 
 certainly would not ask you, for I know how young girls are 
 attached to their own rooms, but mine is really too triste^'\\h 
 its perpetual outlook upon the prison-walls ; and then I am 
 afraid it is damp, especially at the present season of the year, 
 and with my heart-complaint the least rheumatism would be 
 the death of me. I can count upon it, dear Paula, can I 
 not > Perhaps even to-day ? That would be delightful ! " 
 
 " I can hardly arrange it to-day, dear aunt ; I have to-day 
 to " 
 
34© Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 " Well, then, dear child, to-morrow. You see I am con- 
 tent with anything. And then there is another thing I want 
 to mention, and that is the wine we have at dinner. Between 
 ourselves, it is not particularly good, and does not agree witli 
 my husband at all. He is a little spoiled in this. I know 
 you have better in the cellar ; we had some of it when we 
 first came ; did we not now ? " 
 
 " Yes, aunt ; but unfortunately there are only two or three 
 bottles left, which I am keeping for my father " 
 
 " Even if there are only two or three bottles, they are 
 better than none. Good heavens! there's that man at the 
 window again ! One cannot take three steps here without 
 coming across him." 
 
 These last words were probably not intended for my ear, 
 but my sense of hearing was acute, and the voice of the 
 gnddige very distinct in its metallic ring. That they referred 
 to none other than myself was unquestionable ; for beside 
 the fact that I was a man, and standing just then at the win- 
 dow, the gnddige had stared at me with her fixed round eyes, 
 in a very ungracious manner, and then turned sharply upon 
 her heel. 
 
 But it made little difference to me that I displeased the 
 gncidige, or how much I displeased her ; I thought only of 
 the poor dear girl who wiped the tears from her cheeks as 
 she walked up the garden path alone, after her aunt had left 
 her. In a moment I was down from my ofiice-stool, out of 
 the room, and had hurried to her side. 
 
 " You must not give up your room to her, Paula," I said. 
 
 "You heard, then?" 
 
 '* Yes ; and you must not do it. It is the only one that 
 has a good light, and " 
 
 " I will not be able to paint much this winter ; there is too 
 much to do." 
 
 " Do you really take it for granted that they are going to 
 remain here all winter ? " 
 
 " I know nothing to the contrary. My aunt spoke of it 
 just now." 
 
 Paula tried to smile ; but great as usually was her self-con- 
 trol, this time she could not succeed. Her mouth twitched 
 painfully, and her eyes filled again with tears. 
 
 " It is only on my parents' account," she said, excusing 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 341 
 
 herself. " My father just now needs rest so extremely, and 
 you know how my mother suffers when she has to entertain 
 them for hours at a time. But you must not give any hint 
 of it, George ; not even the least." 
 
 And she laid her finger impressively on her lips, and her 
 great blue eyes looked up anxiously at me. 
 
 I murmured something which she probably took for 
 acquiescence, for she gave me a friendly smile, and hastened 
 into the house, from which resounded the shrill voice of the 
 gnddige, who with the whole power of her lungs — ^which 
 were evidently in a healthy state — was calling out of the 
 window to the steuerrath, who was standing in the rear of 
 the garden among the yellowing leaves on the sunny espa- 
 lier, and eating one of the few peaches which the sup- 
 erintendent's unwearying care had won from the ungenial 
 climate. 
 
 With long strides, betokening no good to the steuerrath, I 
 walked up the path directly to him. 
 
 "Ah ! " said he, without desisting from his occupation, 
 " my wife has sent you, I suppose. But see for yourself if 
 there is another decent peach on the whole espalier. And 
 the trash is anyhow as sour as vinegar." 
 
 " Then you should not have eaten it." 
 
 " Well, at all events it is better than nothing ; an official 
 on a pension learns that lesson." 
 
 " Really ! " 
 
 I accompanied this explanation with a contemptuous 
 laugh, which rudely startled the steuerrath from the delusion 
 that he was delighting me with his genial conversation. He 
 looked at me with the expression of a dog who is undecided 
 whether to fly from his enemy or seize him by the leg. 
 
 "Herr Steuerrath," I said, "I have a request to make of 
 you." 
 
 His indecision was at an end in a moment. 
 
 " At any other time I will listen to you with pleasure," 
 said he ; " but at this moment I am rather hurried " 
 
 And he tried to pass me, but I barred his way. 
 
 " I can tell you in three words what I have to say : you 
 must leave this place." 
 
 " I must— what ? " 
 
 " Leave this place," I repeated, and I felt the angry blood 
 
342 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 mounting to my cheeks — " and that at once ; in three days 
 at the furthest." 
 
 " Young man, I believe you have lost your senses," 
 replied the steuerrath, making an Sffort to assume a dignified 
 look, which his lips, pale with apprehension, woefully belied. 
 " Do you know to whom you are speaking ? " 
 
 " Give yourself no trouble," I said, contemptuously. " The 
 times in which you appeared to me I don't know what awe- 
 inspiring wonder, are long past. I have no further respect 
 for you, not the slightest ; and I will not have you stay here 
 any longer ; do you hear ? I will not have it ! " 
 
 " But this is unheard-of ! " cried the steuerrath. " I will 
 tell my brother what insults I am exposed to here." 
 
 " If you did that, I would " 
 
 I could not bring myself to pronounce it, I had so long 
 kept it sealed up in my breast. I had two more years of 
 imprisonment for keeping it secret ; it was a poisoned 
 weapon which I was about to use against the miserable man ; 
 but I thought of the weeping face of the dear maiden, and 
 then I looked into the face of the evil man before me, dis- 
 torted with hate and rage, and I dragged out the words 
 through my clenched teeth — " I would mention the letter 
 which you wrote him " — I pointed in the direction of the 
 island — "upon which he undertook his last expedition — of 
 the letter which proves you an accomplice, yes, the chief 
 criminal ; and which would have ruined you had I not kept 
 the secret." 
 
 The man, while I spoke, seemed to shrink into himself, as 
 if he had trodden upon a poisonous serpent ; with straining 
 eyes he watched every movement of my hands, expecting 
 every instant that I w'ould carrj^ them to my breast-pocket 
 and produce the fatal letter. " The letter you speak of and 
 which you have possessed yourself of by unlawful means, 
 proves nothing," he stammered — "proves nothing at all. 
 It is indifferent to me whether you show it to my brother, or 
 to any one else — any one else " 
 
 " I cannot show it to any one, for I have burned it." 
 
 The steuerrath almost bounded into the air. His fright 
 had never given room for the thought that the letter might 
 have been lost or destroyed. How differently the affair stood 
 now! 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 343 
 
 A smile of defiance passed over his face, which once more 
 began to assume its natural color. 
 
 " What are you talking of, and what do you want ? " he 
 cried, with a hoarse voice that singularly contrasted with his 
 usual oily speech. " The devil only knows what kind of a 
 letter it was that you saw — that you pretend to have seen. 
 The whole affair looks exceedingly like a lie — and a very 
 bungling one at that. Stand off, sir ! don't dare to touch 
 me, or I call for help ! — and you will have to your seven 
 years, seven years more. Do not dare to touch me, I say ! " 
 
 My looks were probably threatening enough, for he had 
 retreated before them to the wall, and squeezed himself, 
 trembling, against the espalier. I stepped up close to him' 
 and said in a low tone : 
 
 " I shall do you no harm, for — ^miserable wretch as you 
 are — I still respect in you your two brothers ; the one whom 
 you hounded on to his death, and the other whose precious 
 life you shall not embitter another hour. If no one else 
 believes my word that I read and burned that letter, he will 
 believe it — ^you know he will believe it. And if the njoming 
 of the third day finds you here, he shall learn whom he has 
 so long been entertaining under his roof. You know him. 
 He can pardon much, and does pardon much ; but to be the 
 victim of such a shameless lie as that which you have 
 imposed upon him, upon the commerzienrath, and all the 
 world — that he will never pardon." 
 
 The man knew that I was right ; I saw it in his face, 
 which grew absolutely sharp and thin with alarm at being 
 thus helplessly in my hands. 
 
 And it was high time \ one minute later and my victory 
 would at least have been doubtful. For from the garden 
 came help for the crushed one. It was the bom Kippen- 
 reiter, who came calling out to us from a distance to save 
 her two or three peaches. 
 
 A prudent general undertakes no new battle which may 
 jeopard an already hard- won victory. I had not quailed 
 before the wrathful looks of the steuerrath ; but at sight of 
 the yellow teeth of the born, I felt something which I should 
 call fear, if the respect we owe to the sex could ever allow 
 such a feeling to enter the breast of a man. 
 
 But be that as it might; when I heard the light-brown 
 
344 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 silk dress of the gniidige rustling close at hand, I considered 
 the moment especially suitable for hastening, as rapidly as I 
 could with politeness, along the paths strewn with dead 
 leaves to my office, after first casting a last impressive look 
 upon my adversary, and saluting with a silent bow his rust- 
 ling reinforcement. 
 
 Would my threat prove effective ? 
 
 I had given him two days respite, so the decision under 
 all circumstances must speedily be made. 
 
 Strange enough ! I was convinced that I had acted only 
 from the most disinterested motives, and yet my soul was 
 filled with disquiet, and my eye and ear were on the alert for 
 any sign that might tell me what I had to hope or to fear. 
 The next day passed — as far as I could see, all things re- 
 mained as they were ; Paula's room, the same in which I 
 had lain sick, was emptied of its furniture ; I saw her easel 
 and her portfolios of sketches carried across the hall, and 
 gnashed my teeth to see it. 
 
 But on the following morning the superintendent came 
 into the office with an unusually grave face, and after giving 
 me some papers, with his hand already upon the latch, turned 
 and said : 
 
 " Tell me, George — ^you are quite disinterested in the 
 matter — have you noticed anything in my behavior, or in 
 that of any member of my family, that could give my brother 
 or his wife reason to suppose that they are not welcome 
 here ? " 
 
 I was drawing at the time, and had just then a very deli- 
 cate bit of pen-shading to do, so I could not raise my head 
 from the drawing-board as I answered the superintendent : 
 
 " I have perceived nothing of the sort." 
 
 " I should trust not," he said, and his voice had a grieved 
 tone. " It would give me pain, great pain, if I thought that — 
 if I thought that my brother could say, or even think, * He 
 cared nothing for my misfortune ; he drove me away when his 
 house was my only asylum.' For this, or very near it, is the 
 case. His pension is very small for a man accustomed to 
 his style of living ; the compromise-money, even with our 
 contribution, is little enough ; and, besides, he has debts and 
 must work for his living, and how was he to learn that in the 
 wretched routine of official life ? They have certainly not 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 345 
 
 brightened our home — truth compels me to admit it — but he 
 is my brother and my guest, and I would rather he were not 
 
 going." 
 
 Perhaps his noble nature looked for sonie reassurmg an- 
 swer from me, but the fine lines of my bit of shading happened 
 just then to be closer than ever, and I had to bend my head 
 still lower over the drawing-board. He sighed deeply and 
 left the room. 
 
 I drew a long breath as the door closed behind him, and 
 the next moment I «aw, in the black mirror of the corpulent 
 inkstand on the office-table, my tall figure reflected in gro- 
 tesque distortion, and performing, with arms and legs, move- 
 ments which apparently represented a joyous dance of vic- 
 tory, 
 
 " You are monstrously pleased at something, it seems," 
 said a voice behind me. 
 
 In my fright I forgot one leg which I had elevated in the 
 air, and upon the other I made a pirouette which, had it been 
 performed in public before connoisseurs, would have brought 
 down the house. 
 
 Arthur afterwards became a connoisseur in these things, but 
 he could not have been one at this time, for his face, as he 
 threw himself into a chair,, was by no means radiant with 
 delight, and the tone of his voice was as dolorous as possi- 
 ble as he went on, resting his curly head upon his hand : 
 
 " To be sure, you have every reason ; you have gained 
 your point ; from to-morrow you are again sole master 
 here." 
 
 I had by this time brought my other foot down to the floor, 
 and took occasion to plant myself firmly before my antago- 
 nist, for such I considered Arthur. But I was mistaken. 
 Arthur had not come to pick a quarrel with me. 
 
 " I have my own reasons," he said, "for preferring that the 
 old people should be away from here. The old man, you 
 know, has become really disreputable since his misfortune ; 
 he sponges upon the first man he meets. By the way, I can 
 pay you now the twenty-five you lent me the other day. Last 
 night I had a fabulous run of luck — we had a little play at 
 Lieutenant von Serring's quarters. Sorry I haven't the 
 money about me, but you shall certainly have it to-morrow. 
 What I was going to say is this : The old man carries it too 
 IS* 
 
346 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 far ; sooner or later he would have compromised me hope- 
 lessly. The colonel watches me frightfully close. So no 
 hostility, George ! You have driven him away — don't deny 
 it ; I have it from mamma. She is furious with you ; but I 
 told her she might congratulate herself that you were so dis- 
 creet and said nothing more about that business of the letter. 
 So I did not come on this account, but merely to ask you 
 how I stand with you." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " I asked, not without some confu- 
 sion. 
 
 " Let us have no quibbles about it, old fellow," said the 
 ensign, tapping the sole of his left boot with the point of his 
 sword, which lay across his right knee : " I have estimated 
 you far too low. I see now that you are cock of the walk 
 here, and I wish to be on good terms with you, not to quar- 
 rel. If uncle did not help me a little I should either have 
 to starve or quit the service, and my colonel, moreover, would 
 know why I can no longer visit here. You are a good fellow, 
 and will not ruin me." 
 
 "That I certainly will not," I said. I 
 
 " And I am not such a bad fellow, after all," the ensign went 
 on. " I am a little wild, I know ; but we are all so at our years, 
 and so would you be if you had the chance, which you cer- 
 tainly have not in this cursed hole. But people can always 
 get along with me, and they are all fond of me here : my 
 uncle, my aunt, the boys, and " 
 
 Arthur took his left foot from his right knee, and said : 
 
 " Look here, George ; I would not tell you if I did not 
 have the fullest confidence in your honor, notwithstanding — 
 in short, I ask your word of honor that you will say nothing 
 about it. I fancy that — but, as I said, you must keep it a 
 secret — I fancy that I am not quite indifferent to my pretty 
 cousin : she said as much to me yesterday, and even if she 
 had not " 
 
 And the ensign twisted the blackish down on his lip, and 
 looked around the room apparently for a looking-glass, but 
 there was none there. His only substitute would have been 
 the great inkstand, which at this moment I would most joy- 
 fully have dashed to ten thousand pieces against his pretty 
 head. 
 
 " Arthur ! " cried Paula's voice in the garden ; " Arthur ! " 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 347 
 
 The ensign gave me a look that seemed to say : Do you 
 see now what a lucky dog I am ? and ran out of the door, 
 which he neglected to shut after him, 
 
 I remained quite stupefied, and stared through the open 
 garden-door at the long walk which they were pacing up and 
 down, she walking in her usual composed manner, and he 
 fluttering about her. Once they stood still ; she looked at 
 him, and he apparently in protestation, laid his hand upon his 
 breast. 
 
 An indescribable sense of pain entered my bosom. I knew 
 this feeling well ; I had once before experienced it, at the 
 moment when I heard that Constance belonged to another ; 
 but it was not then so poignant as now. I could have buried 
 my face in my hands and wept like a child. I did not for a 
 moment think that Arthur very probably lied to me or to 
 himself, and perhaps both. His confidence, Paula's call, the 
 walk in the garden, always empty at this hour — all came in 
 such rapid succession, and agreed so well, that it was but too 
 probable. And Arthur was such a desperately handsome 
 fellow, and could be so amiable when he chose — I ought to 
 know that best, I who had so dearly loved him ! And had 
 not Paula been changed towards me ever since he had been 
 in the house ? Was she not more reserved — less communi- 
 cative ? I had noticed it for some time ; it had pained me 
 before I knew what had produced this change — now I knew 
 it! 
 
 Vanity of vanities ! What claims had I ? To what could 
 I pretend, an outcast, condemned to long years of imprison- 
 ment ? 
 
 My head sank upon my breast. I humbled myself deep 
 in the dust before the fair and dear maiden, who ever floated 
 before me like a heavenly being. 
 
 Then I sprang up indignant. Could she be all that 1 
 worshipped her for, if she loved this man ? 
 
 Here was a terrible contradiction which apparently was 
 easy to solve, and which I infallibly would have solved, or 
 rather would have altogether escaped, had I been a grain 
 wiser or more vain ; but in which, as I was neither wise nor 
 vain, I involved myself for years. 
 
 " Signs and wonders are coming to pass," said Doctor 
 Willibrod, rushing breathlessly into my cell one evening, 
 
348 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 where I sat in dejected meditation before the stove, and 
 watched the sparks that ran up and down the glowing plates. 
 " Signs and wonders ! They are about to strike their tents 
 and shake off the dust from their feet. Hosanna ! " ^ 
 
 The doctor threw himself into a chair and wiped his bald 
 scalp, upon which the drops of perspiration were standing. 
 
 " Heaven is mighty in the weak," he went on in a tone in 
 which his internal excitement was perceptible. " Who would 
 have believed that a little David like myself would be able to 
 pierce the brazen skull of this Goliath of shamelessness ; 
 and yet such is the fact ! The gnadige can endure the air 
 here no longer ; she made the last trial when she moved 
 into Paula's chamber. The trial did not succeed, and she 
 must go. Hosanna in the highest ! " , . 
 
 " Did she tell you so herself? " ' 
 
 " She did' indeed ; and her spouse confirmed it, and spoke 
 of hypochondriacal notions to which even the most sensible 
 women are subject, and to which a gallant husband must 
 make some concessions. Finally he drew me on one side, 
 and on the score of temporary deficiency of funds, borrowed 
 a hundred thalers from me to enable him to start at once." 
 
 " You will never see them again." 
 
 " The hundred, or the distinguished travellers ? " I 
 
 " Neither." 
 
 " Pleasant journey to them, and may they never cross our 
 path again ! " 
 
 The doctor sank into a devout silence ; I think that some- 
 thing like a hymn of praise arose from his heart. 
 
 " Do you know, they are going ! " resounded a deep voice 
 behind us. It was the sergeant, who came in with a lighted 
 lamp. 
 
 " Carriage to be ordered at Hopp's livery-stable to-morrow 
 morning at the stroke of nine," continued the veteran. 
 " Eight would not be too soon, one would think." 
 
 And he joyously rubbed his hands, and declared that he 
 felt like a bear that itched in all his seven senses. But sud- 
 denly the laughter vanished from the thousand wrinkles of 
 his face, and leaning over the back of the doctor's chair he 
 said in a suppressed voice : 
 
 " Now we must drive away the young one, doctor ; clean 
 away ! the broo^ is worse than the old ones, in my opinion." 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 349 
 
 " In my opinion too," said Doctor Snellius, springing up. 
 " I have given the old ones their dismissal ; you must do it 
 for the youngster, mammoth ; by heaven must you ! " 
 
 I made no answer ; my gaze was fixed on the glowing 
 plate, but 1 saw it as through a veil which had somehow 
 fallen over my eyes. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 AND as if through a veil I see the years as they come 
 and go, the following years of my imprisonment. 
 Though a veil which time has woven with invisible 
 spirit-hands, but not so thick but what every form and every 
 hue is more or less distinguishable as I gaze backward. 
 
 Clearest of all is the fixed background in this long act of 
 my life-drama. Even now, after so many years, I can almost 
 always, by closing my eyes, recall the scene to its minutest 
 details. Especially are there two lights un-ler which I see it 
 most clearly. 
 
 The one is a clear spring morning. A blue sky spreads \ 
 above, the pointed gables of the old buildings soar as high 
 into the free air as if the idea of a prison only existed in the 
 dull brain of a hypochondriac who had not yet quite had his 
 sleep out ; about the projections of the gables and upon the 
 high roofs twitter the sparrows ; and even now, I cannot tell 
 why, but the twittering of sparrows in the early morning 
 makes the world for me a couple of thousand years younger ; 
 I fancy the scamps could not have been more joyously and 
 impudently noisy about the hut of Adam and Eve in Para- 
 dise. The sun ascends higher ; his beams glide down the 
 old ivy-covered walls into the silent court ; and the gate- 
 keeper, who is just crossing it with a great bunch of keys, 
 and is a crabbed old fellow usually, whistles quite cheerily, 
 as if even he, who best knew, in this fresh morning-world 
 could not believe in locks and bolts. 
 
 The other light is an evening in late autumn. Over in the 
 west, behind the level chalk-coast of the island, the sun has 
 
35© Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 set ; the heavy clouds hanging over the horizon still glow 
 with a thousand tints of sombre purple. Cooler blows the 
 wind from the sea, and louder comes the noise of the waves, 
 although looking from the Belvedere, out over the rampart, 
 one cannot see the surf. Now the wind begins to rustle in 
 the tall trees of the garden, and companies of dry leaves flutter 
 down to those which rustle under my feet as I walk back to the 
 house. I would be, on this as on every evening, welcome 
 in the family circle ; but I could not bear to have so many 
 eyes looking kindly into mine. My eyes have been gazing 
 gloomily — yes, with despair — at the evening clouds, and the 
 old demon has awakened in me and whispered : Two more 
 years, two long years ; when one leap would take you down 
 there, and the first skiff carry you into the wide world. 
 And you will go back to your prison, to the narrow walls 
 where nothing detains you but your own free will. Your free 
 will ! That has long since ceased to be free ! You have 
 sold it — go ! go J pass the house — back to your cell \ away 
 out of this fading world of vapor, and get behind lock and 
 bolt! 
 
 Sunshine of spring mornings, mist of autumn evenings ; but 
 far more morning sun than evening mist ! Yes, when I think 
 well upon it, I must admit that altogether morning sun was 
 the rule, and evening mist only the exception. For how any 
 portion of our life — or, indeed, how the background upon 
 which this portion is defined — shall appear in our memory, 
 really depends upon the fact of its having been bright or 
 gloomy in our souls at that time. And in my soul at this 
 time it was growing gradually brighter and brighter, like the 
 increasing light of dawn ; one knows not how it is, but what 
 was lying before us confused and indistinguishable, now 
 stands in the fairest order. 
 
 The wish of my fatherly friend has long been accom- 
 plished : in the workhouse I have learned to work. Work 
 has become a necessity for me ; I count that day as lost on 
 the evening of which I cannot look back upon a vigorously 
 prosecuted or a completed work. And I have acquired the 
 workman's faculty in every craft ; the quick comprehension 
 of what is to be done, the accurate eye, the light forming 
 hand. In the establishment nearly all handicrafts are exer- 
 cised ; and I have tried them nearly all, one by one, and for 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 351 
 
 the most part soon surpassed the old gray-bearded adepts. 
 The superintendent likes to repeat that I am the best work- 
 man in the establishment, which makes me at once both proud 
 and humble: proud, for praise from his lips is to me the 
 highest honor I can attain upon earth ; humble, for I know 
 that I owe it all to him. He has guided into fixed paths 
 the rude strength that knew neither aim nor limit, and 
 wished to spend its fury in the mastery of rough masses of 
 stone ; he has, above all, taught me to regard the share of 
 sound understanding which nature has bestowed upon me, 
 and which they did not know how to deal with at the school, 
 as a precious possession which may even take the place of a 
 bit of genius ; or, as he often expressed it with a smile, is 
 perhaps a bit of genius itself. He has never tormented me 
 with things which he soon found out would not suit my brain ; 
 he soon discovered that I could never express myself with 
 clearness and fluency in any other than my native German 
 speech, and spared me the learning of foreign languages, 
 except so far as was absolutely necessary. He knows that a 
 sublime passage in the Psalms produces in me the deepest 
 emotion; that I can never satiate myself with reading 
 Goethe, and Schiller, and Lessing ; but ne never urges me 
 to go beyond this, and discuss the literature of the day with 
 him and Paula. But in recompense he allows me to drink 
 full draughts from the inexhaustible well of his mathematical 
 and physical knowledge ; and his favorite recreation is to 
 have me model a machine, or portion of a machine, which 
 his inventive genius has devised, under his eye and guidance, 
 in the little workshop which he fitted up for himself many 
 years ago. 
 
 Under his eyes, for his hands are and must be idle the 
 while. Already any physical exertion, however light, covers 
 his body with a cold sweat, and might even seriously endanger 
 his life.' 
 
 " I do not know what I should do without you," he says, 
 looking at me from his chair, with a sad smile on his face. 
 " I live upon the superflux of your strength : your arm is my 
 arm, your hand is my hand, your deep full respiration is my 
 own. In the course of a year you will leave me ; so I have 
 but one year to live ; for a man without arm, hand or breath 
 is dead. 
 
352 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 It is the first time that so hopeless an expression has fallen 
 from his noble, pallid lips, and it gives me a painful shock. 
 I have always seen him so full of courage, so entirely occu- 
 pied with the duties of the day and the hour, living h^s life 
 so completely, I look at him with alarm, and for the first time 
 I really see the devastations which these six years have 
 wrought in his" form and in his face. 
 
 Six years ! I have to think to convince myself that they 
 are really six years, so little has changed in all this long 
 time ! So little ? When I consider it, perhaps not so little 
 either. The grape-vines, which only nodded over the win- 
 dow when I lay sick in Paula's chamber six years ago, h^ve 
 now climbed over almost the whole building ; the great 
 honeysuckle-arbor behind, where the peaches were trained 
 against the wall, which I had at that time built and planted 
 with the boys, has grown to a dense luxuriance, and is a 
 favorite resort of Paula's, who from here can see the house, 
 which cannot be done from the Belvedere. 
 
 The summer-house at the Belvedere has got rather a bad 
 name, which would not have happened bad not Benno by 
 this time grown six years older, and read Faust, and so of 
 necessity must have " a high-vauhed, narrow, Gothic room," 
 which he can " cram full of boxes, instruments, and ancestral 
 chattels ; " for which purpose the ruinous summer-house 
 with its pointed windows of stained glass seems to him by 
 far the most suitable locality. Benno is now convinced that 
 his father, who preferred to see in him the future physician 
 or naturalist, is quite right ; and Paula, who wished to make 
 a philologist out of him, altogether wrong ; and Benno must 
 know, for he is at the glorious age of seventeen, in which 
 there are but few whom we do not overtop by a head at least, 
 in an intellectual point of view. 
 
 By so much he overtops his younger brother Kurt, in a 
 literal sense ; and Kurt has definitively abandoned the idea 
 of rivalling his senior, who has in so marked a degree the 
 high slender stature of the Zehrens, and will evidently be 
 even taller than his tall father. But Kurt has no cause to 
 complain : he has the deep chest, the long powerful arms, 
 and, under thick curly hair, the broad brow, of the workman. 
 He is very modest and unpretending ; but his look is sin- 
 gularly fixed and piercing, and his lips firmly compressed 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 353 
 
 when he is pondering over a mathematical problem, or trying 
 to learn some dexterous manipulation at the lathe, in which 
 he always speedily succeeds. 
 
 Kurt and I are great friends, and as nearly inseparable as 
 possible ; and yet to tell the honest truth, the twelve-year-old 
 Oscar is my darling. He has the large luminous brown eyes 
 of the Zehrens, which I used so to admire in my friend 
 Arthur when he was a boy ; he has Arthur's slender figure 
 and graceful manners — I often seem to see in him Arthur 
 again, as he looked fourteen years before. That ought not, 
 really, to be any recommendation to me ; but when he comes 
 bounding to me, throwing back his long locks, and with joy 
 and life sparkling in his great eyes, I cannot help spreading 
 my arms to him. Often I ask myself if it really is this like- 
 ness which makes Oscar still keep his place as his sister's 
 favorite. Paula, it is true, still says, as she used to say, 
 that there is nothing of the sort ; that Oscar is the youngest, 
 and therefore needs her most, and the fact that he happens 
 to have so decided a talent for painting and drawing, and so 
 is peculiarly her pupil, is a mere chance, for which she is 
 not responsible. 
 
 Just so Paula spoke six years ago : I distinctly remember 
 that summer afternoon when she made that large chalk- 
 drawing of me under the plane-trees — as distinctly as if 
 it had been but yesterday. And when I look at Paula, I can- 
 not believe that I have known her for six years, and that 
 she will be twenty next month. Then she looked older than 
 she really was, while now she looks just as much younger. 
 She is perhaps a very little taller, and her figure is fuller 
 and more womanly, but in her sweet face is so much child- 
 like innocence, and even her movements have still the bash- 
 fulness, sometimes almost awkwardness, of a very young girl. 
 But when any one looks into her eyes, he cannot venture to 
 take her for any other than she really is. These eyes do 
 not blaze with bold fire ; their glances are not shy or lan- 
 guishing like those of a boarding-school girl fresh from 
 a 'secret reading of her favorite gilt-edged poet — they are 
 luminous with a calm, steady, vestal fire, unmindful of the 
 world, and yet compassing the world, as the artist's eye 
 must beam. 
 
 And Paula has become an artist in these six years. She 
 
354 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 has had no teacher, except a decayed genius who was in the 
 workhouse for a short time, and afterwards was supported 
 by the superintendent's charity to the time of liis death, which 
 happened long ago. She has attended no academy, has 
 hardly seen a work of art, eitcept two or three fine old family- 
 portraits, and a magnificent engraving of the Sistine Ma- 
 donna, which adorn the walls of the superintendent's house. 
 What she is, she has become of herself, by means of her 
 wondrous eye, which looks into the heart, not merely of men, 
 but of all things ; by means of her hand, which could not be 
 so delicate and slender if her soul did not 'flow to its very 
 finger-tip, and render it a plastic instrument ; and by means 
 of her diligence, whose energy and unweariedness appear 
 absolutely incomprehensible when one reflects what a weight 
 of labor, besides, rests upon these tender shoulders. But she 
 devotes every leisure moment to her beloved art ; and she 
 knows how to find leisure at times when others would 
 solemnly declare that they did not know whether they were 
 on their heads or their feet. The wealth of her collection 
 of studies of all kinds, sketches, designs, copies, is wonder- 
 ful. There is not an interesting head among the prisoners 
 Dr convicts that has escaped her. To sit to the young lady 
 is an honor and favor much sought after and much envied 
 throughout the whole establishment, and proud is the man 
 who can boast of it. But her chief model is the old Siiss- 
 tnilch, whose grand head with its short gray locks, and fur- 
 rowed energetic face, is really a treasure to an artist's eye. 
 rhe old fellow figures under all possible characters : as 
 Nestor, Merlin, Trusty Eckart, Belisarius, Gotz von Berlich- 
 ingen — even as Schweizer out of The Robbers ; mere studies 
 all for great historical pictures of which the brave girl is 
 dreaming in the future. In the meantime but one of these 
 das appeared upon canvas : Richard the Lion-heart, sick in 
 tiis tent and visited by an Arab physician. The scene is 
 from Scott's Talisman. In the background is an English 
 y^eoman, who looks sorrowfully at his sick lord, and a young 
 N'orman noble, who, with hand on his sword, fixes a k^en 
 md suspicious look upon the physician. Richard the Lion- 
 leart is myself, as she sketched me, when a convalescent, at 
 :he Belvedere ; in the Arab physician, a singular, fantastic, 
 jnome-like figure — Dr. Willibrod declares he discovers his 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 355 
 
 own likeness, though the Arab wears no spectacles, and his 
 head, though bald without doubt, is wound about with the 
 green turban of the Hadji ; the yeoman is Sergeant Silss- 
 milch, drawn to the life, though he has accommodated him- 
 self to another costume ; the knight, with short brown hair 
 and bright brown eyes — a handsome, graceful, youthfully 
 elastic figure — is Arthur. 
 
 Is it an accident that just this figure is most fully elabo- 
 rated, almost to completeness, and that it is made so lovely? 
 
 I have no means of answering this question, except what I 
 draw from my own foreboding soul. Arthur, who has long 
 been a lieutenant, and has been stationed this spring at the 
 military school in the capital, has often visited the house, it 
 is true, but the frequency of his visits diminished with every 
 year, and I could not say that he had sought to draw any 
 nearer to Paula. But there must have been some reason 
 that towards me, who had done him no injury, who always 
 treated him in a friendly manner, however little heart I had 
 sometimes for it, he became constantly more and more 
 reserved, and at last avoided me as far as possible. The 
 money which he owed me, and which in the course of years 
 had increased to a sum by no means insignificant for my cir- 
 cumstances, could not be the cause, for I had given it to him 
 willingly and cheerfully — he is always in difficulties, and 
 resolved to blow out his brains — never asked for repayment, 
 but always assured him that I was in no hurry for it ; no, it 
 cannot be the money. Does he fear a rival in me ? Good 
 heavens! I can hardly be a dangerous rival. Who could 
 fear a prisoner, whose future is a book with seven seals, and 
 scarcely containing one pleasant chapter ? Can he never 
 forgive me that Paula is always as kind and friendly to me 
 as ever ? Have I not deserved that, who do all I can for 
 her, and read her lightest wish in her eyes ? 
 
 I do not know ; as little do I know if it is chance that 
 Paula, from the hour that Arthur went to Berlin, painted no 
 more on the picture. And yet for this purpose she needs 
 him least of all, for his knightly copy only lacks a few 
 touches. I ponder the reason over and over. And as I 
 venture once to ask Paula about it, she answers, not with- 
 out some hesitation, which is a rare thing with her : 
 
 " I have lost all pleasure in the picture." 
 
3S6 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 This leads to a question which seems even worse than the 
 first, and which I had better leave unmeddled with, if I were 
 prudent. 
 
 But I am not prudent, and cannot get It out of my 'head; 
 and as my head can make nothing of it, I lay it before Doc- 
 tor Willibrod in a quite casual manner, as if nothing really 
 depended upon the answer: 
 
 " Tell me, doctor, why has Friiulein Paula lost all pleasure 
 in her picture ? " 
 
 " Who says that ? " asked the doctor. 
 
 "She herself." ; 
 
 "Then ask herself." 
 
 " If I wished to do or could do that, I would not need 
 your opinion." 
 
 " Why should I have any opinion in the matter ? " cries 
 the doctor. " What does it concern me why Paula does not 
 choose to work on the thing any longer ? Since nature her- 
 self has not thought fit to finish me, I do not care whether I 
 am finished in the picture or not." 
 
 I see that I make no progress in this way, so I venture to 
 hint that perhaps Arthur's absence has had an influence 
 upon Paula's feelings in the matter. 
 
 " Does the cat come to the porridge at last ? " crows Doc- 
 tor Willibrod. " Oh, he thinks that we have not long seen 
 how he licks his paws ! And the porridge is so sweet — so 
 sweet ! just like the thought that such a girl can give her heart 
 to such a fellow. ' It is impossible,' says Master Tom, and his 
 whiskers bristle with distress. Why, impossible ? What is 
 impossible ? Is the life of her father anything but a pro- 
 tracted sacrifice ? Is she not her father's daughter ? When 
 one is once well under way, a little more or less makes no 
 difference ; and the lamb offers itself up to save the wolf 
 Oh, it is a merry business, that of saving wolves ! But still 
 merrier is it to stand by and look patiently on — not to seize a 
 club and rush in — oh by no means ! but merely to ask from 
 time to time : ' Don't you think, respected sir, that the wolf 
 will eat the Iamb at last ? ' Get away from me all of you 
 that wear human faces ! " 
 
 Doctor Willibrod crows so high, and looks so exactly like 
 the apoplectic billiard-ball we have heard of, that I am sorry 
 to have begun the conversation, and that too so unskilfully. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 357 
 
 I now recollect that lafely the doctor has always seemed 
 curiously excited whenever in any way Paula's name hap- 
 pened to be mentioned. Often he speaks of* her in such a 
 way that one would think he hated her, if one did not know 
 that he worships her. If any one reproaches him with it, he 
 lays the blame on the heat of the weather. The fiend him- 
 self, who is used to a warm climate, might perhaps keep cool in 
 such a temperature, he sayS, but no one can blame mere men 
 if they now and then lose their wits a little at eighty degrees 
 in the shade. 
 
 And really during the latter part of the summer the heat 
 has grown absolutely intolerable. Day after day the sun 
 traverses a cloudless steel-blue sky, and its beams prostrate 
 everything they touch. The grass has long been burnt up ; 
 the bastion and ramparts are yellow-brown ; the flowers 
 have prematurely withered ; the foliage rustles from the trees 
 before the time. All living things creep about with heavy 
 gaze fixed up)on the earth, and the air quivers as above a 
 heated oven. The health of the town has been seriously 
 affected, and we are glad that the boys who now have holi- 
 day, are on a visit to some friends of the family at a neigh- 
 boring country-place. The state of things in the prison is 
 by no means satisfactory to the superintendent and the doc- 
 tor, who vie with each other in attention to the sick, though 
 the doctor steadily maintains that it is the height of folly to 
 risk one's skin for the sake of other people. 
 
 " And then beside, when, like Humanus, one has but half 
 a lung, and a blind wife and four children, and not a shilling 
 of capital — ^what will come of that V^ 
 
 I remember that the doctor put this question to me in this 
 very same conversation, and that I repeated it to myself an 
 hour later as I stood alone before the Belvedere, and, with- 
 out either seeing or hearing, stared out at the evening sky, 
 which I could see from over the rampart extending down to 
 the sea. I did not see that over the sky, which for weeks 
 together had shown not the slightest haze, a vapor had now 
 spread itself through which the evening light had a ghastly, 
 pallid look ; I did not hear that strange wailing sounds were 
 passing through the air ; I did not even turn round when a 
 deep voice close at my ear growled out the very question 
 which I was occupied in trying to solve : 
 
358 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 " What will come of that ?" 
 
 It was the old SUssmilch, who coming to my side pointed 
 with his right hand to the sulphurous glare in the west. 
 
 " A storm, what else ?" I replied, scarcely noticing what I 
 said. 
 
 I felt that the oppressive sultriness, which was weighing 
 down my soul as well as all nature, must expend itself in a 
 storm. . . 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 AND there came a storm such as had not raged along 
 this coast — which yet throughout the year heard 
 many a fierce gale sweep over its low beach of sand 
 and chalk — within the memory of man. 
 
 It was about midnight, when I was awakened by a crash- 
 ing as of thunder, making the old house quiver to its founda- 
 tions, and followed by a rattling and clattering of falling 
 tiles, and of slamming doors and shutters, like the crackle of 
 musketry following the heavy discharge of a battery. 
 
 This was the storm that had so long been announcing its 
 coming. My first thought was of those in the house in the 
 garden. With a single bound I was out of my bed and 
 dressed, as the sergeant thrust his gray head in at my door. 
 
 " Already up ? " said he ; " but this is enough to rouse a 
 bear with seven senses. He will be awake, too." 
 
 The old man did not say who would be awake ; between 
 us two it was not necessary. 
 
 " I was just going to him," I said. 
 
 " Right," said the old man. " I will stay here the while. 
 Somebody will be needed here who has his head on his 
 shoulders. It is a most diabolical state of things ; worse 
 than eight years ago ; and then the men would not be kept 
 in their dormitories. A little more and we should have had 
 murder done." 
 
 During this brief conversation, the tremendous shocks had 
 been twice repeated, and, if possible, with still greater vio- 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 359 
 
 lencc. Add to this a howling and an uproar — we had to 
 speak almost in a shout to make ourselves heard. This was 
 in the room — what must it then be outside ? 
 
 This I learned a minute later, as I crossed the prison 
 court. A pitchy darkness lay like a thick black pall over 
 the earth ; not a star, not the faintest gleam of light. The 
 hurricane raged between the high walls like a beast of prey 
 that finds himself for the first time in a cage. Despite my 
 strength and the momentum of my heavy frame, I had to 
 struggle with the monster that flung me this way and that. 
 Thus I fought my way through the thick darkness, among 
 the tiles that came clattering from the roofs, to the superin- 
 tendent's house, out of the windows of which here and there 
 a light was visible. 
 
 In the lower hall I met Paula. She was carrying a lighted 
 taper in her hand, and its light fell upon her pale face and 
 large eyes, which filled with tears as she saw me. 
 
 " I knew you would come," she said. " It is a fearful 
 night. He insists on going over to the prison ; and he has 
 been so very unwell lately. I dare not ask him to stay. 
 Indeed, he must go if his duty commands. It is very kind 
 of you to come." 
 
 The tears that had glistened in her eyes now slowly rolled 
 down her pale cheeks. 
 
 " Do not laugh at me," she said, " but for several days I 
 have felt as if some misfortune were about to happen." 
 
 •' We have all felt so, dear Paula. It is merely a bit of 
 egotism to fancy that a thunder-storm which is now hanging 
 over thousands and thousands is to smite precisely us." 
 
 I meant to say this very courageously ; but my voice quiv- 
 ered, and at the last words I was forced to turn away my eyes 
 
 " I will go to your father, Paula," I said. 
 
 " Here he comes now," said Paula. 
 
 The superintendent stepped out of his room. Before he 
 had gently closed the door, I caught a glimpse of a white 
 figure which he seemed by gentle words and gestures to be 
 urging to remain in the room. It was Frau von Zehren. 
 Had she also the feeling that some calamity was impending? 
 Perhaps even more strongly than we. Who among us who 
 see, hears the faint spint-voices that whisper and murmur 
 through the night of the blind t 
 
36o 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 A deep melancholy lay upon his features ; but it instantly 
 gave place to a surprised smile as he saw us both sta4iding 
 there. It was as when one walks through a dark rocky ravine 
 whose sombre shadows spread a gloom over his face, and 
 suddenly, at a shirp turn of the dusky path, he sees the open 
 valley at his feet, and a wide flood of golden sunlight streams 
 all about him. 
 
 " See there, both my dears ones ! " he said. 
 
 He extended both hands to us. 
 
 " Both my dear ones," he repeated. 
 
 Did he really see us ? Did he, out of the rocky gorge, 
 catch a gleam of sunny vales in the future ? I have often 
 asked this question of myself, when thinking of the happy 
 spirit-like look with which at this moment the father saw his 
 beloved daughter at the side of the man who was dear to him 
 as a son. 
 
 But this was but for a moment, and the present then 
 resumed its rights. | 
 
 " You will go with me, George," he said ; " I must go 
 through the prison. It cannot be but that the excitement 
 which has been growing on us all lately has also seized the 
 poor prisoners. And with them excitement means howls, 
 and shrieks, and gnashing of teeth. Do you remember that 
 September night, eight years ago, Paula ? It was not so ter- 
 rible as this, and the men were like maniacs." 
 
 Paula nodded assent. " I remember it well, father," she 
 said. " How could I help it ? You suffered so much from 
 the consequences afterwards. Here comes Doris with the 
 lantern," she hastily added, while a flush of shame suffused 
 her cheeks at having for a moment attempted to dissuade 
 her father from his duty. 
 
 She took the great lantern with its two lighted candles 
 from the hands of the frightened girl, and gave it to me. 
 The superintendent gave her a kind look from his large 
 grave eyes, buttoned up his coat, fixed his hat firmly on liis 
 head, and turning to me said : " Come, George." 
 
 We stepped out into the raging, thundering night. In my 
 left hand I carried the lantern ; my right arm I gave the 
 superintendent. I had thought thar I should have to carry 
 or almost to carry him, as he had been completely pros- 
 trated by the heat of the last few weeks ; and indeed his 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 361 
 
 first steps were heavy and tottering as those of a man who has 
 for the first time risen from his bed after a long illness. All 
 at once he let go my arm and stood firm and erect : 
 
 " Do you hear, George ? I said so ! " 
 
 We were just passing under the windows of one of the 
 great dormitories, in which fully a hundred prisoners were 
 shut up at this hour. The light-colored wall was faintly de- 
 fined against the darkness ; from the windows came a feeble 
 light -y the storm raged against the wall and whistled shrilly 
 through the gratings ; but louder than the howling and 
 whistling of the storm were the horrible noises that came 
 from the interior of the building. Such sounds might come 
 from lost souls in the night of Tartarus. 
 
 " Light ! light ! " was the cry. " We want light ! " 
 
 " Quick, George !" said the superintendent, hastening on 
 before me with such rapid strides that I had difficulty in 
 keeping up with him. We passed through the open door 
 into the wide hall, where we found the sergeant in lively dis- 
 pute with the inspector and half-a-dozen overseers. 
 
 " He will tell you that I am right," I heard the brave old 
 man cry. " One must be a bear with seven senses ; not able 
 to tell a tooth-pick from a barn-door ! In the name of three 
 million devils, light all the lanterns !" 
 
 " Yes ; light all the lanterns," said the superintendent, 
 coming up. 
 
 The men stepped respectfully back, only the Inspector 
 said sullenly : " There is no reason for breaking the regular 
 rule of the house, Herr Superintendent ; and the men know 
 that there is no reason ; but they take advantage of the 
 chance — that is all." 
 
 "Perhaps not quite all, Herr Mttller," said the superin- 
 tendent. " We two, you and I, have not been sitting with a 
 hundred others in a locked room in the dark — or as good as 
 in the dark — and in a night like this when it is as if the end 
 of the world had come. Fear, like courage, is contagious. 
 Follow me, you and Sflssmilch, and two others to light the 
 lanterns." 
 
 He did not name me : he may have thought it a matte5.of 
 course that I would follow him. We turned into the corri- 
 dor and reached the door which led to the great ward, the 
 windows of which we had passed. "Light! light!" they 
 16 
 
 ) 1| 
 
 ll 
 
362 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 were still shrieking inside, and heavy blows fell upon the 
 oaken door, which cracked at intervals as if they yvere trying 
 to burst it open. 
 
 " Open !" said the superintendent to the turnkey. 
 
 The man cast a stealthy look at the inspector, who looked 
 sullenly at the ground. 
 
 " Open !" repeated the superintendent. 
 
 With hesitation the man placed the key in the lock, and 
 drew the heavy iron bar from the staples. With hesitation 
 he threw back the first and then the second bolt. As he 
 laid his hand upon the third, he gave a furtive glance at the 
 superintendent, upon whose lips played a smile. 
 
 " Why, your heart is usually in the right place, Martin," he 
 said. 
 
 In an instant Martin had thrown back the bolt ; the doors 
 were opened. The frightful spectacle that was then pre- 
 sented to my eyes I shall never forget, though I should at- 
 tain the age of the most patriarchal raven. 
 
 Three or four feet behind the door was another, a grating 
 of iron, reaching as high as the ceiling ; and behind this 
 grating was a frightful entanglement of men piled upon one 
 another, conglomerated together — here a pair of arms thrust 
 out, there a pair of legs, as out of a heap of corpses, flung 
 together into a promiscuous grave upon a field of battle ; 
 with the difference that this mass moved, writhed internally, 
 and out of it, here and there and everywhere, glared living 
 eyes, terrible, fierce, desperate, maniac eyes. 
 
 " Men ! " cried the superintendent, and his usually soft 
 voice rose with a power that overbore the tumult, " are you 
 not ashamed of yourselves ? Would you rush upon destruc- 
 tion to avoid a danger which nowhere exists but in your own 
 heads, and in the darkness around you } " 
 
 Was it the courageous voice ? Was it the look of the man ? 
 Was it the efiect of the strong light which was thrown upon 
 the mass from the lanterns of the turnkeys ? the coil disen- 
 tangled itself, arms found their way to bodies, legs stood 
 again upon their feet, even the eyes lost their frenzied glare, 
 and^ here and there a man, either dazzled or ashamed, cast 
 them down. 
 
 " Make room for the door to be opened, men ! " said the 
 superintendent. , 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 363 
 
 They fell back : the grating was opened ; the superin- 
 tendent entered, and we followed. 
 
 " Now see, children, how foolish you are," he continued, 
 in a friendly tone. " There you stand in you shirts, freezing, 
 shivering — you really ought to be ashamed of yourselves. 
 Get to bed again, or else dress yourselves and sit up ; I will 
 have your lanterns lighted, so that each one of you can see 
 what a chicken-heart his neighbor is, and what a bold fellow 
 he is himself'' 
 
 The men looked at one another, and over more than one 
 face that had been distorted with terror there came a smile. 
 In the rear two laughed out loud. 
 
 " That is right," said the superintendent, " laugh away ; 
 no devil can hold his own against an honest laugh. And 
 now good-night, children, I must look after the others." 
 
 By this time the overseers had let down and lighted the 
 four great lanterns that were drawn up to the ceiling. A 
 cheerful brightness filled the large room. Outside, the storm 
 was raging and howling as before ; but a kindly word falling 
 into these dark spirits had appeased the storm within. 
 
 " Let us see after the others," said the superintendent. 
 
 And we traversed the echoing corridors, in which this 
 night the noise from without overpowered the sound of our 
 steps. Wherever we came we found the prisoners in a state 
 of the most fearful excitement— excitement beyond all pro- 
 portion to the causes which produced it ; ever)rwhere the 
 same ; sometimes vented in wild curses, and sometimes in 
 the most piteous supplications ; but everywhere the cry of the 
 poor wretches for light, only more light in the fearful night 
 But everywhere the superintendent succeeded in quieting the 
 wild creatures with his calm words, except the occupants of 
 one ward, who either would not or could not be quieted. 
 This ward lay in a wing of the building which was more ex- 
 posed to the violence of the blast than any other, and here, 
 in consequence, the storm burst with all its fury. The ter- 
 rific detonations, like peals of thunder, with which the tem- 
 pest burst against the ancient walls, the furious howling with 
 which it whirled around the angles, after striving frantically 
 for minutes together to sweep the obstruction out of its path \ 
 the wailing, lamenting, gasping, sobbing tones that came, no 
 one knew how or whence — all was frightful enough to fill the 
 
364 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 soul of even a free man with secret horror. And even while 
 the superintendent was speaking to them, a chimnfcy on one 
 of the higher buildings adjacent was blown down, and in fall- 
 ing broke through the roof of this wing, sending clattering 
 down hundreds of tiles, increasing the uproar, if not the dan- 
 ger. The men demanded to be let out ; they would come 
 out at every cost ; they were resolved not to be buried alive. 
 
 " But, children," said the superintendent, " you are safer 
 here than anywhere else ; there is not another part of the 
 building so strong as this." 
 
 " Very well for him," muttered a square-built, curly-headed 
 fellow ; " he can go home and sleep in his soft bed." 
 
 " Give me your mattress, friend," said the superintendent. 
 
 The fellow looked at him in amazement. 
 
 " Your mattress, friend," he repeated. " Lend it to me 
 for to-night : I will see if it is so hard, and if it is such 
 dreadful sleeping here." 
 
 A deep silence suddenly succeeded the wild tumult. The 
 men looked at each other in confusion ; they did not know 
 whether this was jest or earnest. But the superintendent 
 did not move from the place. He stood there silent, thought- 
 ful, with head depressed ; no one, not even I, ventured to 
 speak to him. All eyes were turned to the audacious fellow, 
 who looked as if he had been condemned to death, and was 
 about to be led to execution. His mutinous spirit was 
 broken ; silently he went and took up his mattress and 
 brought it to the superintendent. 
 
 " Lay it there, my friend," said the latter. " I am tired ; I 
 thank you for providing me a resting-place." 
 
 The man spread out the mattress upon the floor ; the 
 superintendent laid himself upon it and said : 
 
 " Now lie down, all of you. You, Herr M filler, go to the 
 infirmary and see if I am needed there. You remain with 
 me, George." 
 
 The inspector went, with the turnkeys ; the door was 
 closed and locked ; we were alone. 
 
 Alone among about eighty convicts, for the most part the 
 worst and fiercest criminals in the whole prison. 
 
 The lanterns that hung from the ceilings cast a dim light 
 over the rows of beds which were arranged along the walls, 
 and in three long lines, extending the length of the ward. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 365 
 
 The men had either lain down, or were crouching upon their 
 beds. The man who had given his mattress to the superin- 
 tendent might have done the same, for there were some half- 
 dozen of vacant beds in the ward ; but he seemed afraid 
 to occupy any one of them, and crouched upon the bare floor 
 in a dark corner. I stood with folded arms against the 
 stone pillar which supported the centre of the roof, looked 
 at the strange spectacle before me, and listened to the storm 
 which raged without with unabated fury. The superintend- 
 ent lay quite still, his head supported by his hand. He 
 slept, or seemed to sleep ; and yet I fancied that from time 
 to time a shiver shook his frame. The room was warm, but 
 we had been thoroughly drenched by the rain in crossing 
 the court ; he had no covering, and had just risen from a 
 sick bed. What will be the end ? I sighed in the depth of 
 my heart. 
 
 Suddenly a man near me, who had several times turned 
 his head towards the superintendent, arose from his bed, 
 walked softly with bare feet to me, and whispered : 
 
 " He must not lie there in that way ; it will be his death." 
 
 I shrugged my shoulders : " What can we do ? " 
 
 And then another came up, and another rough voice whis- 
 pered : 
 
 " He must go home. Why should he lie here freezing for 
 the sake of that shock-headed rascal ? It shall not be our 
 fault." 
 
 " No, it shall not be our fault," murmured other voices. 
 In a moment a crowd has collected around me, and increases 
 every moment Not one of these men was sleeping, any 
 more than myself. All had the same thought in their rude 
 hearts. They want to repair their misbehavior, and do not 
 know how to go about it. One finds a way at last : 
 
 " He shall go himself and beg him." 
 
 " Yes ; that shall he ! " 
 
 "Where is he?" 
 
 " Back yonder." 
 
 " Bring him along ! " 
 
 They rush to the corner where the fellow is crouching , 
 a dozen strong hands lift him to his feet ; they drag him to 
 the superintendent, who raises himself from his hard couch 
 as they approach. The light of the nearest lantern falls 
 
366 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 full in his pale face, shadowed by his dark hair and beard. 
 A happy smile plays about his mouth, and his i large eyes 
 beam with strange light. 
 
 " I thank you," he said, " I thank you. The hours which 
 your kindness bestows upon me shall be devoted to you. 
 But one thirtg more, children ! This man here is myself : 
 what you do to him, you do to me." 
 
 The man had sunk upon his knees before him ; he laid 
 his hand, as in blessing, upon his bushy head ; and then we 
 turned to the door. I cast a look back : not one of the 
 men had moved from his place. All eyes are fixed upon 
 the superintendent, who is leaving the ward, supported by 
 my arm. But I doubt whether all see him ; for in many 
 eyes are glistening tears. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 IT was two o'clock when we re-entered the house. At 
 the first touch of the bell Paula appeared in the hall ; 
 but the superintendent only gave her an affectionate 
 smile and a pat on the cheek, and kept on to his chamber, 
 whither I followed him. He did not speak to his daughter, 
 because he could not speak. His face was of a corpse-like 
 paleness, and deep red spots burned in the hollows of his 
 cheeks. With a motion of his hand he asked my assistance, 
 and I helped him to undress. As soon as he was in bed he 
 turned his eyes upon me with a look of gratitude, and then 
 closed them in death-like exhaustion. 
 
 I took my seat by his bedside, and could not avert my 
 eyes from the pale, noble face. A sublime calm lay upon it ; 
 even the red spots had vanished from the cheeks ; no move- 
 ment betrayed that in this breast, that scarcely moved, a 
 heart was beating, that under this lofty brow dwelt a spirit ; 
 I felt as though I was watching by a corpse. 
 
 Thus solemnly and slowly passed the hours of that night. 
 In all my life I have never met with a stronger contrast than 
 that of the calm face of that sleeping man with the wild fury 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 367 
 
 of the storm that raged without with unabated violence. 
 Well might he sleep ; the mightiest pinion of an earthly- 
 storm could not soar to the blessed heights where his spirit 
 
 was floating. . t. 
 
 Involuntarily my thoughts recurred to the night when the 
 smuggler, who had just become a murderer, lay wounded in 
 my arms in that hollow in the ruin, writhing, cursing God, 
 himself, and all the world. And that man was the brother 
 of this ? It seemed incredible that one mother could have 
 brought forth two such different beings ; that the same sun 
 could shine on two men so unlike ; and then again it seemed 
 to me that both, the wild one and the gentle, the hater and 
 the friend of men, were one and the same person ; as if I had 
 once already seen the pale face before me ; as if it were the 
 same face upon whose brow, pallid in death, the morning 
 sun shone, as it rose ruddy out of the sea after that night of 
 horror in the ruin on the cliff. 
 
 But these thoughts were but the wild fancies of one over- 
 come by weariness. I must indeed have really slept for 
 a while, for as I raised my head again the gray twilight was 
 glimmering through the lowered curtains. The superintend- 
 ent was still lying there as he had lain all night, his eyes 
 closed and his white hands folded over his breast. I softly 
 arose and crept out of the room. I had to breathe fresh air j 
 I felt that I must try to shake off the weight that pressed 
 upon my heart. 
 
 As I crossed the silent hall I was surprised to see that 
 the hand of the great clock at the foot of the stairs pointed 
 to eight. I had supposed, from the dim light, that it was 
 not more than five or six. But as soon as I stepped out of 
 doors, I saw why it was no lighter. The black pall which 
 had lain over the earth in the night was now changed to a 
 gray one — a pallid twilight, that was neither night nor day. 
 And the fury of the storm was still unabated. As I turned 
 the sheltering corner of the house, I had to plant myself 
 firmly on my feet in order not to be dashed to the earth 
 Thus, crouching down, I made my way through the garden, 
 now a scene of devastation. There lay trees torn up by the 
 roots, and others broken off but a few feet from the ground. 
 The path was strewn with branches and twigs, and the air 
 filled with whirling leaves. Only the old plane-trees at the 
 
368 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 Belvedere still resisted the storm, and their majestic boughs 
 were lashed wildly about by the blast. I made my way to 
 the Belvedere, the only spot from which one iould obtain a 
 view, though but a limited one, of the stormy quarter. I 
 feared that the old summer-house would not have been able 
 to resist the tempest ; but there it still stood — doubtless the 
 high bastion had protected it. I hurried into it for shelter ; 
 and as I hastily threw open the door I saw Paula standing 
 at one of the narrow windows, on the side facing the sea. 
 
 " You here, Paula ? " I cried in alarm. " You here in 
 this weather, when the house may come down at any mo- 
 ment ! " 
 
 " How is my father ? " asked Paula. 
 
 " He is sleeping," I said. " You have not slept." 
 
 I saw that by her pale cheeks and the dark circles round 
 her eyes. She looked away from me, and pointed out of the 
 window at which we were standing, which now was but a 
 window-space^ for the storm had blown in all the stained 
 panes except one in one corner. 
 
 " Is that not terrible ? " she said. 
 
 And it was terrible indeed. Sky and sea of a leaden gray, 
 and between sea and sky whirling white specks like snow- 
 flakes driven by a November wind. These white specks 
 were gulls, and their dismal cries reached us at intervals. 
 Upon the high bastion, opposite us, the storm had beaten 
 down the tall grass which used to nod so lightly in the wind, 
 as flat as if heavy rollers had passed over it ; and over the 
 long, low rampart from time to time appeared streaks which 
 at first I could not account for. Could they be the crests 
 of waves ? The thing seemed impossible. The rampart, as 
 I knew, was more than twelve feet high, and in front of it 
 was a wide sandy beach, on which a popular bathing-estab- 
 lishment had been erected. Over the rampart a glimpse of 
 the sea might always be caught, but it was at a considerable 
 distance ; but these streaks, if they were waves, were not 
 dancing out at sea ; I saw plainly how they rose, fell, tum- 
 bled over, and beaten to foam and spray flew over the ram- 
 part. It was the surf, and the surf had risen to the crest of 
 the rampart ! 
 
 " What will come of it ? " asked Paula. 
 
 It was the very question which I had asked myself yester- 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 369 
 
 day evening at this identical place, though in another and 
 very different sense. I was then only thinking of her who 
 now stood before me, and looked up to me with large, terri- 
 fied eyes ; but in my spirit, confused by the sleepless night 
 I had passed, nature and human destiny mingled inextricably 
 together : 
 
 " Paula," I said. 
 
 She glanced up to me again. 
 
 " Paula," I repeated, and my voice trembled and my hand 
 sought hers, " if the storm of life ever rages around you as 
 that is raging — will you turn to me for help and protection "i 
 Will you, Paula ? say ! " 
 
 A bright flush reddened her pale cheeks ; she drew her 
 hand, which I did not venture to detain, out of mine. 
 
 " You are one of those good men, George, who desire to 
 help all, and upon whom,, therefore, all think they have 
 claims." 
 
 " That is not an answer, Paula," I said. 
 
 She opened her lips to speak ; but I was not to learn if 
 the unfavorable construction I had given her words was the 
 right one or not, for at this moment a blast smote the sum- 
 mer-house, tearing off the roof, and driving in the remaining 
 sashes, that fell in shivers around us. I caught Paula around 
 the waist and sprang with her out of the house, which fell 
 with a crash the instant we had quitted it Paula gave a 
 shriek of terror, and clasped me convulsively. My heart 
 bounded with joy when I thus held the dear maiden in my 
 arms ; but she released her hold immediately. 
 
 " What weaklings we women are, after all ! " she said. 
 " You men must think that we exist for no other purpose 
 than to be protected by you." 
 
 As she said this there was an indignant expression in her 
 large eyes and her brow ; but her lips twitched with hardly- 
 repressed weeping. 
 
 What was passing in her thoughts at that moment "i 
 
 I did not learn this until years later. 
 
 We went — or rather, struggled — ^back to the house. No 
 further word was spoken between us, nor did she take my 
 arm, which I, for my part, did not venture to offer her. 
 Would she have rejected the arm of another as well ? I asked 
 myself. 
 
 16* 
 
370 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 With a sadness that I had never felt before, I was sitting 
 an hour later in the office. How could I work with this 
 disquiet in my heart, with this weight upon my bAin, and on 
 such a day as this ? But " first do your work, everything 
 else will come in in its place," was the word of the superin- 
 tendent, and in accordance with this word I seated myself at 
 my work, and copied lists and examined accounts without 
 making a single error in my figures. I had well spent my 
 long apprenticeship : I could now say that I had learned to 
 work. 
 
 It was noon when I went to the superintendent to place 
 the papers I had prepared before him for his signature. 
 When I reached the ante-room of his cabinet I stopped, for 
 through the half-opened door I heard some one speaking 
 within. 
 
 *' It is a grand opportunity," said an unctious voice, 
 which of late years had been less frequently heard in the 
 superintendent's house — " a glorious time, a time of the Lord, 
 who reveals himself in storm and tempest, to awaken the 
 heart of sinful man from its obduracy. Let us rightly under- 
 stand this time, Herr Superintendent, and not let the Lord 
 appeal to us in vain." 
 
 " You will excuse me if I do not share your view, Herr von 
 Krossow. I have this night had an example of the frenzy 
 to which superstitious terror drives these wild souls. If you 
 wish to explain to the men these phenomena of nature, I am 
 most willing to aid you in the undertaking ; but I see no ad- 
 vantage in a general prayer-meeting, and must therefore, I 
 regret to say, decline to permit it." 
 
 The superintendent said this in his calm, convincing man- 
 ner, but it did not seem to convince his antagonist. A brief 
 pause succeeded, and the soft voice began again : 
 
 " I forgot to mention that the president, from whom I have 
 just come, and to whom I imparted my intention, entirely 
 agreed with my views, and even expressed the wish that the 
 bells might be rung in all the churches, and the congrega- 
 tions assembled for prayer. He cannot fail to feel it very 
 sensibly if here — just here — ^his authority is — ^what shall I 
 say ? — disregarded." 
 
 " I am afraid," replied the superintendent, " that many 
 more will find themselves to-day compelled to refuse the cus- 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 371 
 
 ternary respect to the authority of the president; I fear that 
 the bells will be rung, not to call the people to the churches, 
 but to summon them to work. Unless the storm soon 
 abates there will be much work and hard work to do before 
 night." 
 
 At this moment, through the roar of the storm, was audi- 
 ble a lamentable tone as if coming from the clouds, followed 
 by other dismal sounds of wailing and crying, and suddenly 
 the door leading into the hall was thrown open, and the 
 doctor rushed breathlessly in. 
 
 " It is as we expected," he panted, hurrying past me into 
 the superintendent's room, into which I followed him in ex- 
 citement which had something better in it than mere cu- 
 riosity. 
 
 " It is as we expected," he repeated, taking off his specta- 
 cles and wiping from his face the wet sand and other drift 
 with which he was covered from head to foot. " In an hour, 
 or two hours at most, the water will be over the rampart, un- 
 less a breach first happens, which is to be feared, in more 
 than one place." 
 
 " What precautions are being taken ? " 
 
 " They are sitting with hands in their laps — is not that 
 enough ? I hurried to the chief of police and to the presi- 
 dent to entreat them to send every man that could use his 
 arms to the rampart, and to order back the battalion, which 
 marched out to parade two hours ago, because no counter- 
 mand arrived — can you conceive such madness ! — and is now 
 struggling and buffeted upon the road, unless the storm has 
 blown them all into the ditches long ago, which is more prob- 
 able. Under all the circumstances they cannot be far, and 
 would soon be back if a couple of mounted couriers were 
 sent after them. They are more wanted here than in the 
 ditches. All this I laid before the gentlemen. What do 
 you suppose the chief of police answered me ? He had been 
 a soldier himself, and knew that an officer must obey his 
 orders. It was not to be supposed that the battalion would 
 be recalled at his request. And the president — ^that pre- 
 tended saint — what is it ? O, Herr von Krossow, you here ? 
 I am sorry that you have had to hear the opinion I have of 
 your uncle ; but it is out now, and I can neither help myself 
 nor him. I cannot see that the sanctity is anything but a 
 
372 Hammer and Anvii. 
 
 pretence, which in such a calamity talks of the judgments of 
 God, and that it is vain to kick against the pricks." 
 
 " I shall not fail, as in duty bound, to notify giy uncle of 
 the friendly opinions which are so frankly expressed of him 
 here," said Herr von Krossow, seizing his broad-rimmed hat 
 with hands that trembled with rage, and hastening out of the 
 door. 
 
 " A pleasant journey to you !" cried the pugnacious doctor, 
 running a few steps after him, like a cock whose adversary 
 has left him master of the arena. " A pleasant journey !" he 
 called once more through the open door, which he then, 
 snorting wrath and scorn, flung furiously to. 
 
 " You have lost your place here," said the superintendent, 
 seriously. 
 
 " At all events, the fellow will know my opinion of him," 
 crowed the doctor. 
 
 " What does that matter ?" asked the superintendent. 
 " But that you should be physician here matters much, and 
 to me most of all. We must try to repair this in some 
 way." 
 
 The superintendent walked up and down the room with 
 slow steps, his hands clasped behind his back, as was his 
 custom ; the doctor stood first upon one foot and then upon 
 the other, looking greatly ashamed and confused. 
 
 " What is it ?" asked the superintendent of a turnkey, who 
 entered at that moment with an agitated face. 
 
 " There is a crowd of people here, Herr Superintendent." 
 
 "Where?" 
 
 "At the gate." 
 
 " What kind of people ?" 
 
 " Mostly from the Bridge-street, Herr Superintendent 
 They say they will all be drowned. And since the prison 
 stands so much higher " 
 
 Without a word the superintendent left the room and 
 crossed the court. We followed. He had on a short silk 
 coat he usually wore in the house, and was without hat or 
 cap. As he strode on before us, the storm, which was furi- 
 ous in the court, dishevelled his thin, dark hair, and the ends 
 of his long moustache fluttered like pennons in the wind. 
 
 We reached the gate which the growling porter was 
 ordered to open. The previous evening the opening of a 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 373 
 
 prison door had exhibited to me a frightful spectacle, and I 
 now had to behold a most moving and pitiable one, which 
 has remained no less indelibly impressed on my memory. 
 
 There were outside probably fifty persons, mostly women, 
 some men, both old and young, and children, some even in 
 the arms of their mothers. Nearly all were carrying in their 
 hands, or had placed upon the ground, some of their little 
 possessions, and these apparently the first that came to hand, 
 caught up in haste and alarm. I saw a woman with a great 
 wash-tub on her shoulders, which she clutched as firmly as 
 if it would fall to pieces if let go ; and a man carrying an 
 empty bird-cage, which the wind was whirling about. The 
 gate was no sooner open than they all rushed into the yard 
 as if pursued by furies. The turnkey wished to oppose their 
 entrance, but the superintendent took him by the arm. 
 
 " Let them in," he said. 
 
 We had stepped on one side, and let the mad torrent pour 
 by us, and it now spread over the court, and in part rushed 
 up to the door of the building. 
 
 " Halt ! " cried the superintendent. 
 
 They all stopped. 
 
 " Let the women and children enter," he said, to his subor- 
 dinates, " al;^ the old and the sick. You men may go in to 
 warm yourselves, but in ten minutes you must all be here 
 again. This is no time for men to be sitting behind the 
 stove." 
 
 Here came new guests through the open gate. 
 
 " Let them in — let all in ! " said the superintendent. 
 
 A young woman with a child in her arms, who had rushed 
 in after the others, went up to the superintendent and said : 
 
 " I want my husband ! Why do you keep him locked up ? 
 I can't carry all the brats at once ! If I don't find the rest, 
 you may drown this one too ! " 
 
 She was just going to lay the child on the ground, when 
 she suddenly turned upon the doctor, who was standing by, 
 pushed the child into his arms, and sprang out of the gate. 
 The woman had wonderfully long blond hair, which had fal- 
 len loose, and as she rushed off in frantic haste it fluttered 
 behind her in a thousand strings. 
 
 " Get rid of your little burden," said the superintendent, 
 smiling, to the doctor. " You must take command here in 
 
374 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 my place. Look after the women and children, my friend, 
 and see that the men are through with their dinner in a 
 quarter of an hour ; then let them come out here, all of them, 
 without exception, but the sick." 
 
 The doctor cast an inquiring look at his chief. Suddenly 
 a light seemed to flash across his grotesque physiognomy, 
 and holding the wailing child close to his breast, he ran with 
 his queer tripping steps into the house to carry out the 
 orders he had just received. 
 
 " Stay here, George," said the superintendent to me, " and 
 talk to the people, as thou.knowest how. I shall be back in 
 ten minutes." 
 
 He went : I remained staring after him. What was the 
 meaning of this ? For the first time he had called me thou. 
 His eye had been steadily fixed upon me ; it was not a trip 
 of the tongue, and yet he had not spoken it intentionally ; I 
 felt this instinctively ; I felt, indeed I knew, that it was be- 
 cause at this solemn moment the little barriers which con- 
 ventional life had thrown up between us, in this man's eyes, 
 shrivelled up into nothing. And I knew what was in his 
 mind : I knew that he was preparing himself for a battle of 
 life and death, and that he had gone to take farewell of his 
 family. A shudder ran through me ; my bjeast swelled 
 high ; I raised my head proudly. 
 
 " Good people," I said, " take courage : he will help you 
 if a man can." 
 
 They crowded around me, bewailing their great peril ; 
 how the water had been rising since yesterday midnight at 
 the rate of nearly a foot an hour ; that had now been going 
 on for twelve hours, and the rampart in the lowest part was 
 only twelve or thirteen feet high ; that the Bridge-street and 
 Sweed-street next to it were but very little above the ordi- 
 nary level of the sea, and if the rampart gave way, all were 
 lost. Master-Pilot Walter, who understood these things 
 well, had always said something would happen ; but there 
 was no money for anything of the sort — that was all spent 
 on the bastions and casemates on the land-side. 
 
 " And thev have clapped my two boys into uniform," said 
 an old man, " and now they are out on the road and cannot 
 help us." . . 
 
 " But /5<r will," I said. ' i 
 
 ^f^^ 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 375 
 
 The old man looked at me incredulously. 
 
 " He is a good gentleman," he said ; " every child knows 
 that ; but what can he do ? " 
 
 Here the superintendent came again out of the house, and 
 at the same time out of three several doors which opened 
 from the different wings of the main-building streamed forth 
 the convicts, and work-house men, about four hundred in 
 number, all more or less stalwart men, in their gray working- 
 jackets, the most already provided with spades, picks, axes, 
 ropes, and whatever else likely to be of service, that they had 
 been able to find in the establishment. The men were 
 headed by their overseers. 
 
 Thus they came on in military order and step. " Halt ! 
 Front face ! " commanded the overseers, and the men halted 
 in three companies, steady as a battalion under arms. 
 
 " This way, men ! " cried the superintendent, in a sono- 
 rous voice. The men obeyed. All eyes were fixed upon 
 him, who stood with his head bent down as if reflecting. 
 Suddenly he looked up, his eye flashed around the circle, 
 and with a voice that rose strong and clear above the storm, 
 he cried : 
 
 " Men ! Each one of us has had some one hour in his 
 life which he would give much to be able to recall. To-day 
 a great good fortune is granted you : every one of you, who- 
 ever he may be and whatever he has done — every one of 
 you may now buy back that hour, and become again what he 
 once was, before God, himself, and all good men. You 
 have been told what you are wanted for. It is to risk your 
 lives for the lives of others — ^for the lives of helpless women 
 and children ! I make you no vain promises ; I do not say 
 what you are about to do will make free men of you ; on 
 the contrary, I tell you that you will return here just as you 
 left Neither freedom nor any other reward awaits you 
 when the gate closes behind you this evening after your 
 work is over — nothing but the thanks of your superintend- 
 ent, a glass of stiff grog, and a comfortable rest upon your 
 beds, such as an honest fellow deserves. Will you stand 
 by me on these conditions .-' Whoever will, let him raise 
 his right hand and give a hearty Aye ! " 
 
 Four hundred right hands flew up, and from four hundred 
 throats came the shout Aye ! 
 
37^ Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 At once the crowd, which had been joined by the fugitives 
 from the town, was divided into three companies, of which 
 Silssmilch was to command the first, I the second, and a 
 convict named Mathes, formerly a ship-builder, and a very 
 active, intelligent man, the third. The overseers had fallen 
 into the ranks with the rest. 
 
 " Every man is his own overseer to-day ! " said the super- 
 intendent. 
 
 Thus we marched out of the gate. 
 
 The short street upon which the principal prison-gate 
 opened was soon traversed, but at the old and rather nar- 
 now gate at the end of the street we met with a singular 
 .resistance, which, more than anything hitherto, exhibited the 
 might of the storm. The old gate was in fact only an open 
 arch in the wall, and yet it took us longer to get through it 
 than if we had had to burst heavy doors of oak plated with 
 iron, so violently did the blast press through the narrow 
 opening. Like a giant with hundred arms it stood without 
 and thrust back like a helpless child each one that endeav- 
 ored to force his way ; only our combined exertions, holding 
 each other's hands and clinging to the rugged surface of the 
 arch, enabled us to force the pass. Then we hastened along 
 the way, between the high bastion on one side and the town- 
 fosse with the prison-buildings on the other side, until we 
 reached the place where our help was needed. 
 
 It was that low rampart which immediately joined the 
 bastion, over the crest of which I had so often cast a longing 
 eye from the Belvedere towards the sea and the island. Its 
 length was perhaps five hundred paces, and then came the 
 harbor with its high stone breakwaters reaching far out into 
 the sea. At the first sight I perceived why tkis place was 
 exposed to such terrible peril in a storm like this. The sea, 
 driven in by the force of the storm, was caught between the 
 high bastion, that rested upon immense foundations of solid 
 masonry, and the long breakwater, as in a cul-de-sac, and as 
 it could escape on neither side, it spent all its force upon the 
 barrier that here barred its way. If the rampart gave way, 
 the whole lower part of the town was gone. No one could 
 avoid seeing this who looked from the rampart into the nar- 
 row streets on the water-side, where the ridges of the roofs 
 for the most part scarcely reached the height of the rampart, 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 377 
 
 so that one could see over them into the inner harbor which 
 lay on the opposite side of the harbor-suburb, where now the 
 masts of the ships were swaying like reeds in the wind. 
 
 I think that I did not take more than a quarter of a min- 
 ute to have a distinct comprehension of the situation as I 
 have just described it, and indeed no more time was allowed 
 me. My senses and feelings were too powerfully seized by 
 the sight of the danger we had come to contend with. I, 
 who had passed my whole life upon the coast, who had been 
 tossed for days together by the waves in small or large craft, 
 who had watched, from the shore at least, many a fierce 
 storm with unwearied attention and sympathetic terror — I 
 thought that I knew the sea ; and now saw that I no more 
 knew it than any one knows a bomb, who has not seen one 
 explode and scatter death and destruction around. Not 
 even in my wildest fancies had I ever approached the reality. 
 This was not the sea which was an expanse of water forming 
 greater and smaller waves ; this was a monster, a world of 
 monsters rushing upon us with wide-open jaws, roaring, 
 howling, ravening for prey ; it was no longer anything defi- 
 nite or distinguishable — the destruction of all form, of all 
 color — chaos that had broken loose to engulf the world. 
 
 I believe there was not one of the whole company who was 
 not similarly affected by the sight. I can see them now 
 standing there — the four hundred as they had rushed to the 
 crest of the rampart, with pale faces, their terrified eyes now 
 turned upon the howling chaos, then upon their neighbors, 
 and then upon the man who had led them here, and who alone ' 
 was able to say what was to be done, what could be done. 
 
 And never had a hesitating crowd a better leader. 
 
 With the true eye of love that thoughtfially gazes into the 
 past, I see him in so many situations, and always do I be- 
 hold him noble and good; but at no moment better and 
 nobler than in this, as he stood upon the highest point of 
 the rampart, one arm wound round the strong flag-staff" which 
 he had hastily erected, as firm upon his weakened limbs 
 as the bronze statue of an ancient hero ! And hero-like was 
 the look of his eye which in one glance took in the danger 
 and the remedy ; hero -like was the gesture as he raised his 
 hand, and hero-like was the voice which in clear incisive 
 tones gave the needful orders. 
 
378 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 One detachment was ordered into the low streets to bring 
 up all the empty casks, boxes and chests they could find ; 
 another to go with spades, baskets and wheelbarrows upon 
 the bastion, where there was earth in abundance ; another 
 into the adjoining glacis with ropes and axes to fell the trees 
 which for years had been awaiting the enemy which — though 
 in an unlooked-for form — had now come ; another into the 
 neighboring dock-yards to summon the ship-builders to help 
 us, and to procure, either by persuasion or force, twenty or 
 thirty large beams which we absolutely needed. Before 
 half an hour had elapsed, the work, so well directed, was in 
 full activity. At one place, baskets of earth were lowered 
 into the rents which the sea had made in the rampart ; at 
 another, posts were driven in and wattled with boughs ; at 
 another, a wall of timbers was built up. And all worked, 
 and hurried, and dug, and shovelled, and hammered, and 
 wheeled, and dragged great loads, with a diligence, with an 
 energy, with a cheerful, dauntless courage, that even now 
 the tears start to my eyes as I think of it ; when I think that 
 these were the men whom society had spurned out ; the men 
 who, perhaps for the sake of a few groschen or a childish 
 craving, had become common thieves ; the men whom I had 
 so often, with disgust, seen sulkily slouching across the 
 prison court to their work ; the men whom the storm of yes- 
 terday, beating against the walls of their prison, had driven 
 to a frenzy of terror. There lay the town at their feet ; they 
 might rush into it, rob, burn, and murder to their heart's 
 content — who was to hinder them ? There lay the wide world 
 open before them ; they had only to escape into it ; who 
 could restrain them ? Here was a work more difficult and 
 more toilsome than any they had ever done ; who was it that 
 compelled them to it.'' This was the storm before which 
 they had yesterday trembled in its most appalling fonn ; 
 why did they not tremble now ? Why did they go, jesting, 
 laughing, into the very jaws of death, when they had to se- 
 cure and bring in a great mast which had been drifted in 
 from the harbor, and which the waves were driving like a 
 battering-ram against the rampart .'' Why ? I believe if all 
 men answered this why as I answer it, there would no longer 
 be masters and serfs ; no longer would men sing the sad 
 old song of the hammer that would not be an anvil, for — 
 
 ■ a^r- 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 379 
 
 but wherefore answer a why that only the world's history can 
 answer? Wherefore lay the secrets of our hearts before a 
 world which passes by indifferent, unnoticing, or only notic- 
 ing to mock ! 
 
 Whoever looked on at this work — how these men let the 
 skin be torn from their flesh and the flesh from their bones in 
 their terrible work — did not laugh ; and those who looked 
 on were the poor people of the water-streets — ^women and 
 children for the most part, for the men had to help in the 
 work — who stood below sheltered by the rampart, and with 
 frightened and astonished faces looked at the gray-jackets, 
 whom they had usually only watched with timid, suspicious 
 glances as they passed through the streets in small parties 
 led by overseers from out-door work. To-day they were not 
 afraid of the gray-jackets ; to-day they prayed that heaven's 
 blessing might go with the food and drink that they brought 
 to strengthen and refresh those who were exhausted with the 
 toil. No, they were not afraid of the four hundred ; gladly 
 would they have seen their numbers doubled and tripled. 
 
 But there were men living far out of the reach of the dan- 
 ger, whose lives or property were nowise at stake, and who 
 thus were in a position acutely to feel the irregularity and 
 illegality of these proceedings. 
 
 I remember that, one after the other, the Chief of Police 
 von Raubach, President von Krossow, the Lieutenant Gen- 
 eral and Commandant of the Fort, his excellency Count 
 Dankelheim, came storming our leader with entreaties, com- 
 mands, threats, to place his dreaded brigade under locks and 
 bolts again. I remember that they came together in the 
 evening to make a combined attack, and I have still to smile 
 when I recall the cheerful calm with which the good, brave 
 man repelled the assault. 
 
 " What would you have, gentlemen ? " he said. " Would 
 you really prefer that hundreds should lose their lives and 
 thousands their property, rather than that a dozen or a 
 couple of dozen of these poor rascals should decamp and 
 gain the liberty which they have honestly earned to-day ? 
 But I shall bring them back when the danger is over. Be- 
 fore that time no man shall move me from here, unless he 
 does it by force ; and happily no one of you is able to do 
 that, gentlemen ! And now, gentlemen, this interview must 
 
380 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 terminate ; night is coming on ; we have at most only a half 
 hour to make our preparations for the night. I have the 
 honor to wish you good day ! " 
 
 With these words he waved his hand towards the three 
 high functionaries, who made an extremely poor figure as 
 they stole off, and then turned all his attention where he was 
 needed. 
 
 Where he was needed at this moment more than ever ; 
 for just now, at the approach of night, it seemed as if the 
 storm had rallied all its force for a last and decisive assault. 
 
 I feared that we should have to succumb ; that our des- 
 perate toil of six hours was all in vain. The giant-waves no 
 longer were hurled back ; their crests were torn off and flew 
 far over the rampart into the streets. Shrieking with terror, 
 the crowd below fled in all directions ; scarcely one among 
 us workmen could hold his place on the summit : I saw des- 
 perate fellows, who had played with the danger hitherto, now 
 turn pale and shake their heads, and heard them say : " It 
 is impossible : nothing more can be done. " 
 
 And now came the most terrible act in this awful drama. 
 
 A small Dutch ship which had been moored in the road- 
 stead broke loose from her anchors and was hurled about 
 in the frightful surf like a nutshell, now tossed aloft, now en- 
 gulfed in the trough of the sea, but driven with every wave 
 nearer the rampart we were defending. We saw the despair- 
 ing gestures of the crew, who were clinging to the spars and 
 rigging: we almost fancied that we heard their cries for 
 help. 
 
 " Can we do nothing — nothing ? " I cried, turning to the 
 superintendent with tears of anguish in my eyes. 
 
 He shook his head sadly. " This one thing, perhaps," he 
 said, " that when she is thrown up thus high we may try if 
 we can grapple her so that the surf may not sweep her back. 
 If it does not succeed they are lost, and we with them, for 
 she will make a breach in the rampart which we cannot 
 possibly fill. Let them drive in strong posts, George, and 
 make fast one end of our thickest rope to them. It is but a 
 feeble possibility ; but there is still a chance. Come ! " 
 
 We hastened to the spot on which the ship, now but a few 
 hundred feet distant, was driving. The men had left the 
 crest of the rampart, and were sheltering themselves as well 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 381 
 
 as they could ; but now, when they saw their leader himself 
 take an axe in his hand, they all came up and worked with a 
 sort of fury, compared with which all that they had hitherto 
 done was child's play. 
 
 The posts were planted, and the rope fastened. Four of 
 the strongest men, of whom I was one, stood upon the ram- 
 part watching the right moment. 
 
 And what we thought scarcely possible, succeeded ! An 
 enormous wave came rolling up bearing the vessel with it. 
 The wave breaks — a deluge bursts over us, but we stand 
 firm, clutching the posts with the grip of desperation ; and as 
 soon as we can see again, there lay the ship like a stranded 
 whale, high upon the rampart. We spring to it ; a hundred 
 hands are busy at once making fast the ropes to the masts ; 
 a hundred others in releasing the pale men — ^five of them — 
 from the yards. , All is done before the next wave breaks. 
 Will it carry off our prize ? It comes, and after it another, 
 and another ; but the ropes hold ; each wave is weaker than 
 the last ; the fourth does not reach the crest ; the fifth falls 
 far behind. In the fearful incessant thunder, which for so 
 many hours has been deafening our ears, there comes a sud- 
 den pause ; the pennons on the rocking masts of the ships 
 in the inner harbor, which have been flying towards the east, 
 now droop, and then fly out to the west ; the wind hauls, the 
 storm is over, the victory is ours ! 
 
 The victory is ours. Every one knows it in a moment. 
 A cheer, that seemed as if it would never end, bursts from the 
 throats of these rude men. They grasp each other's hands ; 
 embrace each other — Hurrah ! and Hurrah ! again and again ! 
 
 The victory is ours ; but it is dearly purchased. 
 
 When I looked for him— him whom all had to thank for 
 all — he was no longer standing on the spot where I had seen 
 him last. But I see the men running to the place, and I run 
 with them ; I outstrip them all, driven by a fear which gives 
 me wings. I force my way through the assembled crowd, 
 and find all with bowed heads gazing at a man who lies upon 
 the ground, his head upon the knees of the old sergeant. 
 The^ man is pale as death, and his lips are covered with 
 bloody froth, and all around him the earth is drenched with 
 fresh blood— his blood— the heart's blood of that noblest of 
 living men. 
 
382 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 " Is he dead ? " I hear one of the men ask. 
 
 But the hero could not die yet : he has one duty more to 
 perform. He summons me with a look, and I bend over 
 him as he moves his lips, from which no sound now issues. 
 But I understand him. I clasp both arms around him and 
 raise him up. Thus he stands erect, leaning upon me, the 
 lofty kingly form. They can all see him — the men whom he 
 has led here and whom he is going to lead back. He 
 glances at his hand, which hangs helpless, white as wax, at 
 his side ; I raise it, and it points in the direction of the way 
 that we had come at noon. There is not one who dares 
 disobey this dumb, solemn command. They assemble, fall 
 into rank and file ; the sergeant and I bear their dying leader j 
 and thus we return in long, slow, sad procession. 
 
 Night has come on ; and but a few occasional gusts rush 
 by to remind us of the frightful day we have all passed 
 through. The convicts are sleeping upon the pillow of a 
 good conscience, which the superintendent had promised 
 them. Their superintendent sleeps too, and his pillow is as 
 soft as death in a good and great cause can make it. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 IT was a year after these events that a solitary traveller 
 was ascending the slope of one of the hills of the heath 
 which surrounded the town of Uselin on the land side. 
 He journeyed slowly, like one who is wearied with a long 
 march, and laboriously dragged his feet through that coarse 
 sand with which the sea loves to bestrew its threshold. But 
 the traveller was not by any means weary ; he had jour- 
 neyed but few miles that day, and for him twice the exertion 
 had been but child's play. The little bundle which was 
 slung from a stick over his shoulder could not overburden 
 him ; and yet he went slower and slower as he approached 
 the three pines which crowned the summit of the hill ; 
 indeed he stopped from time to time and pressed his hand 
 upon his heart, as though his breath failed him for the few 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 l^l 
 
 steps that were yet to be taken. And now he stood on the 
 summit under the pines ; the stick with the bundle slipped 
 from his grasp, and he stretched out Kis arms toward the little 
 town which from the strand glittered in a light blended with 
 the glitter of the sea. Then he threw himself— tall and pow- 
 erful man as he was — upon the heather under the pines, 
 weeping and sobbing like a child, but presently half raised 
 himself, and lay for a long time, propped by his elbow, stead- 
 ily gazing at the little sea-port at his feet, with its peaked 
 gables and steep roofs reddened by the sunset. 
 
 What thoughts were passing through the mind of this soli- 
 tary man .'' What emotions were filling his heaving breast ? 
 
 Many a poet who has carelessly brought his hero into a 
 similar situation probably finds the answer to this question 
 no such easy task ; but fortunately for me I myself am the 
 wanderer lying under the pines, and since that time not so 
 many years have flown that the place, the hour, and what 
 they brought me, could have escaped my memory. 
 
 What did they bring.'' 
 
 A host of memories from the years when the man was a 
 light-hearted boy, and all that he saw around him now but 
 the scenes of his wild sports : the town, from the depth of 
 the half-filled-up fosse to the tops of the spires ; the gardens, 
 fields, meadows and heaths that surrounded it as far as these 
 very hills ; the harbor with its ships, and the glistening sea * 
 on which he loved to row in a frail boat when the towers, as 
 now, glowed ruddy in the evening light. 
 
 Hither and thither strayed my looks, and everywhere they 
 encountered objects that greeted me as old acquaintances ; 
 but they did not dwell long upon any one ; just as when we 
 search a well-known book for some especial passage, turning 
 leaf after leaf, and every line that meets the eye is familiar, 
 and yet we can not light upon the place we are looking for. 
 
 But in truth it was so small and lowly, the old one-storied 
 house with the painted gable on the narrow harbor-street, 
 and the street lay so low, covered by the larger houses of 
 the higher part of the town, — how could I expect from this 
 spot to distinguish the little house with the narrow gable ? 
 
 And yet for what other purpose had I made the journey 
 hither, the sixteen miles from the prison — my first journey 
 after regaining my freedom — but to see that house, and, if 
 
384 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 fortune would permit, perhaps through a crack in the shutter 
 to catch a glimpse of its occupant ? For to go to him, to 
 gaze into his eyes, to throw my arms about his neck, as my 
 heart yearned to do — this, after what had happened, I dared 
 not hope. In the short notes with which he had answered my 
 letters, there had never been, during all the seven years of my 
 imprisonment, one single word of love, of comfort, of forgive- 
 ness. 
 
 And my last letter, written a week before, in which I con- 
 gratulated him in advance on his sixty-seventh birth-day,- 
 told him that this would be the day of my liberation, and 
 asked if I — now another, and, I hoped, a better man — might 
 venture to come to him on that day — this letter, which I 
 had written with wet eyes and a trembling hand, had never 
 been answered. 
 
 The red glow had at last vanished from the high roofs 
 and peaked gables, from the fluttering pennons of the ships 
 in the outer harbor, and from the two church-towers ; a light 
 mist arose from the meadows and fields which stretched from 
 the hills upon the heath to the city. The mail-coach came 
 along the road lined with stunted fruit trees ; and I watched 
 it as it slowly passed tree after tree, until it disappeared behind 
 the first houses of the suburb. Here and there upon the nar- 
 row foot-path between the fields were seen the figures of la- 
 borers moving toward the town, and these also disappeared. 
 The twilight faded away ; denser grew the mists in the hol- 
 lows ; nothing living was to be seen except a brace of hares 
 sitting up on their haunches in a stubble-field, and a great 
 flock of crows, which came croaking from the pine-forest 
 where I used to play " Robbers and Soldiers " with my 
 comrades, their black bodies flapping distinct against the 
 lighter sky, as they bent their course to the old church- 
 towers. 
 
 The hour had now come. 
 
 I arose, hung my bundle once more over my stick, slowly 
 descended the hill and took my way through the misty fields 
 to the town. In an obscure spot in the suburbs I stopped 
 again for awhile — it was not dark enough for me yet. I 
 neither feared nor had reason to fear any one. Even before 
 my great enemy, Justizrath Heckepfennig, or those redoubt- 
 able public servants Luz and Bolljahn, had I met them, I 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 385 
 
 need not have cast down my eyes, or stepped aside ; and yet 
 it was not dark enough. 
 
 Now the night breeze rustled louder in the half-stripped 
 boughs of the maple against which I was leaning, and looking 
 up I saw a star twinkling through the sprays — now it would 
 do. 
 
 How hollow sounded my footsteps in the empty streets, 
 and how heavily beat my heart in my anxious breast ! As I 
 passed the Rathhaus, Father Riiterbusch, the night-watch- 
 man, was standing, bare-headed and without his weapons, 
 at his post, and looking pensively at the empty table and 
 barrel-chair of Mother Moller's cake stand, while above us 
 the clock in the tower of St. Nicholas's church struck eight. 
 Was Mother MoUer dead, that Father Riiterbusch thus gazed 
 at the empty barrel, and had not even a glance for his old 
 acquaintance from the guard-house ? 
 
 Dead } Why not ? She was an old woman when I last 
 saw her — just the age of my father, as she told me once 
 when I was spending my pocket money at her stall. As old 
 as my father ! A chill wind blew through the hall ; I shiv- 
 ered from head to foot, and with a rapid stride, almost a run, 
 I hurried over the little market-place down the sloping streets 
 leading to the harbor. 
 
 Here was the Harbor-street, and here was the house ! 
 Thank heaven ! A light was glimmering through the shut- 
 ters of both windows on the left. Thank heaven once 
 more ! 
 
 And now would I do and must do what on that other eve- 
 ning I wished to do and should have done, and yet did not : 
 go in and say to him " forgive me ! " 
 
 I grasped the brass knob of the door — again it felt cold as 
 ice to my hot hand. The door-bell gave a sharp clang, and 
 at its summons appeared at the door of the right-hand 
 chamber— just as on that evening — the faithful Friederike. 
 No, not just as on that evening ; her little figure, bent with 
 age, was dressed in black, and a black ribbon fastened the 
 snow-white cap with its broad ruffle, which formed a ring of 
 points around her wrinkled face. And out of the wrinkled 
 face two eyes, red with weeping, stared at the strange vis- 
 itor. 
 
 ".Rike," I said — it was all that I could utter. 
 16 
 
386 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 " George ! good heaven ! " the old women cried, tottering 
 towards me with uplifted hands. 
 
 She grasped both my hands, and gazed at me, sobbing and 
 speechless, with quivering lips, while the tears streamed 
 down her furrowed cheeks. She had no need to speak : I 
 did not ask what had happened : I only asked " When ? " 
 
 " A week ago to-day," sobbed the old woman. " He did 
 not even live to see his birth-day." 
 
 " What did he die of ? " -^ ' 
 
 " I do not know. Nobody knows. Doctor Balthasar says 
 he cannot understand it. He has never been quite well 
 since you have been away ; and kept growing worse and 
 worse, though he would never own it ; and two weeks ago 
 he took to his bed, and kept perfectly still, looking always 
 just before him, only that sometimes he would write in his 
 house-book, and that on the very evening before ; and when 
 I came in the morning he was dead, and the book was lying 
 on the bed, and I took it myself and showed it to nobody when 
 they came and sealed up everything. I thought I ought to 
 keep it for you : he used so often to say your name to him- 
 self when he was writing. What he wrote I don't know ; I 
 cannot read; but I will get it for you." 
 
 She opened the door into my father's room. It was neat 
 as ever — painfully neat, but even more uninhabitable. The 
 white slips of parchment, fastened with seals over the key- 
 holes of the secretary and the old brown press in the corner, 
 had a spectral look to me. 
 
 " Why is the lamp burning on the table ? " I asked. 
 They are coming this evening." 
 
 <( 
 
 "Who are coming ? " 
 
 "Sarah and her husband, and the children, I believe. 
 Did you not know ? " 
 
 " I know of nothing — nothing whatever. And there still 
 lies my letter — unbroken ! He never read it ! " 
 
 I sank into the chair that stood by the writing table. I 
 had never sat in this chair, had scarcely dared to touch it. 
 A king's throne had seemed less venerable to me. This 
 thought at once struck me, and was followed by many, many 
 other painful thoughts : my head sank into my hands : 
 gladly would I have wept, but I could not weep. 
 
 The old woman returned with the book of which she had 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 387 
 
 spoken. I knew it well ; it was a thick.quarto volume, bound 
 in leather, with clasps, and I had often seen it in my father's 
 hands of an evening when he had done his work ; but never 
 had I ventured to cast a look into it, even had I had the 
 opportunity, which but rarely happened, as my father always 
 kept it carefully locked up. Now it lay open before me : 
 one after another I turned the thick leaves of the rough 
 coarse paper, their pages covered with the neat, pedantically 
 straight hand- writing of my father, which I knew so well. 
 The hand had not changed, although the entries extended 
 over more than forty years, and the ink on the first pages 
 was entirely faded. Only upon the last did this steady 
 strength seen to fail. The traces of the pen grew ever more 
 angular, feebler ; they were but the ruin of what had formerly 
 been ; the last word was just legible and no more. It was 
 my name. 
 
 And everywhere upon the first leaves, those of some 
 twenty-seven years back, stood my name. 
 
 " To-day a son has been born to me — a sturdy little fellow. 
 The nurse says she never saw in her life so stout a babe, and 
 that he is like St. George. So he shall be called George, 
 and shall be the joy of my life and the staff of my old age. 
 May God grant it ! " 
 
 " George comes on finely," was on another page. " He is 
 already larger than the Herr Steuerrath's Arthur, who is not 
 small either. He seems to have a good head of his own. 
 Though only three years old, it is wonderful what ideas he 
 has. He must soon go to school." 
 
 And again on another : 
 
 " Clerk VoUand is full of praise of my George. ' He 
 might get on better with his learning,' the old man says ; 
 ' but his heart is in the right place ; he will be a fine man 
 some day. I shall not live to see it, but you will, and then 
 do you remember that I said so.' " 
 
 And so it went on, page after page — " George that splen- 
 did fellow ! My noble boy, George ! " 
 
 Then came other times. George's name was not now 
 in almost every line, and George was no longer the splendid 
 fellow and noble boy. George would not do right, neither in 
 school, nor at home, nor on the street, nor anywhere. 
 George was a good-for-nothing ! No, no ; that was too much 
 
388 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 to say ; only he could do better if he would, and he certainly 
 would do better — he certainly would ! 
 
 Then came many pages and George's name was not men- 
 tioned at all. Many a family event was noted ; my mother's 
 death ; the terrible news of my brother's loss ; that his 
 daughter Sarah had again — for the third — for the fourth 
 time — presented him with a grandson or a grand-daughter ; 
 that he had been promoted to an accountant's place ; that 
 his salary had been raised ; but George's name appeared no 
 more. 
 
 Not even upon the last leaves, which again had references 
 to " him ; " that " he " was so well liked by all in the prison, 
 and that the Herr Superintendent von Zehren had asked to- 
 day again if " he " was not yet found worthy of his father's 
 forgiveness. 
 
 " I have tried to-day to write to him what the feelings of 
 my heart are ; but I cannot bring myself to it. I will tell 
 him all when he comes back, if he cares for the love of an 
 old broken man ; but write it I cannot." . 
 
 And upon the last page were the words : 
 
 " It is not true ! It certainly is not true. Six years and 
 a half he has behaved well, yes, exemplarily, and in the sec- 
 ond half of the seventh to become worthless at once ! I 
 hear little good of the new superintendent. The one that is 
 gone was a noble-spirited man, and he was always full of 
 praise of him — no, no, whatever they may say of him, my 
 boy is not worthless, not worthless !" 
 
 And last of all : 
 
 " In a week he will be free ; he will find me upon a sick 
 bed if he finds me at all. For his sake I wish it ; for it 
 would be a great sorrow to him to see me no more. I have 
 thought all these years that my boy did not love me, or he 
 would never have given me so much pain ; but I had just 
 now a dream that he was here and I held him in my arms. 
 I said to him, George " 
 
 I stared with burning eyes at the blank which followed, as 
 if there must appear upon it the words which my father had 
 said to me in his dream ; but gaze as I might, the words ap- 
 peared not, and at last I saw nothing more for the flood of 
 tears that burst from my eyes. 
 
 "You must not cry so, George," said the good old woman. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 389 
 
 " I know he always loved you more than the rest — ^very much 
 more. And if he died of grief and heart-break on your ac- 
 count, why he was an old man, and now he is dead and with 
 our Heavenly Father, and he is well there, much better than 
 here, though the good Lord knows that I have had no other 
 thought these twenty years than to make it all right with 
 
 him." 
 
 " I know it, I know it, and I thank you a thousand times," 
 I cried, seizing her brown withered bands. " And now tell 
 me, what are you going to do, and what can I do for you ?" 
 
 She looked at me and shook her head ; it probably seemed 
 strange to her that George, just out of the prison, should 
 offer to do anything for her. 
 
 I repeated my question. 
 
 " Poor boy," she said, " you will have enough to do to 
 provide for yourself, for what he has left does not amount 
 to much ; he was too good ; he would help everywhere that 
 he could, and he bought a place in the Beguines for me, for 
 the year or two I may still be spared. This will come out 
 of it, and Sarah made fuss enough when she heard it. They 
 thought they would get it all'; but it is to be divided equally 
 between you both. I have that from his own mouth, and I 
 can swear it, and will swear it, if they raise any dispute, be- 
 cause he left no will." 
 
 At this moment there was a loud ring at the front door. 
 
 " Good heavens ! " cried the old woman, clapping her 
 hands together, " there they are already ! " 
 
 She hurried out of the room, leaving the door open after 
 her. I remembered that I had never loved my sister — ^that I 
 had parted from her with unfriendly feelings long years be- 
 fore, and that in the interval I had by no means learned to 
 love her — but what difference did that make now? Now, 
 when she and I had lost our father, when we might lean and 
 take each other's hand across his grave ? 
 
 I went into the little hall, which was nearly filled by the new- 
 comers — a tall, lean, pale woman in black ; a short, fat, red- 
 faced man, in the uniform of an officer of the customs ; and 
 so far as I could make out at a glance, a half-dozen children, 
 from ten or twelve years old to an infant, which the tall, pale 
 woman clutched more firmly as I appeared at the door, and 
 looked at me with a hostile rather than a startled look in her 
 
390 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 large cold eyes. The short, fat man in uniform stepped be 
 tween me and the group of mother and children with a con- 
 fused expression in his face, and, rubbing his plump hands in 
 an embarrassed manner, said : 
 
 " We were not expecting you — ahem ! — brother-in-law — 
 ahem ! but we ar^ very glad to meet you here — ahem ! ' My 
 dear wife will only put herself to rights a little — ahem ! In 
 the meantime, suppose we go into our late father's room, 
 where we can talk over matters undisturbed. Don't you 
 think so, my dear ? " 
 
 The little man turned upon his heel to face his dear wife, 
 who, instead of answering, pushed the children before her 
 into old Friederike's little room. He turned back to me, 
 rubbed his hands with still more embarrassment than before, 
 and said again " Ahem ! " 
 
 We entered my father's room. I took my seat in his chair, 
 but my brother-in-law was too disturbed in spirit to be able 
 to sit down. He paced up and down the room with short 
 quick steps, stopping for a moment every time he passed the 
 door, with his head thrust forward a little on one side, listen- 
 ing if his dear wife had called him, and every time, to fill up 
 the pause with propriety, he said " Ahem .'' " 
 
 It was a long detail that the little man went into during 
 his restless wandering from door to stove and from stove to 
 door, and what he said was as clumsy and awkward as him- 
 self. It seemed that he and his dear wife had cherished a 
 half hope that I would never be discharged from prison, es- 
 pecially since I had been detained half a year over my time 
 for alleged breaches of discipline. He rejoiced exceedingly, 
 he said, that his fears and those of his dear wife had not 
 been justified ; but that I must admit that it was a hard thing 
 for a public officer to have a brother-in-law who had been in 
 the House of Correction. Did I think, now, that an officer 
 with such kindred was likely to gain promotion? It was 
 frightful, unpardonable, so to speak, and if he could have 
 foreseen it 
 
 The little man suddenly gave me a furtive look. I was 
 standing perfectly still, looking steadily at him, was a giant 
 in comparison with him, and had just come out of prison. 
 It seemed to strike him that it was not altogether prudent to 
 take this tone with me, so now there came a long litany of 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 391 
 
 the dolorous life that a petty subaltern with a large family 
 has to lead on the Polish frontier. True, in conformity with 
 the wishes of his dear wife, who wanted to nurse her old 
 father, he had procured his removal to this place ; but now 
 the old gentleman, who no doubt would have taken it kindly 
 of them, must needs die, and living here was so much more 
 expensive, and then the journey had cost so much with all 
 these children, and the baby was only sixteen weeks old, and 
 though the inheritance was left, still two was a heavy divisor 
 when the dividend was not large, and 
 
 I had heard enough, and more than enough. 
 
 " Do you know this book ?" I asked, laying my hand on 
 the cover of my father's diary. 
 
 " No," replied the little man. 
 
 " Give me this book, and I make no other claim upon my 
 father's estate. It is his diary, which has no interest for 
 you. Do you consent? " 
 
 " Certainly — that is, ahem ! I don't know whether my 
 dear wife — we must first see about it — ," answered my 
 brother-in-law, rubbing his hands in an undecided way, and 
 looking askance at the book out of his little puffy eyes. 
 
 "Then see about it" 
 
 I now commenced on my side pacing up and down the 
 room, while the husband of his dear wife seated himself at 
 the table, to submit this mysterious book to a closer inspec- 
 tion. 
 
 It seemed to excite no especial interest in him by the or- 
 dinary process of reading ; so he tried another plan with it, 
 taking it by the two covers and letting the leaves hang down, 
 which he shook vigorously for half a minute. As this pro- 
 ceeding also led to no result, he gave up the matter as hope- 
 less, laid down the book again, and said " Ahem ! " 
 
 " Are you agreed ! " I asked. 
 
 "Yes, certainly — to be sure — so to speak — of course; that 
 is, we must put it down in writing — only a couple of lines 
 — just by way of a memorandum — ^we might have it after- 
 wards drawn up by a notary " 
 
 " Whatever you wish, whatever you wish," I said. " Here 
 then ! " 
 
 The little man glanced at the paper and glanced at me, 
 while I tied up the book in my bundle, and took bundle and 
 
392 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 stick in my hand. Either he did not know what to make of 
 me, or — as from the expression of his countenance was more 
 probable — considered me simply insane ; in either case he 
 was beyond measure glad to be rid of me. 
 
 " Off so soon t " he said. " There's my dear wife, won't 
 you " 
 
 He checked his invitation to see his dear wife. I mut- 
 tered something that might pass for an excuse, left the room, 
 pressed old Friederike's hand as I passed through the hall, 
 and stood in the street. 
 
 I have but a dim recollection of the hour that followed. 
 It is not a dream, and yet it seems like a dream, that I went 
 to the grave-yard in the mill-suburb, roused up the old sex- 
 ton, who was just going to bed ; that I kneeled by a recent 
 grave, and afterwards gave the old mar, who stood by me 
 with a lantern, money to cover the hillock next morning with 
 fresh sods ; that I went back again, and near the gate passed 
 the villa of the commerzienrath, where all the windows were 
 illuminated, and I could see couples gliding past them in the 
 dance to a music which I could not hear, and that I thought 
 the little Hermine might be among the dancers, and then 
 remembered that the pretty child would now be seventeen 
 years old, if she were still alive. 
 
 I felt an irrepressible sadness ; it seemed as if all the 
 world had died, and I was the only living being left, and the 
 shades of the dead were dancing round me to inaudible 
 music. 
 
 Thus I went back with unsteady steps to the town, and 
 passed along the empty silent streets towards the harbor, 
 mechanically following the way which I had always taken 
 when a boy. 
 
 The sea-breeze blew in my face, and cooled my fevered 
 brow, and I inhaled deep draughts of the invigorating air. 
 No, the world was not dead, nor was I the only living being 
 left ; and there was a music, a delicious music, sweeter to 
 me than any other : the music of the wind whistling through 
 spars and cordage, and the waves plashing upon the harbor- 
 bar and before the prow of the ship. Yes, there were still 
 those who loved me, and whom I with all my soul could love 
 again. 
 
 Upon the wharf, where the steamboat for St. was now 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 393 
 
 lying at her moorings, there was standing a crowd of people. 
 It struck me that I could best commence my journey to the 
 capital by this steamer. 
 
 Considering this, I was standing at the head of the pier, 
 when a litter, such as is used to transport the sick, was car- 
 ried past me towards the crowd. The litter was without 
 the usual cover, which had probably been forgotten in their 
 haste, or, as it was night, not considered necessary. 
 
 " What is the matter ? " I asked the men. 
 
 "The fireman of the Elizabeth has broken his leg." 
 growled one jn reply, in whom I now recognized my old 
 friend, officer Luz. 
 
 " And we are to take him to the hospital," said the other, 
 who was no other than the redoubtable BoUjahn. 
 
 •' Poor fellow ! " I exclaimed. 
 
 " Yes," said Luz, " and his wife has just been brought to 
 bed." 
 
 " And they had eight already," growled Bolljahn. 
 
 " No, seven," said Luz. 
 
 " No, eight," said Bolljahn. 
 
 The group upon the pier began to move. 
 
 " There he lies now," said Luz. 
 
 " No, eight," said Bolljahn, who was not the man to drop 
 a disputed point so soon. 
 
 They had brought the man out of the ship to the pier. 
 He was a remarkably large and powerful man, whom six 
 found it no easy task to carry, and who, strong as he was, 
 groaned and cried with pain. The two men put down the 
 litter ; the bearers set about lifting the man into it, very 
 awkwardly as it seemed, for he screamed with anguish. I 
 thrust a couple of gapers aside and came up. They had 
 laid him upon the ground again ; I asked him how he wanted 
 to be placed, and took hold myself with the others, showing 
 them what to do. 
 
 " Thank God ! " murmured the poor fellow, " here is one 
 man with some sense." 
 
 They carried him off, and I went a little distance with them 
 to see how they got on. Was he warm enough ? Yes he was. 
 Did they carry him well ? Well, they might shake him a lit- 
 tle less. 
 
 " Here is something for you too," I said, putting a piece 
 17* 
 
394 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 of money into the hand of each of my old acquaintances, 
 " and now carry him as if he were your brother or your child ; " 
 and then I bent over the injured man and whispered some- 
 thing in his ear that it was not necessary for Luz and BoUjahn 
 to hear, and gave him something which it was equally un- 
 necessary for them' to see ; and then I turned again to the 
 group which was standing by the gang-plank of the steamer, 
 discussing the remarkable accident. 
 
 At this moment the captain came out upon the gang-plank, 
 and called to the group : 
 
 " Will any one of you take Karl Riekmann's place for 
 this trip? I will pay him good wages." 
 
 The men looked at each other. " I can't, Karl," said one, 
 " can't you ? " " No, Karl," said the one addressed, " but 
 can't you, Karl ? " " Neither can I," said the third Karl. 
 
 " I will," said I, stepping up to the captain. 
 
 The captain, a short, square-built man, looked up at me. 
 
 " Oh, you will do," he said. 
 
 "I think so." 
 
 *' Can you go on board at once .? " 
 
 "There is nothing to detain me here." 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 A GRAY foggy morning succeeded to the cold windy 
 night. It was six o'clock when the Elizabeth left the 
 wharf, and I had been busy with the fires since three. 
 I soon fell into the work, and scarcely needed the instruc- 
 tions of the lumpish, growling engineer. I had to laugh 
 once or twice involuntarily when the man, seeing me attend 
 to this or the other matter about the engine without direc- 
 tions, stared at me with a look half of surprise and half of j 
 vexation. I had told him that I was an entire novice at this 
 work, and this was the literal truth ; but I had not told him, 
 nor was there any necessity that I should, that I had thor- j 
 oughly studied marine steam-engines with the best of teach- 
 ers, and had familiarized myself with even the minutest 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 395 
 
 parts on an excellent model. And if in a few hours I had 
 mastered the work of a regular fireman, in even a less time 
 I had acquired the appearance of one. To save my own 
 clothes I had laid them in part aside, and put on a working 
 blouse of my unlucky predecessor, which fitted me perfectly ; 
 and what with handling the coal and the effects of a stream 
 of smoke which drove into my face for quite ten minutes 
 from the refractory furnace while I was making up the fires, 
 even my friend Doctor Snellius, who piqued himself so 
 greatly upon his physiognomical memory, would not have 
 recognized me. But I cared little for this, for happily I had 
 other things to occupy my attention. 
 
 I say happily, for it was ill with me in both head and heart. 
 The death of my father, who had died without my being able 
 even once to press his stern honorable hand, the meeting 
 with my sister who put her children out of my way as if 
 they were endangered by my presence, the prospect of the 
 future which looked all the darker the more I thought over 
 it — all this would have completely overwhelmed me had 
 not ihe honest furnace been there in which the coals glowed 
 so splendidly and the flames danced so merrily, while the 
 sturdy engine worked on manfully and unresting. Only free 
 work can make us free, my teacher had said to me. I had 
 believed him at his word, but to-day for the first time I com- 
 prehended it, as I felt how the hard work which I had here 
 to perform lightened more and more the load upon my heart, 
 and the clouds passed away from my brow. 
 
 A kind of joyful pride took hold of me as I felt myself at 
 home here; and I thought of that day eight years' before 
 when I took that fateful trip on the Penguin and visited my 
 friend Klaus in the engine-room, and to my wine-heated 
 brain the engine appeared a machine only fit to crush the 
 life out of me. The good Klaus ! He had trouble enough 
 with me that day, and care enough about me ; and I should 
 give him both trouble and care now if I should go to him to 
 learn with his help to be a good workman. Some care I 
 should give him, not much ; I had found out this morning 
 that I could stand more firmly on my own feet than I had 
 supposed. 
 
 Far more firmly than my present superior, the bearded 
 engineer, stood upon his. He stood by no means firmly, 
 
396 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 the honest fellow, and his watery eyes as well as the sleepy 
 expression of his far from handsome face, and the vulgar 
 perfume of alcohol which he diffused about him, made it ob- 
 vious that his unsteady gait was not altogether due to the 
 rolling of the boat. The worthy man was not exactly 
 drunk — a regular engineer is never drunk, even though he 
 sits up to two or three in the morning in a tavern drinking 
 Swedish punch with his colleagues from the Swedish mail- 
 boat — but neither was he sober ; so far from it that I on 
 my side began to look at my superior with suspicious 
 looks when, standing by his lever, he sank into deep medi- 
 tation, which often bore a striking resemblance to a peaceful 
 slumber. 
 
 " A warming-plate wanted on the forward deck ; quick, 
 Herr Weiergang ! " called the steward down to the engine- 
 room. Herr Weiergang nodded at me : it was a matter that 
 concerned me especially. I knew what was wanted. I had 
 been often enough on steamboats in rough weather when the 
 motion of the boat rendered it impossible for those ladies 
 who readil}'^ suffered from sea-sickness to remain in the cabin, 
 and the sharp north-east wind and the spray made the ex- 
 posure upon deck disagreeable and sometimes intolerable. 
 Intolerable, if the honest fireman were not at hand with 
 plates of iron cast especially for this purpose, which he has 
 heated on the boiler and obligingly places under their half- 
 frozen feet. 
 
 To-day I was the honest fireman. It struck me rather 
 oddly ; in all my life I had never done this service ; had 
 never dreamed that I should ever have to perform it. Had 
 I to do it then ? Certainly : I had undertaken the duty of 
 the injured man, and this was part of his dut}'. So in five 
 minutes I was on deck, holding a well-heated iron in my 
 hands, which I had protected by a bunch of oakum. 
 
 It was now about noon, and the first time I had been on 
 deck. The atmosphere was gray and dense with mist ; one 
 could scarcely see a hundred paces ahead. The wind was 
 contrary, so that, though it was not violent, the boat pitched 
 Jieavily, and a cold fine spray from the waves that broke 
 against the bow swept continually over the deck. 
 
 The deck was nearly deserted, or at least seemed so, as 
 the ten or twenty passengers were crouching in every corner, 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 397 
 
 behind the paddle-boxes, the deck-cabin, and wherever any 
 projection offered a little shelter. 
 
 " Here, my friend, here ! " cried a voice that had a familiar 
 sound to me, and turning suddenly around, I gave so violent 
 a start that I had nearly dropped the plate. There stood a 
 man, who, though he had now a gray old-fashioned overcoat 
 with wide sleeves over his blue frock-coat with gold buttons, 
 and wore his cap not pushed back from his forehead, as 
 usual, but pulled down over his eyes — could be no other than 
 my old friend Commerzienrath Streber. 
 
 " Here, my friend ! " he cried again, and pointed with his 
 right hand, while with his left he held fast to the capstan, to 
 a lady crouching with her back towards me upon a low chair 
 behind a great coil of cable at the bow of the vessel. The 
 lady drew a large plaid cloak, lined with some soft and fine 
 material, close around her slender figure, and turned her 
 face, which was framed in a swan's-down hood, towards me. 
 
 It was a sweet lovely girlish face, upon whose cheeks the 
 sea-breeze had kissed the delicate pink to a bright glow, and 
 whose deep-blue brilliant eyes contrasted singularly with the 
 gray water and the gray air. It had been seven years since 
 I saw this face last. The child had become a maiden ; but 
 the maiden had still the face, or at least the mouth and eyes 
 of the child, and by this mouth and these eyes I knew her. 
 I started involuntarily and had to grasp the plate firmly to 
 save it from falling on the wet deck, while I felt the blood 
 rushing to my cheeks. It was certainly a severe trial to ap- 
 pear before the maiden who had been my little friend in 
 other days, in such a costume, and with a face embrowned 
 with soot. 
 
 But this dress and this sooty covering were what saved 
 me ; she looked up at me with a little surprise but without 
 recognizing me. 
 
 " Lay it here, my friend," she said, leaning back a little in 
 her chair, and raising the edge of her skirt a little, so that I 
 had a glimpse of the daintiest little feet in the world, rest- 
 ing on their heels to keep them from the wet deck. 
 
 I kneeled, and did what was required, no more and no 
 less ; perhaps rather less than more, for she said : 
 
 " You can bring me another by and by, if you have time ; 
 you do not seem to have time just now." 
 
398 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 " Yes ; and bring one for me at once ! " cried the com- 
 merzienrath. 
 
 " And for me, if I may venture to ask," cried a thin voice 
 from a corner between the deck-house and the mast, where 
 out of some half-dozen shawls and wrappings peeped out a 
 red nose, and in the wind fluttered a vellovv curl which could 
 belong to no one but Fraulein Amalie Duff. 
 
 And for me ! 
 
 And for me ! " cried a half-dozen 
 
 other voices from as many other piles of mufflings, whose 
 owners, with the promptness of desperation, had compre- 
 hended the advantage of a hot iron plate on a wet deck. 
 
 " But for me first ! " screamed the commerzienrath, get- 
 ting alarmed at the competition. " You know who I am, 
 don't you ? " 
 
 I did not deem it necessary to assure the Herr Commer- 
 zienrath that I knew him more than well enough, and 
 hastened away from the deck, which was getting hotter to 
 me than my furnace. I went below in a very unenviable 
 frame of mind, and the thought that presently I must go on 
 deck again brought great beads of perspiration to my fore- 
 head ; but when I thought the matter over I found that my 
 agitation was merely occasioned by very ordinary vanity. I 
 hated to appear before the pretty girl as a sooty monster — 
 this it was and nothing more ; and while I was thus thinking as 
 I stood by the boiler, the plates upon it had long reached the 
 needful temperature, and the steward had called down three 
 times to know if I was not ready with those confounded irons. 
 
 " Be ashamed of yourself ! " I said to myself ; " the poor 
 things up there are freezing because you happen to have on 
 a ragged blouse, and a patch or two of soot on your face. 
 Shame upon you ! " 
 
 And I was ashamed of myself, and went up the ladder and 
 boldly marched direct to the place where the poor half-frozen 
 governess was crouching in her wet wrappings. 
 
 Raising her water-blue eyes to me with the expression of 
 helpless misery, she said, while her teeth chattered with cold, 
 " You good man, you are my preserver ! " 
 
 " Why do you not stay in the cabin ? " I asked. I had no 
 need to speak in Platt-Deutsch, or to disguise my voice, 
 which either the sharp north-easter, or my embarrassment, 
 or both together, made unnaturally deep and rough. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 399 
 
 " I should die down there ! " moaned the poor creature. 
 
 " Then sit over there by the paddle-box, where you have 
 some shelter. You have here the worst place on the whole 
 deck." 
 
 " O you good man ! " said the governess. " It is indeed 
 an eternal truth that there are good men in every clime." 
 
 I had to bite my lips. 
 
 " Can I assist you 1 " I said. " If you do not mind my 
 working-dress " 
 
 " * Among monsters the only feeling breast,' " murmured 
 the governess, hanging on my arm. 
 
 " Where are you going, dear DufF.^ " cried a joyous voice 
 behind us, and Hermine, who had sprung from her seat, 
 came running up, apparently to help her friend, but if this 
 was her intention, she could not carry it out for laughing. 
 She clapped her hands and laughed until her white teeth 
 glittered between her red lips. " Pluto and Proserpine !" she 
 cried. " DufiFchen, Duffchen, I always said they would carry 
 you off from me some day !" 
 
 And she danced about the wet deck in wild glee, just as 
 she had danced with her little spaniel about the deck of the 
 Penguin eight years before. 
 
 " Are you ever coming to me, you fellow ?" cried the com- 
 merzienrath, who, squeezed into a corner, had watched my 
 attentions to the governess with very ill-pleased looks. 
 
 " There are two ladies here yet," I said. 
 
 " But I called you first," he cried, stamping with impa- 
 tience. 
 
 " Ladies must always be served first, Herr Commerzien- 
 rath," smilingly remarked the captain, who was coming aft 
 from the forward deck. 
 
 " O, you can talk : you are used to this abominable cold," 
 growled the commerzienrath. 
 
 I went below again, but not to stay long. The cry for 
 warm plates had grown general, and a hard job I had of it 
 to satisfy the impatient clamors from all quarters. The 
 weather had in the mean time grown rougher, and the fog 
 increased in density. I observed that the captain's jovial 
 face grew graver and graver, and once I heard him say to a 
 passenger who had the appearance of a seafaring man : 
 
 "If we were only well out of the cursed channel once. 
 
40O 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 With this wind the largest ships can come in ; and we can 
 not see a hundred paces ahead." 
 
 I knew enough of seamanship fully to comprehend the 
 captain's uneasiness ; and I had another anxiety of my own 
 besides. 
 
 My superior, namely, the engineer Weiergang, had visibly 
 with every hour sunk deeper and deeper into meditation upon 
 the felicities attending the copious indulgence in Swedish 
 punch ; and though he still mechanically stood at his post 
 and performed his duties about the engine, where now, as 
 the vessel was going steadily ahead, there was but little to 
 do, I still did not leave the engine-room without considerable 
 uneasiness. How easily might it happen that the narrowness 
 of the channel should render a complicated manoeuvre nec- 
 essary, and was the nodding figure there in a condition to 
 carry it out ? 
 
 I had gone on deck with another plate, intended for no 
 other than the blue-eyed, vivacious beauty. She had re- 
 sumed her old place at the bow, and gave me a friendly nod 
 as I approached. 
 
 " I give you a great deal of trouble," she said. 
 
 " No trouble at all," I answered, with a bow. 
 
 " Are you from Uselin .'' " she asked, while I arranged the 
 plate. 
 
 "No," I muttered, about to take a hasty departure. 
 
 " But you speak our Piatt" she said quickly, and looked 
 sharply at me with a surprised expression. 
 
 I felt that the coating of soot on my cheeks must be very 
 thick indeed to hide the flush which I felt burning in my 
 cheeks. 
 
 " Ship in sight ! " suddenly shouted the man at the fore- 
 top. 
 
 An immense dark mass loomed out of the gray fog. A 
 feeling of terror, not for myself, seized me. I, too, shouted 
 with my whole strength, " Ship in sight ! " and following an 
 impulse which flashed upon me like lightning, I bounded 
 across the deck to the hatch leading to the engine-room, 
 while the captain upon the paddle-box was shouting through 
 his trumpet like mad — " Stop her ! Back her ! " an order 
 which evidently was not obeyed, for the boat rushed through 
 the water with undiminished speed. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 401 
 
 How I got down the steep ladder I do not know. I only 
 know that I flung the drunken engineer out of the way, 
 pushed the lever to the other side, and simultaneously threw 
 open the throttle-valve and let on the full head of steam. 
 
 A mighty shock followed, making the whole boat quiver 
 as it struggled in the waves, produced by the reversed 
 wheels. The push I had given him, and, perhaps still more 
 the violent jar of the boat, had awakened the drunken engi- 
 neer. In his confusion he rushed upon me like a madman 
 to force me from my post, so that I defended myself against 
 him with difficulty. 
 
 It was a terrible moment. Every instant I expected to 
 feel the crash of the collision. 
 
 But a minute passed, and with it passed the danger, for I 
 knew that by this time the collision must have taken place, 
 if we had not escaped it : and now resounded through the 
 speaking-trumpet the order, " Stop her ! " 
 
 I placed the lever in the middle and closed the throttle- 
 valve. My prompt execution of an order which he had 
 plainly heard brought the engineer at once to his senses. 
 Now for the first time he seemed to understand what I had 
 kept shouting to him while we were struggling together ; a 
 deathly pallor overspread his bearded face, as some one 
 came rapidly down the ladder. 
 
 " Don't ruin me," he murmured. 
 
 It was the captain, who wanted to see what upon earth was 
 the matter below. Upon his good-natured honest face was 
 still the trace of terror at the peril we had just escaped. 
 
 "What is the meaning of this, Weiergang? " he cried to the 
 engineer. 
 
 " I was — I had — " he stammered. 
 
 " Seeing to the fire," I put in. 
 
 " And so — " he began again — 
 
 " We will look into this another time," said the captain, 
 looking fixedly at the unfortunate man. 
 
 The captain knew his man. He saw that the man, what- 
 ever might have been his previous condition, was now thor- 
 oughly sober and fit for duty. 
 
 " We will look into it later," he repeated, and then turn- 
 ing to me, said : 
 
 " Come on deck with me." 
 
402 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 I followed the captain, but not without first casting a 
 glance at the engineer, whose meditations upon the effects 
 of Swedish punch were now at an end, and who, in despera- 
 tion at the frightful results of his indulgence, cast a supplica- 
 ting look at me. 
 
 " What was the matter ? " the captain asked me. 
 
 I held it my duty to tell him the whole truth, accompany- 
 ing it with an entreaty that the man might be forgiven, 
 
 " He has always been the soberest fellow in the world," 
 said the captain. " This is the first time he has ever 
 behaved so." 
 
 " Then I trust it is the last time," I replied. 
 
 " I cannot comprehend it," said the captain. He spoke 
 with me as if I was his equal. 
 
 " You have done me a great service," he continued. " Who 
 are you ? It seems to me I must have seen you before ; and 
 the ladies on deck have the same fancy." 
 
 " Never mind about that, captain," I said. 
 
 This brief dialogue took place while we were going up the 
 ladder. The captain could not any further indulge the 
 curiosity that had visibly seized him ; he had too much to 
 do. 
 
 My first glance, as I reached the deck, was involuntarily 
 directed towards the ship which had so nearly been our de- 
 struction, and which now was disappearing in the fog astern 
 of us ; my next sought Hermine, who, with her maid, was 
 busy recovering the governess, who had fainted. A sense 
 of satisfaction, almost exultation, filled my breast. Thus 
 might a general feel who has won a battle that he might have 
 lost without disgrace. 
 
 The poor governess was not the only victim of the terror 
 with which the frightfully imminent peril had filled the pas- 
 sengers of the Elizabeth. Here and there sat a lady with a 
 face as white as that of a corpse ; even the men looked pale 
 and agitated, and were just beginning to talk over the occur- 
 rence. And, in fact, the situation must have been in the 
 highest degree alarming. The approaching ship — a mer- 
 chantman of the largest size — had been so negligently steered 
 that the Elizabeth, though her engines were reversed and the 
 full head of steam turned on, only escaped the collision by a 
 few feet. Then the shock that shook the boat, the crack- 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 403 
 
 ing and creaking of the planks, the crash of some half-dozen 
 of the paddles that snapped at once — one did not need 
 Friiulein Amalie Duff's susceptibility of nerves to be over- 
 whelmed at such a moment. 
 
 Even now the state of things was not agreeable. The 
 large steamer rolled in the heavy sea all the more violently 
 now the engine had been stopped, on account of the injury 
 to the wheels. Happily the wind was favorable, and sail was 
 quickly made, so that we were able to Control her with the 
 helm. All the spare hands were busy repairing the paddles 
 as far as possible, and I had learned enough of the carpen- 
 ter's craft to lend a hand at once. I was not sorry in this 
 way to avoid the inquisitive eyes of Hermine, and of Frau- 
 lein Duff, who possessed the talent of recovering from a 
 swoon as promptly as she had fallen into it, and was now 
 engaged in a conversation with her pupil and friend, which 
 it could scarcely be doubted had some reference to me. 
 
 " Look as much as you please," I said to myself " I am, 
 in spite of all, no worse than many another upon whom you 
 have cast or will cast your beautiful eyes." 
 
 And yet I was glad, as she seemed about to come over to 
 the place where I was standing, that I could creep into the 
 open paddle-box, where things looked queer enough. As 
 there was a heavy sea running we were obliged to confine 
 our repairs to the merest make-shift. 
 
 In an hour the work was done, and we were ordered to 
 the forward deck, where the bowsprit of the passing ship 
 had carried away a part of the bulwarks. 
 
 I congratulated myself, when I crept out of the paddle-box, 
 that the deck was nearly deserted, and especially that 
 Hermine was nowhere to be seen ; but as I passed the fore- 
 castle she suddenly appeared before me with her govern- 
 ess. The meeting was not accidental, for the duenna at 
 once stepped back, but the young lady remained standing, 
 and, looking up with her great blue eyes into mine, asked 
 boldly : 
 
 " Are you George Hartwig, or are you not ? " 
 
 " I am," I replied. 
 
 " How came you here ? What are you doing here ? Are 
 you a sailor, or fireman, or what ? And why ? Can you 
 do nothing better ? Is this a fit place for you ? " 
 
404 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 These questions followed each other so rapidly that I con- 
 tented myself with answering the last. 
 
 " Why not ? It is no disgrace to be a fireman." 
 
 " But you look so — so black — so sooty — so frightful. I 
 cannot bear such black men. You used to look much, very 
 much better." 
 
 I did not know what to answer to this, so I merely 
 shrugged my shoulders. 
 
 " You must come away from here ! " said the young 
 beauty, vivaciously. " This is no place for you." 
 
 " And yet it was very well that I was here to-day," I 
 said with a touch of pride, of which I felt ashamed as soon as 
 I had said it. 
 
 " I know it," she answered. " The captain told us. It 
 is like you ; but for that very reason you should not stay 
 here. You are destined to something better than this." 
 
 " I thank you, Fraulein Hermine, for your kind interest," 
 I answered gravely ; " but what I am destined to, the result 
 must show. In the mean time I must pursue my way, 
 wherever it leads me." 
 
 She looked at me partly in displeasure, and partly, as it 
 seemed to me, with compassion, and added quickly : 
 
 " You are poor : perhaps that is the reason you are here 
 and look so — so — not nice. My father must help you : he 
 is very rich." 
 
 *' I know it, my dear young lady," I replied : " but just for 
 that reason I do not desire his help." 
 
 A bright glow suffused her cheeks ; her blue eyes flashed, 
 and her red lips quivered." 
 
 " Then I will detain you no further." 
 
 She turned quickly from me and hastened away. 
 
 I was still standing in the same place, when Fraulein Duff 
 came suddenly from behind the corner of the forecastle, 
 where she had been an attentive if an invisible witness of 
 our interview. Her watery eyes, in which sympathetic tears 
 were now standing, were raised to mine, and she whispered 
 in her softest tones, " Seek faithfully, and you will find ! " 
 Then prudently avoiding a reply on my part, she hurried 
 after her young lady. 
 
 An hour later we touched at the wharf of St. . 
 
 I was below in the engine-room, where there was now 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 405 
 
 enough to do, to my great satisfaction. I heard the noises 
 upon deck, as the passengers hastened to leave the ship 
 on board which they had passed so unpleasant a time. She 
 also was leaving it — perhaps at this moment. It was very 
 improbable that I should ever see her again. Why should 
 I, indeed ? 
 
 The question seemed a matter of course, and yet I sighed 
 as I asked it of myself 
 
 My leave-taking of the engineer was brief, but not un- 
 friendly. He had already told me that he had " made it all 
 right with the captain." He seemed at bottom a worthy 
 man, and I parted from him with a mind at ease. 
 
 I had hoped to slip away from the boat unp>erceived, but 
 the captain called to me as I was crossing the deck with 
 my bundle. He told me that he had learned that I was the 
 son of the late Customs-Accountant Hartwig in Uselin, 
 whom he had known well. He had also heard of my mis- 
 fortunes, but they were no affair of his. I had this day done 
 the owners, and himself personally, an important service, and 
 it was his duty to thank me for it, and to ask me if his 
 owners and himself could not in some way testify their grat- 
 itude. 
 
 I said, " Yes ; you can if you will take something more 
 than common care of the man whose place I have filled to- 
 day, and who would have done what I did had he been 
 here." 
 
 The captain saw that it was no use to press me further ; 
 so he promised faithfully to comply with my request, and 
 shook my hand heartily, saying that it would give him the 
 greatest pleasure to meet me again. 
 
 This had occupied some time, and yet a carriage and 
 horses, which I had noticed on the arrival of the steamer, 
 were still standing on the wharf Just as I approached 
 them, however, they started off ; but I caught a glimpse of a 
 youthful face in a swan's-down hood vanishing from the win- 
 dow, from which it had been looking at something or some 
 one on the wharf 
 
 The luxurious carriage rolled away, and I gazed after it 
 with a sigh. Not that I coveted the carriage with the two 
 high-mettled bays. The distance from St. to the capi- 
 tal was more than eighty miles, it was true, and I was 
 
4o6 
 
 Hammer and Anvil: 
 
 obliged to economize the little sum I had saved up in the 
 prison : but I knew that I could walk without much fatigue 
 twenty-five or thirty miles a day, and I felt fresher and 
 stronger than ever. It was therefore scarcely the carriage 
 with the mettled bays for which my sighing heart was 
 yearning. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 I HAD travelled during the day a long distance upon an 
 interminable turnpike-road where the rows of poplars 
 on each side stretched away until they met at the hori- 
 zon in an acute angle which never widened, never came nearer, 
 and whose unattainability was enough to drive the most pa- 
 tient traveller to desperation. The autumn rains had made 
 the roads heavy and slippery to the feet. All the morning 
 the wind had rustled with a melancholy sound in the half- 
 leafless poplars, and about noon it had commenced to rain, 
 and wet and dreary looked the sandy heaths and desolate 
 fields on either side the road, while every human creature 
 and every animal that I met wore a cheerless and dejected 
 aspect. I had already given up the expectation of reaching 
 the city that evening, so I felt it as an unhoped-for piece of 
 good fortune when I saw a reddish-yellow glare of misty 
 light rising above the horizon, which a solitary wanderer 
 whom I had overtaken explained to be the reflection of the 
 city-lights. And now indeed my enemies, the poplars, began 
 to give place to suburban houses. The suburb was long 
 enough, it is true, but houses can not hold out as long as 
 poplars ; and — "There is the gate," said at last my com- 
 panion, and bade me good evening. 
 
 There was the gate. It was by no means imposing, and 
 did not attract much attention from me. This, however, was 
 excited by an accumulation of buildings immediately, to the 
 left of the gate, which by their size, and the ruddy light shin- 
 ing through colossal windows, I inferred to belong to a 
 large manufactory. A high iron railing divided the court- 
 yard from the street, and in this railing was a wide gate, one 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 407 
 
 side of which was standing open for the egress of the work- 
 men, who were coming out, first one by one, then in groups, 
 and finally in a compact throng. Outside the gate, they 
 scattered in various directions, while some remained in 
 groups about the gate, talking with animation. I heard the 
 words " day's wages," "piece work," " quitting service," " no- 
 tification," frequently repeated ; but I could not catch the con- 
 nection, and did not feel at liberty to ask any questions. 
 Nearer to the railing, with her back toward me, was standing 
 a young woman holding in front of her a little boy, who stood 
 upon the stone foundation of the railing and held fast to the 
 bars, gazing eagerly into the yard, down which dark figures 
 were still coming, though in fewer numbers. 
 
 " What factory is this ? " I asked, stepping up to the young 
 woman. 
 
 She turned her head and answered, " The machine-works 
 of Commerzienrath Streber. Keep still, George; your father 
 will be along directly." 
 
 The feeble light of a street-lamp fell upon her pretty 
 round face. The commerzienrath's machine- works — George, 
 whose father was coming directly — the good-natured bright 
 eyes — the full, red lips — I could not be mistaken. 
 
 " Christel Mowe ! " I said ; " Christel Pinnow ! is this 
 really you?" 
 
 " Bless my heart alive ! " exclaimed the young woman, 
 hastily putting down the child from the railing ; " is it you, 
 Herr George t See, George, this is your godfather ; " and 
 she held up the boy as high as she could, that he might have 
 a better view of so important a personagre, " How dad 
 Klaus will be ! " r ^ & 
 
 She put the boy down again, who no sooner felt himself 
 at liberty than he began to try his best to climb up to the 
 railing again. I took him in my arms. " Are you a giant ? " 
 asked the little man, patting my head with his hands. 
 
 At this moment a square-built, grimy figure came up, ap- 
 parently rather surprised to see his wife in such familiar con- 
 versation with a strange man, who had moreover his George 
 in his arms ; but before either Christel or I could say a 
 word he tore his black felt cap from his head, waved it in 
 the air like a conquering banner, and shouted, " Hurrah ! 
 here he is ! George has come ! " 
 
4o8 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 It was long since any human lungs had emitted a cry of 
 joy on my account, and it was probably owing to this nov- 
 elty that at the good Klaus's exuberant greeting my eyes 
 filled with tears, so that the whole scene — the factory, the 
 houses, the street-lamps, the passing carriages, the black 
 workmen, and even the little group of friends at my side — 
 swam for a moment in a misty veil. 
 
 This emotion passed in a few moments, and we went on 
 together, Klaus holding the little George on one arm, and 
 clinging to the great George with the other, while Christel 
 walked before, every instant looking over her shoulder at us 
 with a Smiling face. 
 
 Happily the distance through the crowded street was not 
 long, and we soon reached a large and, to my eyes, stately 
 house, the inside of which corresponded but poorly to its ex- 
 terior. The hall was dimly lighted, and the floors black 
 with dirt from innumerable footsteps that seemed to have 
 traversed it the same day. The yard into which we passed 
 was surrounded by lofty buildings, behind whose windows, 
 feebly lighted here and there, there did not prevail that peace 
 which a lover of quiet would have preferred. The stone 
 staircase which we ascended to one of these rear-buildings 
 was very steep, and, if possible, worse lighted and dirtier 
 than the hall we had just entered. Persons passed us at 
 every moment, who seemed far more reckless of the rules of 
 politeness than was pleasant. I felt rather uncomfortable 
 as we climbed from one landing to another, following Klaus, 
 who gave no signs of halting, and at last in desperation I 
 asked if we would not soon be there. 
 
 " Here we are ! " said Klaus, knocking at a door, which 
 was immediately opened from within, and from which, as it 
 was opened, issued that penetrating odor which arises in an 
 apartment where all day long the process of ironing freshly- 
 starched linen is kept up. Any illusion as to the origin of 
 this odor was the less possible, as the irons were at this mo- 
 ment in operation in the hands of two young women, who, 
 as well as the third who had opened the door for us, cast 
 glances of curiosity at the new arrival. , ) 
 
 " So it goes on the whole day," said Klaus, with a glance 
 of profoundest admiration at his wife, who had joined the 
 ironers ; " the whole day — only in the evening she allows 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 409 
 
 herself a quarter of an hour to fetch me home from the 
 
 works." „ . , -r • • X • 
 
 " You are a lucky fellow, Klaus," said I, in vain trying to 
 
 draw a full breath in this atmosphere. 
 
 " Am I not } " replied Klaus, showing all his teeth, which 
 had lost nothing of their glittering whiteness ;^ " but that is 
 not much yet. You must first see her babies ! " 
 
 " And yours, Klaus .?" 
 
 " And mine, of course," Klaus answered, in a tone which 
 implied that it really was not worth while to allude to so 
 unimportant a particular. " You must first see them ! " 
 
 " I know one already." 
 
 " Yes ; but the others ! Her very image, every one ! It 
 is really ridiculous — really ridiculous," he repeated, with an- 
 other glance of admiration at his little plump wife. 
 
 " You don't know what you are talking about, you stupid 
 fellow," said the latter, turning sharply around, and laying a 
 hand that bore traces of hard work, and yet was both white 
 and small, on the mouth of her Klaus. " Let us go into the 
 sitting-room. You must excuse me for keeping you here so 
 long." 
 
 We went into the room, but Klaus did not rest until his 
 wife had taken us into the chamber, where, beside two large 
 beds, stood four little cribs, in which were sleeping four 
 charming children, for my little namesake had by this time 
 been put to bed by one of the young women. 
 
 " Isn't that too lovely !" said Klaus, drawing me from one 
 blond head to another ; " and all boys — all boys ; but that 
 just suits me : a girl I should expect to be exactly like her, 
 and that is a simple impossibility — a simple impossibility." 
 
 Here Christel pushed me out of the bedroom, as she had 
 before pushed me out of the kitchen. 
 
 " You stay here," she said to her husband, " and wash 
 yourself, and fix yourself up decent, you great bear, as you 
 ought when we have such a visitor." 
 
 Klaus showed his teeth with delight at his Christel's jest. 
 
 " Whatever I do, pleases him," said Christel, shutting the 
 door with mock-disgust at his black face. 
 
 " Better that than if it were the other way," I said. 
 
 " Yes : but sometimes he carries it too far. I often am 
 ashamed, and wonder what people think of it. And he gets 
 18 
 
4IO 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 worse every year ; I really don't know what I shall do when 
 the children are older ; I often think they will lose all respect 
 for their father." 
 
 While Christel thus unbosomed her secret woe, she was 
 neatly and deftly setting the table, while I, standing before 
 the stove, in which a cheerful fire was burning, thought of 
 by-gone times : of that evening when I met the Wild Zehren 
 first at Pinnow's forge, and how Christel had set the table 
 and waited, and how she afterwards besought me not to go 
 with him. Had I then followed her counsel ! All would 
 have been different. Perhaps better, perhaps not. But so 
 it had happened, and 
 
 "You must put up with what we have," said Christel. 
 
 " That I will, Christel, that I will ! " I said, seizing both 
 her hands and pressing them with a warmth which seemed a 
 little to startle her. 
 
 " How wild you are still," she said, looking up at me with 
 her blue eyes in surprise, but with no mixture of displeasure. 
 " Exactly as you used to be.." 
 
 " You don't like me any the less on that account, Christel, 
 do you ? " 
 
 She shook her head smiling : '*' Those used to be lively 
 times." 
 
 " In winter, over the mulled wine," I said. 
 
 " And in summer, over the kaltschale" she replied. 
 
 " Especially when the old man was not at home," I 
 added. 
 
 "Yes, indeed," she said; but her countenance took a 
 serious expression, and she continued, looking at me gravely, 
 " you know it then ? " 
 
 " Know what, Christel ? " 
 
 "That he " 
 
 She laid her finger upon her lips and drew me, with an 
 uneasy look at the chamber-door, further back into the room. 
 
 " He must not hear it — he has not got over it yet, though 
 it is now more than three months ago." 
 
 " What was three months ago, Christel ? " I asked in 
 some alarm, for the young woman had turned quite pale, and 
 cast uneasy glances first at me and then at the bed-room 
 door. 
 
 " I hardly know how to tell you," she said. " He lived at 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 411 
 
 last entirely alone, for no one would have anything to do 
 with him, and even the deaf and dumb Jacob left him. No- 
 body knew exactly how he lived ; and for a week no one 
 had seen him, until one day the collector came for the house- 
 tax, and — and found him hanging in the forge, over the 
 hearth, where he must have been hanging nobody knows how 
 long," 
 
 " Poor Klaus ! " I said. " He must have felt it deeply, m 
 spite of all." 
 
 " Indeed he did," said Christel. " And no one knows 
 how he came to his death ; whether he did it himself, or 
 whether it was done by others ; for they swore — at that time, 
 you know — that they would settle with him one day." 
 
 " Very likely, very likely," I said. 
 
 " Here I am again," said Klaus, coming in in his best 
 coat, and with a face as red as cold water, black soap, and a 
 coarse towel, all applied in haste, could make it. 
 
 The supper, at which Christel's young assistants joined us, 
 was soon over, and after the cloth had been removed, the 
 girls dismissed, and Christel had mixed us a glass of grog, 
 for which she had not forgotten her old recipe, Klaus and I 
 fell into such discourse as naturally arises between old 
 friends who have not seen each other for many years, and 
 have gone through many experiences in the interval. I had 
 to narrate to Klaus the story of my imprisonment from that 
 time in the first year when he paid me that memorable visit, 
 which was within a hair of bringing him into contact with 
 the criminal law. Not that I could tell him, or even desired 
 to tell him, everything, good fellow as he was. We do not 
 admit our friends, even the most intimate, behind the inmost 
 of the seven walls with which we prudently surround the cita- 
 del of our soul ; but enough came to discourse to arouse the 
 interest of the good Klaus to the highest pitch, and quite pas- 
 sionate was his sympathy when I came to speak of the last 
 period of my imprisonment, when I fell into the hands of 
 the new superintendent and his accomplice, the pious Dea- 
 con Von Krossow, and in seven worse than lean months had 
 to expiate the seven years of fatness which I had hitherto en- 
 joyed. 
 
 " The wretches ! The villains ! Is it possible ? Are 
 such things allowed 1 " the good Klaus kept muttering. 
 
412 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 " Whether it is allowed or not, my dear Klaus, I cannot 
 say ; but that it is possible is only too certain. Under the 
 most frivolous pretexts in the world I was deprived of my 
 place as secretary, and treated as an unusually ill-disposed 
 and contumacious prisoner ; and as all that did not satisfy 
 their vengeance, I was ordered seven months of disciplinary 
 punishment beside." 
 
 " And what did the good old overseer whom I saw with 
 you that day say to that .'' " 
 
 " Sergeant Siissmilch ? He would have sworn terribly, I 
 promise you, if he had seen it. Fortunately, he went away 
 with the family of Herr von Zehren a week after the death 
 of the latter." 
 
 " I would never have done that," said Klaus with empha- 
 sis •. I would never have left you alone in their robber-den." 
 
 " But he had other claims upon him, of longer standing, 
 Klaus." " I 
 
 " All the same : I would not have left you." 
 
 Then I told how I had been discharged at last, how my 
 first visit had been to my native town, and the reception I 
 met with there. 
 
 " Poor George ! poor George ! " said Klaus, over and over 
 again, shaking his big head in sympathy. 
 
 " But you have had a harder trial still, poor fellow," I 
 said. 
 
 " Who told you that ? " asked Klaus, quickly. 
 
 " She did," I answered, pointing to the room in which 
 Christel had been for the last five minutes busied in a vain 
 attempt to quiet the wails of her youngest. 
 
 " Hush," said Klaus, " we must not speak of it so that 
 she can hear ; it is different with us men, but a little woman 
 like that — it always has a dreadful effect upon her, poor 
 thing : I am frightened whenever any legal paper comes in 
 about the adjustment of the estate — ^you understand." 
 
 " Your father left a \^ry respectable sum, did he not ? " 
 
 " God forbid," said Klaus. " They must have robbed him, 
 or else he buried it ; and either is very possible, for at last 
 he did not trust in any human creature, and had little reason 
 to, God knows. And he always had a secret way in every- 
 thing. Just think ; we believed that Christel had floated to 
 land, as naked and destitute as a fish flung up by the tide, 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 413 
 
 without the least possibility of discovering the name of the 
 ship in which she was wrecked, much less her own. And 
 what does she find in the great cupboard, opposite the door, 
 you know, but a bundle of papers in a tin case, which evi- 
 dently belonged to the same ship ; these papers were the 
 I captain's, and his name is written in them, with the name of 
 
 I the ship, and how he was married, and that his young wife 
 
 I had given birth to a child at sea ; and there was a slip of 
 
 I paper besides, saying that the ship could not now be saved, 
 
 I and that it was impossible to save their lives, so he would 
 
 I fasten the child and the papers, which he had put in a tin 
 
 I case, to a piece of cork, and trust them to the sea and to 
 
 I God's mercy. So there is no doubt that my Christel is this 
 
 I child of the Dutch captain, whose name was Tromp> — Peter 
 
 Tromp, and his ship The Prince of Orange, and he was on 
 his way home from Java. But I am not the least surprised 
 at it all," Klaus concluded ; " I should not be surprised if 
 I she had turned out to be the daughter of the Emperor of 
 
 Morocco " 
 
 " And had come down from the sky in a chariot drawn by 
 twelve peacocks," I said. 
 
 " No ; not even then," replied Klaus, with immense em- 
 phasis, after a moment's reflection. 
 
 " And what have you done with the papers ?" I inquired, 
 
 I with a smile. 
 
 " I have had them translated ; nothing else." 
 
 " But that is not right," I said. " The papers might pos- 
 sibly lead to the discovery of a rich uncle, or something of 
 the sort. Such things have happened before, Klaus." 
 
 " That is just what Doctor Snellius says." 
 
 " Who says }" I asked in astonishment. 
 
 " Doctor Snellius," Klaus repeated. "Your old friend in 
 the prison. He is now the physician to the factory : did he 
 never write to tell you ?" 
 
 " No ; or else the letter was intercepted, which is very 
 possible. So he is your doctor, eh i" — the doctor of the fac- 
 tory, I mean." 
 
 " Well, yes j I call him so, because he is always sent for 
 when anything happens ; but in truth he is, I believe, the 
 doctor of all the poor in this part of the city." 
 
 " He must have a heavy practice, then." 
 
m 
 
 414 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 a 
 
 Heaven knows he has ; but he will never grow rich 
 with it, for he never takes a penny unless they can well 
 spare it, which is not often the case, and frequently he ' 
 gives them medicine besides. Ah, he has a noble soul ; 
 though he always seems as if he were going to eat you 
 up, and the children scream whenever he comes in the 
 door." 
 
 ^' And he is your doctor too, then ?" ■ . I 
 
 " Oh yes, of course : that is, we have really only called 
 him in once — the last time — very much against Christel's will, 
 
 who insisted that but that you will not understand ; a 
 
 married man's cares, you know ; and she was quite right, as 
 it happened " 
 
 "As always, Klaus." ' 
 
 "As always." 
 
 " And why do you not make some investigations about 
 those papers ?" 
 
 Klaus scratched his ear. I 
 
 " Well, I don't know," he said. " We feel somehow — 
 we are living so happily now, and I always think things can 
 not be better ; more likely worse. If she really had a rich 
 aunt — we always suppose it is an aunt — and she should leave 
 her property to Christel, what in the world should we do 
 with all the money? I can't think, for my part." 
 
 " Suppose, for example, you lent it to me : I should know 
 what to do with it." 
 
 " Yes, that is true," cried Klaus, " I never thought of that. 
 That would be something for you, sure enough. To-morrow 
 morning I will advertise in all the papers : I'll bring the 
 aunt if she lives a hundred thousand miles off." 
 
 " But suppose it is an uncle ? " . - ' I 
 
 " No, no, it is an aunt," said Klaus, with an air of assur- 
 ance. 
 
 " So be it ! " said I, arising. " And now let us take a 
 little walk. I must take a look at my new home." | 
 
 There is probably no time in the twenty-four hours better 
 fitted to impress a provincial with the greatness of a large 
 city than the twilight of a gloomy autumn evening. In men 
 of any liveliness of imagination the reality usually falls short 
 of the fancy, but in an hour like this the reality and the fancy — • 
 what we perceive and what we imagine — blend indistinguish- 
 
Hammer a7id Anvil. 415 
 
 ably together, and the barriers of the actual world seem 
 broken down. 
 
 Such an evening was it when I strolled with Klaus through 
 the streets of the city, which seemed enormous and gigantic 
 in my eyes. Even now I can sometimes in the evening, and 
 for a moment, behold it in the same light and with the same 
 feelings as then. Coming from a region inhabited by work- 
 men, we crossed in our walk one of the most brilliant quar- 
 ters to reach the city proper, and returned through large 
 squares, surrounded by magnificent palaces, to our own 
 gloomy region again. And everywhere was the throng of 
 hurrying crowds on the narrow sidewalks, and the rattle and 
 thunder of vehicles, and the endless rows of lamps up and 
 down the interminable streets, and the blaze of light from 
 the shops illuminating the streets so that the figures of men, 
 wagons and horses were strangely reflected from the wet 
 pavement. Then the imposing masses of tall buildings, 
 rising above one another like mountains ; the sight here of a 
 bronze equestrian statue upon a pedestal, high as a house, 
 riding aloft through the night, and then of a giant figure 
 pointing down at us with a drawn sword ; wide bridges with 
 balustrades peopled with white marble forms, and under 
 whose arches rolled a black flood upon which quivered the 
 reflections of a thousand lights ; a glance into the shops 
 where to uninitiated eyes the treasures of Arabia and the 
 Indies seemed heaped up by fairy hands ; dark yards, where, 
 late as it was, mighty casks and chests were being piled by 
 leather-aproned men — I walked, and stopped to gaze, and 
 went on, and stopped again, staring, astonished, but not 
 confounded, and altogether strangely happy. Was this the 
 sea of ever-rolling life, engulfing itself and ever producing 
 itself anew, towards which my teacher's prophecy had di- 
 rected me — the sea whose mighty billows, if he had fore- 
 seen truly, where to be my home ? Yes : this it was : this it 
 must be. I felt it in the courageous beatings of my heart, 
 in the power with which I clove this surge of men, in the 
 delight with which I listened to the roar of this surf. 
 

 416 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 Part Third. 
 
 v>-v 
 
 CHAPTER I, 
 
 IN the machine-works of the commerzienrath a great 
 boiler was being riveted. Three sooty workmen, with 
 shirt-sleeves rolled above the elbows, and hammers in 
 their strong hands, were waiting for the red-hot bolt which a 
 fourth was bringing in the jaws of a pair of pincers from an 
 adjacent forge. The bolt vanished into the boiler, and ap- 
 peared in a few seconds through the rivet-hole ; the cyclops 
 grasped their hammers firmly, and, striking in measured ca- 
 dence, finished the rivet-head. This hammering produced a 
 tremendous noise. 
 
 And if any one had told a spectator, uninitiated to the 
 craft, that in the hollow of the boiler upon which the heavy 
 hammers fell with such deafening clangor, there lay a man 
 upon his back who received the rivet in a pair of pincers, 
 and with these exerted all his strength in resistance, while 
 the hammers were ringing on the rivet-head, the uninitiated 
 spectator would scarce have believed it, and he could not 
 fail to consider the man in the hollow of the boiler as one 
 of the most miserable and most to be pitied of mortals. 
 
 The riveting was finished, the hammers at rest ; the man 
 with the pincers crawled out of the belly of the monster. I 
 need scarcely tell the reader who this man with the pincers 
 was. Nor am I ashamed thus to appear before him, for he 
 has very likely seen me in similar costume, though it is true 
 that at this moment I present a rather frightful appearance. 
 The lower part of my face, my neck and iDreast, are covered 
 with blood, which during the last hour has been running from 
 my nose and mouth. But the three with the hammers only 
 laugh ; and one, the foreman, says : 
 
 " Next time remember to keep your mouth open, comrade, 
 no roast pigeons will fly into it." 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 417 
 
 Rather a poor joke, it must be owned ; but the rest laugh, 
 and I laugh too: for as the prudent proverb advises us 
 to " howl with the wolves," so I have rarely been able to re- 
 frain from joining in any laughter, even when, as at present, 
 it was at my own expense. 
 
 But despite the ardent zeal with which I entered into my 
 new calling, I was not sorry that this work inside the boiler 
 was but a temporary task, for which the foreman of my shop 
 had lent me because another shop happened to be short- 
 handed, very unwillingly, and only at the order of the fore- 
 man of the works. To say that he did it very unwillingly 
 sounds like a brag from one who like myself had only been 
 a fortnight in the shop, and whose only work yet had been 
 of the roughest sort, such as handling the sledge. Nor was 
 it any merit of mine that the heavy sledge which others han- 
 dled with difficulty was as light in my hands as an ordinary 
 fore-hammer, and that my blow could easily be distinguished 
 among the four or five that followed in regular cadence the 
 foreman's stroke upon the glowing iron. It was no merit of 
 mine ; and yet in this place, where bodily strength played 
 so important a part, it counted as a high one, even the high- 
 est. My foreman was proud of me ; my fellow-workmen, in 
 the most literal sense, looked up to me with admiration; and 
 Klaus, whenever my name happened to be mentioned, 
 showed all his white teeth, then shut his lips tight, held up 
 his forefinger, and nodded mysteriously. I had strictly for- 
 bidden Klaus to indulge in these mysterious gestures, and 
 Klaus had solemnly promised to avoid them, but in spite of 
 all it was not his fault if all the two hundred hands in the 
 establishment did not have the same exalted opinion of me 
 with which his honest soul was overflowing. 
 
 "I declare," said Klaus — ^whenever I imparted to him 
 some bit of information from my theoretical knowledge of ma- 
 chinery, or from my mathematical acquirements — " you know 
 more about these things than any man in the works, the 
 head-foreman and the engineers not excepted, and you de- 
 serve to be at least Chief of the Technical Bureau." 
 
 " You are a simpleton, Klaus," I said. 
 
 " But it is true, for all," answered he doggedly. 
 
 " No, Klaus, it is not true. In the first place, you far 
 over-estimate my knowledge, and in the second place, one 
 
41 8 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 can be a very good theorist and at the same time a wretched 
 bungler in practice. But I want to be both a good theorist 
 and a skilful workman, and I must give many a stroke of 
 hammer and of file before I get to be that. Just remember, 
 Klaus, what a time it took you to rise from the common job- 
 workman, who was glad if he could dress his round pliers 
 decently, to the skilful machinist who can fit the straps on 
 a connecting-rod as well as the best — " 
 
 " Yes," said Klaus, " but then you and I " ' 
 
 " Forging is done everwhere at a fire, Klaus, and every 
 piece must Ije hammered until it is finished ; and so must a 
 good machinist until he is finished ; and there is much to be 
 done before I can say that of myself, if I ever can." 
 
 " I am of a different opinion, then," answered the obstinate 
 Klaus. 
 
 " Then be so good as to keep that opinion to yourself," I 
 said, very earnestly. 
 
 I had good reasons for enjoining the honest Klaus to 
 a silence which was so burdensome to him ; for, beside the 
 fact that he really had a ridiculously exaggerated opinion of 
 me, his imprudence might be of serious inconvenience to me, 
 and indeed might close against me the way which I was 
 firmly resolved to tread. I wished to work my way up from 
 the ranks in the calling to which I had devoted my life, re- 
 membering the saying of my never-to-be-forgotten teacher, 
 that the true artist must understand the hand-work of his art. 
 So for the present I was what I desired to be — a hand-worker, 
 a laborer in the roughest work — and every one took me for 
 just that, which was precisely what I wished. 
 
 My past history I had veiled under a simple story, which 
 found ready belief with the simple fellows around me. I was 
 the son of a seafaring man in Klaus Pinnow's native town. 
 We had known each other from our boyhood ; I had made 
 up my mind to be a smith like him, and had worked awhile 
 as an apprentice with his father. But ten years ago I had 
 gone to sea, and had voyaged about the whole world as sailor, 
 as ship's-carpenter, and, as ship's-blacksmith, and only re- 
 turned home a short time before with the determination of 
 quitting the sea for the future, and earning an honest living 
 on land, for which purpose I was now learning the smith's 
 craft regularly, which I had practiced as an apprentice. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 419 
 
 I was seldom under the necessity of corroborating this 
 story by accounts of my past adventures ; and if now and 
 then, when we were off work, some one more curious than 
 the rest spoke of my travels, I understood enough of naviga- 
 tion and vogages, and had mixed too much with captains 
 and mates, and read too many tales of the sea, not to be able 
 to play the part of Sindbad for half an hour. One of my 
 principal stories, the scene of which was laid somewhere in 
 the Malay Archipelago, in which there was plenty of hot 
 work and plenty of pirates knocked in the head, had pro- 
 cured me in the shop the nickname of " The Malay," which 
 I bore until — but I must not anticipate. 
 
 I was all the more readily believed to be what I gave my- 
 self out for, as I conformed my habits exactly to those of the 
 common workman. I was dressed neither better nor worse 
 than the rest ; I ate my breakfast from my hand, as did the 
 others ; I dined at a cheap cook-shop, in which some fifty 
 other workmen took their dinners. The only luxury which 
 I allowed myself out of the little money which I had brought 
 from the prison was a better lodging than workmen of my 
 class were accustomed to or could afford ; and this devia- 
 tion from the rule was due as much to necessity as to any 
 consideration of comfort or taste. I could not, if I wished 
 to prosecute my theoretical studies, live in a quarter where 
 the streets were noisy until deep in the night with the rattling 
 of vehicles, and too often with the uproar of drunken work- 
 men in conflict with the p>oiice, and where, in the over- 
 crowded houses, the ticking, pulsating, clattering clock of 
 human life never stood still a moment. 
 
 For several days, during which I was Klaus's guest, I had 
 looked about for a suitable lodging ; and at last I found one. 
 
 Adjoining the factory was a large lot of ground, which was 
 covered in the most singular way with buildings, some half- 
 finished and others only commenced. According to the ac- 
 count of the old man who, in a half-finished porter's lodge, 
 exercised a sort of guardianship over the place, the whole 
 had been intended as an establishment to compete with 
 Streber's. But the projector of the scheme had failed, the 
 property was put up at auction and bought in by a wealthy 
 creditor, who thought the best thing he could do with it for 
 the present was to leave all things as they were. 
 
42 o Hammer and Anvil. , 
 
 " You see," said the old man, " he hopes that in two or 
 three years the ground will be worth three times as much as 
 it now is ; and perhaps also that the commerzienrath must 
 of necessity take the thing off his hands at any price, since 
 it is of the utmost importance to him to keep a rival from 
 starting up, so to speak, under his very nose. And then the 
 commerzienrath has to put up new buildings, for they are so 
 crowded they can hardly work, and where is he to build if 
 not just on these lots ? But he thinks it over, and my em- 
 ployer thinks it over, and now they have both been thinking 
 it over for these two years. Recently he has been here again 
 and looked over the place for the twentieth or fiftieth time, I 
 believe ; but it did not seem that he had come to any deter- 
 mination. Well, it is all one to me ; and if you, sir, would 
 like one of the rooms in the garden-house, your beard may 
 be grown two inches longer before you have to move out." 
 
 The satirical old porter pleased me well, and the garden- 
 house still better. True it was a mere boast when the man 
 spoke of "one of the rooms," while in reality it had but one 
 in which a human being could possibly live, while the others, 
 without doors or windows, seemed rather to be a cara- 
 vanserai for homeless cats : an appearance which I found 
 afterwards to be fully borne out by the facts. The little 
 house, which was probably originally intended for the resi- 
 dence of the owner or manager, was planned in a very pleas- 
 ing Italian style. An easy flight of stairs led to the rooms 
 referred to, in which, to judge from the spots of ink on the 
 unscrubbed floors, and several three-legged drawing-tables, 
 and other similar bits of ruinous furniture, the architect of 
 the building must have had his office ; on the other side was 
 a balcony. In front of the stairs a grass-plot had been de- 
 signed, but at present it was only a plot without the grass ; 
 and similarly a great free-stone basin in the centre lacked the 
 Triton and the water ; and the trellis, which ran up between 
 the windows, as high up as the projecting eaves, lacked its 
 Venetian ivy. But I cared nothing for these deficiencies ; 
 on the contrary I regarded them as pointing to a better 
 future, and they harmonized thus with my own frame of 
 mind, which also looked from a barren present to richer and 
 fairer days to come. Then this ruinous lodging had the real 
 practical advantage of suitable cheapness, and also that of 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 421 
 
 securing me the quiet which was so necessary to my studies ; 
 and, to tell the whole, the old man had told me that the 
 young lady who had accompanied the commerzienrath, and 
 must have been the old gentleman's daughter, had'clapped 
 her hands when she saw the garden-house, and said it was 
 charming, and she would like to live in it. 
 
 " She'd soon get out of that notion," said the old growler. 
 " She did not look as if the owl was her house-builder, and 
 Skinflint her cook ; but for one of our — I mean of your — sort, 
 it will suit very well." 
 
 " It suits me exactly," I said ; " and now, when can I move 
 in?" 
 
 " When you please ; no one has been before you, so you 
 will not have to wait for the tenant to move out." 
 
 So on the same evening I took possession of my new 
 lodging, with the assistance of the good Klaus, whose head 
 scarcely stopped shaking the whole time. 
 
 What did I want with such a tumble-down old ruin, where 
 I might be murdered and not a dog bark ? And how could 
 I fancy such furniture : two worm-eaten high-backed chairs, 
 an arm-chair about a hundred years old, a table with clumsy 
 twisted legs, and a looking-glass with tarnished gilt frame ? 
 To be sure, I had bought the rubbish cheap enough of a 
 dealer in second-hand furniture, but for very little more he 
 would have given me things of a very different sort ; but 
 somehow I had always had a strange sort of taste in those 
 matters, and he remembered that I used to have a lot of just 
 such useless rubbish in my own room in my father's house 
 in Uselin. 
 
 So the good Klaus grumbled and scolded, and even 
 Christel was seriously out of humor with me for some days. 
 She had discovered a room in her own house, on the court- 
 side, up two pair of stairs, beautifully furnished, and having 
 only the inconvenience that to get to it one had to go through 
 the kitchen and the landlady's room. And the landlady was 
 a particularly respectable tailor's widow of eighty-two, with 
 an excellent unmarried daughter of sixty, who would cer- 
 tainly have taken the very best care of me. 
 
 The honest Klaus and the good Christel ! I could not 
 help them ; I could not for their sakes change my nature, to 
 which this striving for freedom and independence was an 
 
42 2 Ham77ier a?id Anvil. 
 
 absolute necessity. In my garret in my father's house, 
 in my room at Castle Zehrendorf, even in my prison cell, 
 I had eyer felt too deeply the luxury and poetry of solitude 
 to be able to dispense with it now that I was a man. 
 
 And now again I was alone in my room in the half-fin- 
 ished garden-house, among the ruins of buildings, large and 
 small, that never would be completed. In the evening, 
 when I looked up from my books, no sound reached me but 
 the hollow unceasing rumble of vehicles, like the distant roll 
 of the sea, or the bark of the shaggy poodle that by day 
 kept the old man company in the porter's lodge, and in the 
 evening and all night long traversed the spaces between the 
 ruins and the ruins themselves, in, as it seemed to me, an 
 interminable hunt after cats. 
 
 And when occasionally, to cool my heated head, I step- 
 ped out upon the balcony, all again was deserted, vacant, 
 and dark around, only here and there the light of a 
 solitary lamp, and sometimes a red pillar of flame which 
 rose from one of the furnace-chimneys of our works into the 
 night sky, and reddened the edges of the dark clouds which 
 a sharp November wind drove before it. Then, when I 
 returned to my room, how cheerful looked my modest lamp, 
 before which lay open my book with figures and formulas ; 
 how cosily the old carven oak furniture, which had so moved 
 the spleen of the good Klaus ; and above all, with what 
 pleasure I contemplated the two small antique vases of terra- 
 cotta upon the mantel-piece, and the beautiful copy of the 
 Sistine Madonna, which hung on the wall facing my work- 
 table. The picture and the vases had been taken from my 
 cell when the new superintendent came, but upon my release 
 I had demanded them with so fixed a determination that 
 they did not venture to withhold them : so I had packed 
 them carefully in a box and placed them in the hands of a 
 person whom I could trust, to be forwarded to me whenever 
 I should have fixed myself somewhere. This very day they 
 had arrived, and to-night, for the first time, again I enjoyed 
 the pleasure of gazing at them. 
 
 And while I contemplated these precious relics I re- 
 proached myself earnestly that I had never prevailed upon 
 myself to visit or give any token of my existence to the dear- 
 est friend I had in the world, in the same city with whom I 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 423 
 
 had now been living a fortnight. It seemed so entirely con- 
 trary to my nature not at once to obey the impulse of my 
 heart, and that so urgent an impulse — not to hasten without 
 delay to her with whom I had lived in closest friendship so 
 many years of my life, and whose heart I was convinced beat 
 as warmly for me as ever. We had not kept up a very lively 
 correspondence during the year of our separation, but we 
 had agreed when we parted that we would not write except 
 upon some especial emergency, as anything like a corres- 
 pondence carried on under the eyes of the new superintend- 
 ent and Herr von Krossow seemed an impossibility. An 
 emergency of this kind occurred, when the baseness of this 
 well-matched pair procured me a seven months' addition to 
 my term of incarceration : I wrote to her, simply acquaint- 
 ing her with the fact, and she answered with but a word : 
 " Endure." 
 
 No, this was not the cause of my reluctance ; and indeed it 
 had but one, which I was unwilling to admit, even to myself 
 I knew how the dearest, noblest girl had to work and to care 
 for herself and for those dear to her. For a year it had 
 been my dearest wish — indeed it often seemed to me the 
 single aim and object of my life — to attain a position that 
 would enable me to lift this load from her frail shoul- 
 ders. And now, when she perhaps more than ever needed 
 a friend, a supporter, I must appear before her in a condi- 
 tion in which, even if I needed no assistance myself, I was 
 utterly unable to afford it to others. That might have been 
 foreseen ; as things were, it was inevitable, and yet 
 
 But will she, then, will she ever accept my assistance ? 
 I interrupted the course of my thoughts as I paced up and 
 down my room with my hands behind me, a habit I had 
 caught from my father. Has she not given me a hundred 
 proofs how jealous she is of her independence ? And has 
 she not given me especially to understand, even at our part- 
 ing, that if she should require a support it should not be my 
 arm ? 
 
 I called to mind the last days that I had spent with Paula 
 and her family. There were not many of them, for they had 
 urged Frau von Zehren to make room for her husband's 
 successor with an insistance that was really indecent. This 
 successor, a major on half-pay, and a special pet of the pie- 
 
424 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 tistic president, had long waited for the place, and, so to 
 speak, had been standing at the door. The brutality with 
 which he took possession at once of the superintendent's 
 house, without the least consideration for the bereaved family, 
 was really unexampled. He had given the afflicted lady the 
 alternative of removing with her family to one of the prison 
 cells, which he magnanimously offered to have cleared out for 
 their occupation, or of taking refuge in one of the wretched 
 taverns of the town. Frau von Zehren, of course, had not 
 hesitated a moment as to what was to be done ; and thus 
 within three days after the death of my benefactor all the old 
 familiar faces had vanished from the house in which he had 
 lived so long. All had gone. Doctor Snellius, in the very 
 first hour in which he had the questionable honor of being 
 presented to the new superintendent, spoke his mind to him 
 in full ; and when Doctor Snellius spoke his mind to any one 
 whom he had reason to despise and abhor, you might rest 
 assured that the individual addressed would not have the 
 slightest ground to complain of any obscurity in the doctor's 
 expressions. 
 
 Immediately upon his heel followed old Sergeant Siiss- 
 milch ; and although the register of the old man's voice lay 
 fully two octaves lower than the doctor's, yet the melody 
 which both sang must have been the same ; at all events the 
 result in both cases was identical, namely, Major D. foamed 
 with rage, then stamped with his feet, and ordered the inso- 
 lent fellow to be put in the dungeon immediately. Happily, the 
 old man had been prudent enough to ask for and to obtain 
 his discharge before he thoroughly eased his heart to his new 
 chief, who therefore, rage as he might, had no authority over 
 the old man, and on Sergeant Siissmilch threats were thrown 
 away. 
 
 How gladly would I have followed these enticing examples, 
 and spoken my mind also to the new superintendent. Prob- 
 ably in my whole life I have never exercised such constraint 
 over myself as in those days, when I saw this miserable 
 creature occupying the place which that noble man had left ; 
 and in all likelihood I should not have succeeded, and should 
 have plunged myself into far worse misfortune, had not a 
 voice perpetually sounded in my ear which was more potent 
 with me than the impulse of my heart. And this voice said : 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 425 
 
 " You have already endured much, poor George ; bear this 
 also, though it be the hardest of all, and if you cannot con- 
 trol yourself, call to mind him who loved you as his own 
 son. 
 
 I sat down to my book again and turned the leaves ; but 
 this night I could not fix my attention on even the simplest 
 things. Old well-known algebraic formulas wore a quite 
 strange appearance, and seemed to form themselves into the 
 words : If he loved me as his son, and she was the best 
 beloved of his children, should she and I not also love each 
 other ? 
 
 "Are you going to keep your light burning all night?" 
 called the voice of the old watchman from below. " It is 
 now one o'clock, and I am to wake you at five, and a nice 
 job I will have of it ! " 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 IN another shop of our establishment several men had 
 been wounded, more or less dangerously, by the slipping 
 of a belt. In our shop we had heard the news of the 
 accident just before dinner, and the men were standing about 
 the yard inquiring the particulars and talking it over. I had 
 joined one of the groups, and was listening attentively, when 
 I saw a little man pushing through the crowd, with his hat 
 in his hand, and whose great bald skull emerging here and 
 there between these dark figures resembled the full moon 
 sailing through black clouds. This skull could only belong 
 to one man. I hastened in pursuit, and overtook it by the 
 gate at the moment when it was covered with a felt hat, 
 which had not improved in appearance since I last saw it. 
 I followed the felt hat a few steps in the street, and then 
 with a stride placed myself beside its wearer. 
 
 " Permit me, doctor," I said. 
 
 Doctor Snellius brought his round spectacles to bear on 
 me, and stared at me with a look of the profoundest aston- 
 ishment. 
 
426 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 " It is no hallucination, doctor," I said ; " this is really 
 myself." 
 
 " George, mammoth, man, how come you here, and in this 
 questionable shape ? " cried the doctor, holding out both his 
 hands. 
 
 " Hush, doctor," I said, " I am here incognito, and must 
 deny myself the pleasure of embracing you." 
 
 " Don't tell me you have run away, and that too after I ex- 
 pressly forbade you," said the doctor, in a low, anxious 
 tone. 
 
 I set his mind at rest on this point. 
 
 "Heaven be thanked ! " he said ; " not forgetting also to 
 thank me, or rather her. How did you find her ? " 
 
 " I have not yet seen her, .doctor." 
 
 "And you have been here two weeks? Shameful! in- 
 credible ! Where is my lantern, that I may dash it to pieces, 
 for now I give up forever the hope of finding a man. Go ! 
 I will never see you again." 1 
 
 " When shall I come to see you, doctor ? " 
 
 " Whenever you will, or can : shall we say this evening ? 
 eh ? A glass of grog in the old fashion, half-and-half, eh ? " 
 
 And over a glass of grog, half-and-half in the old fash- 
 ion. Doctor Snellius and I faced each other that very even- 
 ing, in his more roomy lodging, and talked of by-gone times, 
 of what we had gone through together, as two old friends 
 talk who meet for the first time after long separation. 
 
 The doctor gave me a drastic description of his great 
 scene with Major D., and how Herr von Krossow had come 
 in, and how he had said that it was true that three made a 
 college, but for the whole world he would not make a college 
 with those two, and that he begged to take leave of them at 
 once and forever. I answered, laughing, that I now could 
 understand the vindictiveness with which 1 was persecuted 
 by Herr von Krossow, whom I had never offended. 
 
 " You are mistaken, my dear fellow," said the doctor. 
 " The reptile had other and better reasons for turning his 
 fangs upon you. I can tell you now that there is no danger 
 of your wringing the miscreant's neck. So now listen ; but 
 mix yourself a glass first — you will not get it down without a 
 good swig. This it was : he had once before paid his court 
 to her — to Paula von Zehren ; and as he received one mitten, 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 427 
 
 he thought he might venture to apply for the other. For 
 this purpose he selected as the fittest time those days of 
 grief and distraction immediately after her father's death, nor 
 did he forget to remind her that the new superintendent was 
 his good friend, and the president his cousin, and that 
 through these two he held the fortunes of Paula and her 
 family, so to speak, in his hands ; for her mother's claim to 
 a pension was, as she knew herself, open to dispute ; but 
 the thing could be managed ; and although he had no prop- 
 erty of his own, he had good connections, and by no means 
 bad prospects, especially under the new king, who was in 
 truth an anointed of the Lord. What do you think of 
 that?" crowed Doctor Snellius, springing up and perform- 
 ing a grotesque dance through the room. 
 
 The doctor's statement filled me with astonishment and 
 indignation. I had had no idea that the sanctimonious dea- 
 con had dared to raise his hypocritical eyes to Paula ; and 
 this suggested the thought that I might probably have been 
 equally dim of sight in another quarter. I sank into a 
 gloomy silence ; but the doctor must have read my thoughts 
 in my face through his great round spectacles. 
 
 " You are thinking that it cost her no great effort to dis- 
 miss the priest when her heart was already in the possession 
 of the knight ? I know we often spoke of it and made each 
 other uneasy, but it was all nonsense, I assure you, all non- 
 sense. Paula no more thinks of marrying the young Adonis 
 than an old satyr like me." 
 
 The doctor gave me a side-glance at these words, and 
 smiled sardonically as I involuntarily murmured a heart-felt 
 " Thank heaven ! " 
 
 " Don't rejoice too soon, though," he went on, and his 
 smile grew ever more diabolic ; " we must not praise the 
 day before the evening, and you know my doctrine, that with 
 men anything is possible. Arthur is really a most fascinat- 
 ing youth, and now he has worked himself into the diplomatic 
 career, he may weU die our Minister to London. It is the 
 same trade, and that they understand — ah! don't they un- 
 derstand it ? especially the old man, who really is a genius 
 in the noble art. From his tailor, whom he cajoles until the 
 man gives him credit again, up to the king, whom he with- 
 out hesitation petitions for a subsidy that will enable him to 
 
428 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 pay his debts and push his Arthur in his new career, no 
 man is safe from him — no man. I warn you button up your 
 pockets when you meet the gentleman on the street." 
 
 " He lives here, then .? " 
 
 " Of course, he lives here. The soil here is not so soon 
 exhausted, and a great man like the Herr Steuerrath needs 
 a wide field everywhere. Oh these brows, these brows of 
 brass ! " 
 
 "Why do we talk so much of such a crew?" I asked. 
 " Rather tell me something about her. How does she live ? 
 How does she get on with her painting t Has she made 
 great progress ? And has she found sale for her pictures ? " 
 
 " Made progress .'' Find sale ? " cried the doctor. " Pretty 
 questions, indeed ! I tell you she is in a fair way to make 
 her fortune. They fairly fight over her pictures." 
 
 " Doctor," I said, " I do not think this is a proper subject 
 for jesting." 
 
 The doctor, who had spoken in his shrillest tones, tuned 
 down his voice a couple of octaves by an energetic " ahem ! " 
 and said : 
 
 " You are right ; but it is no jest — merely a lie. As I see, 
 however, that I have not made any progress in the art of 
 lying, it is probably best for me to tell you, or rather show 
 you, the truth. Come with me." 
 
 He lighted two candles that stood under the looking-glass, 
 and led me into an adjoining room, which he had first to 
 unlock. 
 
 " I have put them here," he said, pointing to the wall, 
 which was hung with large and small pictures, "because they 
 are not safe from the boys anywhere else. Now what do you 
 think of them ? " 
 
 Taking the candles from the doctor, and letting the light 
 fall upon the pictures, I saw at once that they were all by 
 Paula's hand. I had too long watched her studies, and too 
 deeply entered into her way of seeing and of reproducing 
 what she saw, to be liable to any error. 
 
 There were three or four heads, all idealized, the originals 
 of which I fancied that I recognized ; two or three genre- 
 pieces — scenes from the prison, which I had already seen in 
 the first draught ; and finally a landscape — a great reach of 
 coast with stormy sea — the sketch of which I remembered 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 429 
 
 perfectly. At this time I understood but little of painting, 
 and least of all did I know how to justify my opinion when 
 formed. Now I can say that I really perceived a decisive 
 improvement in these pictures — an improvement both in the 
 technical execution and in the freer and broader style of 
 treatment : especially did the heads strike me as exhibit- 
 ing remarkable power, and I enthusiastically expressed my 
 opinion to the doctor in the best words I could find. 
 
 " Yes," said he, leaning his head first on one side and then 
 on the other, and contemplating the pictures with melan- 
 choly pride, " you are right ; perfectly right. She is a 
 genius ; but of what use is genius when it has no name ? 
 The world is stupid, my friend ; incredibly stupid : it can 
 discover anything grand or beautiful soon enough when the 
 one or two enlightened heads that a century produces have 
 given their testimony to it, one after the other ; then the 
 thing IS an article of faith that the boys recite from their 
 benches and the sparrows chatter upon the roofs. But when 
 the gentlemen have to pass judgment upon the work of an 
 author whose name they have never before heard, or the pic- 
 ture of an artist who comes before them for the first time, 
 then they are at the end of their lesson and do not know 
 what to think. How long would these pictures have trav- 
 elled from one exhibition to another, or hung in the dealers' 
 shops, if I had allowed them to hang there ? So they have 
 all travelled into my possession, and not to America, Eng- 
 land, and Russia, as the good Paula believes. But do not 
 look so seriously at me. My part of Maecenas did not last 
 long ; her last picture at the Artists' Exposition — ^you know 
 it, and are in it yourself — Richard the Lion-heart sick in his 
 tent, visited by an Arab physician : well, that picture, as I 
 hear, has been bought by the commerzienrath — your com- 
 merzienrath — strange to say, for the man knows just as much 
 about paintings as I do about making money, and Paula, by 
 my advice, fixed its price at a considerable sum. You see I 
 am now superfluous. Sic tansit gloria I " 
 
 The doctor sighed deeply, and then preceded me with the 
 two candles in his hands, casting flickering lights upon his 
 broad skull. 
 
 We took our seats again behind the glasses of grog. The 
 doctor seemed disposed to drown the deep melancholy that 
 
-.;,.J>K'. 
 
 430 Hammer and Anvil. I 
 
 had possessed him by doubHng the strength of his potations, 
 while I sat in deep meditation. The fact that the commer- 
 zienrath had bought Paula's picture set me to pondering. I 
 knew of old how absolutely indifferent the man was to every- 
 thing connected with art, and that the relationship had in 
 any way moved him to the purchase was the unlikeliest thing 
 in the world. It was therefore no very chimerical conclu- 
 sion that the daughter had more to do in the affair than the 
 father; and I confess that as I reckoned up the probabilities 
 of this supposition the blood rushed to my cheeks. In fiict 
 the hypothesis stood or fell on a certain point, which was yet 
 uncertain. I drew a long breath, took a deep draught from 
 my glass, and asked : j 
 
 " Has King Richard still any likeness " 
 
 " To you, my most esteemed friend ; to you ? Do not vex 
 yourself with any doubts on that score," answered Doctor 
 Snellius with a promptness that seemed to indicate that our 
 thoughts had met in the same point. " The only fault I have 
 to find with it is just this, that Paula seems to have fancied 
 that she had only to take you as you were, and there was a 
 king ready made. Have the goodness not to take credit to 
 yourself for what is merely her poverty of invention." 
 
 " I think I have not yet given you any reason to hold me 
 exceptionally vain," I said. 
 
 " No ; heaven knows you have not ; you deserve rather to 
 descend to posterity in the character of St. Simon Stylites 
 than as Richard Coeur de Lion." 
 
 " You say that as bitterly as if you were seriously dissat- 
 isfied with me." 
 
 " And so I am, my good sir," cried the doctor. "What 
 kind of a crochet is it to live by the labor of your hands, 
 when you can live by your head .'' Do you know, sir, that 
 our departed friend said to me, not long before his death, 
 that you had the most remarkable talent for mathematics he 
 had ever known, and that you could at any time take charge 
 of the highest class in a public school ? Do you suppose 
 that your head grows acuter just in proportion as your hands 
 grow coarser ? You will say, like the tailor to Talleyrand, 
 il faut vivre ; and a journeyman blacksmith will make a liv- 
 ing easier than a teacher of mathematics. Well, have you 
 no friends that could help you ? Why did you not come to 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 431 
 
 me at once ? Why did you leave it for chance to decide 
 whether we should meet or not ? " 
 
 I endeavored to calm his irritation, showing him that I 
 had taken my present course, not from necessity but convic- 
 tion ; but he would not yield the point. 
 
 " Why did you take the trouble to make a virtue of ne- 
 cessity? Necessity was your adviser, necessity and your 
 confounded pride to boot. You would have set out in quite 
 another way, if you had had any capita! to back you." 
 
 " But you see I have none, doctor." 
 
 " Don't you contradict me, you brainless mammoth ! A 
 friend who has capital that he places at our disposal is a cap- 
 ital of our own. I am your jfriend, I have capital, and I 
 place it at your disposal. Who knows if in this I do not ac- 
 complish a work more pleasing to heaven than if I followed 
 my old father's wishes and employed it in assisting orphan 
 asylums and other such childish undertakings. You are an 
 orphan; so in helping you I follow the words if not the in- 
 tention of that pious man, and shall be perfectly easy in 
 conscience on that score." 
 
 " But I shall not," I replied, laughing. 
 
 " Don't laugh, you monster ! " cried the doctor. " You 
 don't seem to comprehend that my proposition is perfectly 
 serious. Take my money — there are fifty thousand thalers^ 
 or thereabouts — go into partnership with the commerzien- 
 rath ; or better, found a rival establishment, and hoist him 
 out of his saddle : in a few years you will be the first manu- 
 facturer and machinist of Germany, and " 
 
 While the doctor thus spoke in feverish excitement the 
 blood had rushed to his head in a really alarming manner. 
 He suddenly checked himself, and it was not until long after 
 that I learned what it was that required such an effort to 
 suppress. It may be that my head, in consequence of my 
 long sitting behind the grog, was by no means perfectly 
 clear ; at all events only thus can I explain the obstinacy 
 with which I still contradicted the doctor and maintained 
 that my sense of independence would never allow me to use 
 the capital and assistance of another as the foundation of 
 my fortune. 
 
 " Do you know what you are proclaiming in this ? " cried 
 the doctor in his shrillest tones, and wrathfully smiting the 
 
432 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 table — "that you will remain a beggar, a miserable beg- 
 garly fellow, as every one has done who was fool enough to 
 try to drag himself out of the swamp by his own hair ? No, 
 no, my good sir ; the art is to let others work for you. 
 Whoever does not understand this, is and remains a beg- 
 gar." 
 
 " What would our best friend have said if he had heard 
 you talk thus ? " 
 
 " Has he not in life and death proven the truth of it?" 
 crowed the pugnacious doctor. *' Do you call it living as 
 a reasonable man, to leave the dearest we have on earth in 
 poverty at our death .^ And what are the great results of all 
 his long, self-sacrificing, heroic labor for the general good ? 
 He fancied, this high-priest of humanity, that his example 
 would suffice to bring about an entire reform of the prison 
 system. And now an old pedant of a king has but to shut 
 his sleepy eyes, and the foundation of his edifice gives way; 
 and as soon as he himself commits the folly of dying, it falls 
 to ruin like a house of cards. If that be not folly I do not 
 know how loud the bells must jingle." 
 
 " I know somebody whose cap is quite as well furnished," 
 I said, looking the doctor full in the eyes. " What do you 
 call a man who — as the only son of a rich old father who loves 
 the son and lets him follow his own course, even though he 
 does not comprehend it, with the certain prospect of a con- 
 siderable inheritance — performs for years the laborious work 
 of a prison-surgeon for the most trivial pay \ who, after he 
 has come into the possession of this estate, continues to 
 labor as the physician of the poorest of the poor, and finally, 
 because the weight of his wealth is too burdensome, throws 
 it into the lap of the first man he meets, to die the same 
 irreclaimable beggarly fellow that he has lived? " 
 
 " Did I ever pretend to be anything else ? " asked my an- 
 tagonist, not without some mark of confusion. " Oh yes, as 
 if it were only the simplest thing in the world to be a child 
 of prudence. To produce that result requires generations, 
 for shrewdness must be bred in families, like the long legs 
 of race-horses. Take the commerzienrath, who is a classic 
 example how shrewdness grows and thrives when it is once 
 properly grafted on a family stock : the man's grandfather 
 was a needleman, who kept a little shop by the harbor-gate 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 433 
 
 in S. ; my own grandfather knew him well. He was a dis- 
 reputable old fellow, who sold nails and needles in his front 
 shop, and lent money on pawns in the back room. Then 
 came his son, who was at least a head above his father, and 
 could read and write, and calculate much better than the old 
 man. He settled in your town and bought shares of ships, 
 and finally whole ships, and paved the way for his son, who 
 is the biggest of the lot. His flourishing period came in 
 Napoleon's time. Napoleon and the blockade and the 
 smuggling business made a rich man of him. Yes, smug- 
 gling — the same smuggling that cost your friend his life. 
 \Vhen the Herr Commerzienrath was a smuggler, smug- 
 gling was a kind of patriotic work, and the poor devils who 
 risked and lost their lives at it were martyrs of the good 
 cause. God only knows how many men's lives he has on 
 his conscience. And when afterwards the people who had 
 got into the way of the business would not quit it, and in- 
 deed could not, or they would have starved, he was safe 
 enough ; he had brought his sheep out of the rain and could 
 laugh in his sleeve. Then came the time of army-contracts, 
 and that again was a good time for him ; and thus this leech 
 kept sucking and gorging himself with the blood of his fellow- 
 creatures. Everything that he undertook succeeded ; the 
 needleman's grandson and broker's son has become a mil- 
 lionaire, has married a woman of noble birth, has titles, 
 orders — all that the heart can desire. Look you, there 
 is a child of prudence, whom I recommend to you as an 
 example." 
 
 " That I may lose your and every worthy man's friend- 
 ship .?" 
 
 " What good is my friendship to you ? My friendship at 
 best is worth but fifty thousand thalers. You are quite right 
 not to put yourself out of your yvay for such a trifle. Marry 
 Hermine Streber — ^then you will know why you were a beg- 
 garly fellow." 
 
 " It seems that one falls into this category by having either 
 a great deal of money or none at all," I said, hiding under 
 a loud laugh my embarrassment at his brusque suggestion. 
 
 " Certainly," said the doctor, still heated. " Extremes 
 meet, and for this reason I consider your destiny inevitable. 
 The question only is, how to deal with the old man ; with the 
 19 
 
434 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 daughter the business is half done, or more than half. Your 
 meeting on the steamer was capital ; and now this Richard 
 the Lion-heart in effigy, as long as she has him not in pro- 
 pria personcB ' ' 
 
 " Doctor," I said, rising, " I think it must be time to say 
 good-night." 
 
 " As you please," replied the doctor. " You know with 
 such remarkable exactitude what is good for you that most 
 likely you know this too." 
 
 The doctor had also arisen and was now walking up and 
 down the room making frightful faces. 
 
 " Doctor," said I, stepping before him. 
 
 " Go !" he cried, passing round me in a curve. 
 
 " I am going," I said, and I went. 
 
 But I halted at the door and looked back once more at 
 the singular man, who had thrown himself again into his 
 chair and was watching me angrily through his round spec- 
 tacles. 
 
 *' Doctor, you said to me once that you could not well carry 
 more than four glasses, and this evening you have drunk six. 
 So I will ascribe the unfriendly way in which you dismiss 
 me — for what other reason I cannot imagine — to the fifth and 
 sixth glass ; and now good-by." 
 
 I left the room without his making any attempt to detain 
 me, and as I closed the door behind me I heard him burst 
 into a peal of shrill laughter. 
 
 " This comes from a man's not keeping within his meas- 
 ure," I said to myself, excusing him. 
 
 But as I reached the street below, and the frosty night air 
 blew upon my heated face, I began to perceive that I had 
 not exactly kept within my own measure. My gait as I trav- 
 ersed the empty, badly-lighted streets, now swept by a sharp 
 December wind, was less steady than usual, and strange 
 thoughts passed through my head, and I had curious fancies, 
 whose origin could only be traced to the glasses I had 
 emptied. And once I had to laugh aloud, for I imagined I 
 heard the voice of the short, fat commerzienrath saying quite 
 distinctly : " My dear son, we must mind what we are about 
 or we shall not get home at all, and our Hermine will be 
 alarmed." 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 435 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 AS the next day was Sunday, I had leisure to reflect 
 upon the singular behavior of the doctor the evening 
 before ; but either the affair was in itself too compli- 
 cated, or else my memory had suffered from the effects of my 
 strong potations, and I could arrive at no satisfactory conclu- 
 sion. That the strange man loved me much, after his fashion, 
 I had innumerable proofs, and his anger on the previous 
 evening had been rather that of an elder brother, who sees 
 that the younger, whom he loves, is straying from the right 
 way. 
 
 But what upon earth had I done amiss, then ? It could 
 not be possible that the doctor could seriously reproach me 
 with my determination to make my own way in the world. 
 He himself had trusted to his own resources very early in 
 life, and with the toughest perseverance carried out his own 
 plans. 
 
 Assuredly the fact that I had chosen the lot of a workman 
 could be no crime in the eyes of a man whose heart beat so 
 warmly for the poor, and who devoted his whole life to the 
 relief of poverty and misery. The cause of his wrath must 
 lie elsewhere ; and after long pondering I came around to the 
 point, that the picture of Paula's, upon which I figured as 
 Richard the Lion-heart, had been the starting-point of our 
 dispute. Had he taken it amiss that Paula held fast to her 
 model ? Did he grudge me the honor of being painted by 
 her ? Was he vexed that this picture was not in his posses- 
 sion, but in the hands of a man whom he so hated and de- 
 spised as the commerzienrath ? These were all questions 
 worth considering. I concluded at last that my supposition 
 must be correct, and resolved that this very day, before I 
 called on Paula, I would have a look at the cause of our quar- 
 rel. 
 
 So about noon I set out for the academy, in the halls of 
 which the great exhibition of paintings had been open now 
 for some weeks. It was my first visit to an exhibition of the 
 sort. My knowledge of pictures up to this time was re- 
 stricted to a few old discolored saints in the churches of my 
 
436 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 native town, the engravings and family portraits in the super- 
 intendent's house, and the pictures which I had seen grow- 
 ing under Paula's hand. Still, as I had over and over con- 
 templated and studied these few with never-ceasing delight, 
 and had for years been witness of the development of a gen- 
 uine artist nature, I had, perhaps, if no more, at least no 
 less enthusiasm for beauty than the hundreds that flooded 
 the exhibition-rooms. I cannot describe the feeling with 
 which I, now following the throng, and now separated from 
 it, wandered through the lofty rooms. I had never seen any- 
 thing like this. I could not have conceived it possible. 
 Were there then so many men who knew how to handle pen- 
 cils and colors that the walls of this labyrinth of rooms 
 were hung from ceiling to floor with the works of their skill .-* 
 And was the world so gloriously rich ? Was the sky that 
 bent above the sunny bays of the South in truth of so mar- 
 vellous a blue ? Did snow-clad mountains really tower so 
 majestically into the luminous ether ? Was the twilight thus 
 mysterious in the pine-fringed gorges of our own mountains ? 
 Did such infinite multitudes of birds indeed hover over the 
 enormous rivers of Africa .'' Did the palaces of Italian cities 
 rise thus gorgeously above the narrow canals along which 
 black gondolas were noiselessly gliding ? Were there halls 
 in princely mansions whose marble floors thus clearly re- 
 flected the luxurious furniture and the forms of the guests .-* 
 Yes ; all these things that I here saw depicted really ex- 
 isted, and much more which my eager fancy added, half in 
 dreaming. For the more I looked, examined, and admired, 
 the stronger came over me a sense of having seen all this 
 before ; yes, seen so clearly that I could tell the artist what 
 he had done well, and where he had fallen far short of the 
 lovely reality. Often I felt really angry with a stupid painter 
 who had seen so dimly, and so poorly represented what little 
 he saw. In a word, in the briefest space of time I had be- 
 come a finished connoisseur of the noble art of the painter, 
 with the solitary drawback that I could in no case have told 
 how the artist should go to work to make his picture better ; 
 but perhaps this was a special qualification for the ofiice of 
 critic. 
 
 I had probably wandered thus for an hour through the 
 rooms, when stepping into one of the last, which was remarit- 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 437 
 
 ably brightly lighted by a skylight, I started with sudden and 
 extreme surprise. Looking over the heads of the crowd that 
 filled the hall I seemed to see myself. And it was myself, 
 or at least my counterfeit in Paula's picture, the picture 
 which I had come on purpose to see, and which I looked for 
 so far in vain. A particularly large group was collected be- 
 fore it, looking with eager and admiring eyes at Paula's work, 
 while from many fair lips came the words, "Charming!" 
 " how beautiful !" " what depth of feeling !" It was a queer 
 sensation to me to see myself thus lying upon a bed, in a 
 rich robe of fine linen, and scarcely concealed by a light 
 drapery. The blood suffused my cheeks ; I expected every 
 instant to see the crowd turn from the picture to me to com- 
 pare the copy with the original. But it was probably no easy 
 thing to discover in the tall, healthy young man, in plain 
 citizen's dress, standing back in a window niche, the original 
 of the lion-hearted king, glorified by legend, in a picture 
 on public exhibition. At all events no one made the dis- 
 covery, and I was left to contemplate the painting at my 
 leisure. 
 
 Now I observed for the first time that the picture was of 
 far larger dimensions than the study which I knew. It was, 
 in fact, a new picture, which had been completed since I last 
 had seen Paula. So much the more wonderful, as it seemed 
 to me, was the striking likeness to the original. Here were 
 my curled reddish locks, my rather broad than high forehead, 
 my large blue eyes, which found it so difficult to take an ex- 
 pression of anger. Even the feverish flush which lay upon 
 the sunken cheeks of the royal Richard might at this moment 
 have been seen upon those of the man in the window. In 
 other respects the design remained the same, only the young 
 knight who had the lineaments of Arthur had perhaps with- 
 drawn a little more into the background, so that the broad- 
 shouldered yeoman with the features of Sergeant Siissmilch 
 came better into view. An admirable figure was the Arab 
 physician, alias Doctor Willibrod Snellius, the most singular 
 personage that could be imagined, in the garb of a dervish, 
 and one whom one could not help liking, notwithstanding 
 his ugliness, so that the generous confidence of tte king 
 became at once intelligible. 
 
 This then was the picture which Paula had painted and 
 
438 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 Hermine bought. Was there not here a two-fold reason for 
 a little pride and even vanity ? Must not the original be 
 very firmly implanted in the artist's heart when she could 
 make from recollection alone so true a likeness ? Must not 
 the original be somewhat interesting to the purchaser, when 
 she was willing to pay such a price for the copy ? These 
 were foolish thoughts, and I can affirm that they vanished 
 as soon as they arose, and the next moment I was heartily 
 ashamed of them. Vexed with myself I aroused myself 
 from my foolish dreaming and turned my gaze once more 
 upon the picture, in front of which the eager crowd of gazers 
 had increased. 
 
 Among the new spectators I noticed a lady in a rich and 
 becoming toilette, leaning on the arm of a slender and rather 
 foppishly dressed gentleman. The lady attracted my atten- 
 tion by her elegant figure and the vivacious manner in which 
 she gesticulated with her little hand in its dainty kid glove, 
 and spoke with great animation to her companion, who was 
 evidently more interested by the spectators than by the 
 picture itself. As her back was towards me I could only 
 from time to time catch a glimpse of her face when she 
 glanced over her shoulder at her companion. But the 
 glimpse that I caught affected me powerfully, without my 
 being able to explain the cause : a dark eye-brow, a fleeting 
 glance from the corner of the eye, the contours of a brunette's 
 cheek and of a rounded chin. Yet I could not turn my gaze 
 from the lady. I even made one or two attempts to catch 
 sight of her face, but she always turned it to the other side. 
 The gentleman then seemed to propose that they should go : 
 they were about leaving the room, when in the moment that 
 they crossed the threshold the lady turned her head once 
 more towards the picture, and I came very near uttering an 
 exclamation of surprise ? Was it not Constance ? 
 
 " Did you see the Bellini "i " a young officer near me asked 
 an acquaintance who approached and accosted him. 
 
 " That lady with the gray-silk dress. Cashmere shawl, and 
 jaunty hat ? Is she the Bellini .'' " 
 
 " Yes, indeed. Is she not a charming creature ? " 
 
 " Superb ! And who was the gentleman with her ? Baron 
 Sandstrom, of the Swedish embassy ? " 
 
 " Do you suppose he would let himself be seen here with 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 439 
 
 the Bellini? What are you thinking of, baron? It was 
 Lenz, the tenor of the Albert Theatre." 
 
 " The man that brought her on the stage ? " 
 " The same. She has a wonderful talent, they say. Well, 
 we shall see what there is in it." 
 
 " See ? You would not go to the Albert Theatre, baron ? " 
 •' Why not, when a Bellini is in question ? " 
 " You are a gay fellow, baron." 
 " I can return the compliment, if it is one." 
 And the two young men separated, laughing. 
 I breathed deeply. " Thank heaven ! " I murmured. 
 " Thank heaven that it was an actress and not Constance 
 von Zehren. I would not meet her on the arm of such a fop 
 and hear a pair of such fellows speak of her thus." 
 
 It did not, in the first moments of my surprise, occur to 
 me that I had only to follow the lady in order to catch an- 
 other look at her ; and now, as I hastily traversed the rooms 
 she was no longer to be seen. Again I breathed deeply, 
 with a sensation of relief, when I had convinced myself of 
 the inutility of further search, and said to myself : " It is 
 better that I should not see this Fraulein Bellini again." 
 And while I said this I felt my heart beat violently, and my 
 eyes still wandered searching through the crowd. They 
 were strange recollections which the face, at once known 
 and unknown, of this lady, had awakened within me ; recol- 
 lections from a time in which the impressions once received 
 remained forever. 
 
 These memories did not leave me until I traversed the 
 long streets of the city, many of them new to me, on my \yay 
 to Paula's residence, which I had the doctor carefully describe 
 to me the previous day. Being Sunday, the shops and stores 
 were closed, but the streets were still full of life. It was a 
 clear, cold forenoon in the beginning of December. A little 
 snow had fallen in the night, just enough to give a silvery 
 glitter to the roofs and bring into handsome relief the pro- 
 jections and ornaments of the fapades. Numerous pedes- 
 trians hastened along the streets ; showy horses in handsome 
 carriages pawed vigorously upon the frosty pavement, and 
 even the wretched jades in the rickety droschkies trotted 
 rather better than usual. The sight of this cheerful life scat- 
 tered the evil dreams that had tried to master my soul, I 
 
44° - Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 felt myself so young and strong in the midst of a vast, pow- 
 erful stream which drove me along but did not overpower 
 me. All was new, fair, and rich ; who could know to what 
 glorious shores the current would bear me ? And even now 
 I saw a fair harbor and a beloved form beckoning to me, 
 and I hastened my steps until I arrived, out of breath, at a 
 large, handsome house in one of the most fashionable sub- 
 urbs, and, on asking the porter if Frau von Zehren was at 
 home, was shown up two flights of stairs. 
 
 " But the ladies are not at home," said the man. 
 
 "No one?" 
 
 " One of the young gentlemen may be." 
 
 " I will see." 
 
 " Can I take any message ? " 
 
 " No ; I wish to see them." 
 
 The porter closed his window, not without a sort of suspi- 
 cious look at the tall stranger, who did not appear to be a 
 gentleman of fashion, and I hurried up the two carpeted 
 flights of stairs, and drawing a deep breath I pulled the 
 bell over which was a brass plate with the name " Frau von 
 Zehren," and under it " Paula von Zehren." 
 
 " Which of the boys shall I see ? " I asked myself, and 
 in fanc}'^ I saw the friendly faces of Benno, Kurt, and Oscar, 
 at the door ; but a step approached which could belong to 
 neither of the boys. The door was opened and the old fur- 
 rowed brown face of the sergeant looked at me inquisitively 
 out of its clear blue eyes. 
 
 "Good day, sergeant." 
 
 The sergeant in his surprise very nearly let fall the bunch 
 of brushes he had in his hand. 
 
 "Thunder and lightning, are we here at last ? Won't the 
 gnddige Frau and the young gentlemen be glad ! — and the 
 young lady too ! Come in ! " 
 
 And he pulled me in and closed the door behind us, and 
 then led me into a room in which the furniture greeted me 
 as old acquaintances. 
 
 The old man pressed my hands, exclaiming over and 
 over : 
 
 " How splendid we are looking ! I believe we are bigger 
 than ever. And how we must have been working to make 
 our hands so hard 1 We have had hard times, eh ? But we 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 441 
 
 have held up bravely, that is the main thing. How long 
 since we got out of that cursed hole ? " 
 
 Thus the sergeant questioned me, and pushed me into an 
 easy-chair ; and he was quite indignant when I told him that 
 I had already been over two weeks in the city. 
 
 " It is not possible ! " he cried. " Two weeks without 
 coming to us, and we have been expecting you every day ! 
 It is not possible ! It is enough to turn a man into a bear 
 with seven senses ! " 
 
 " Every one for himself first, old friend," I said. " Sup- 
 pose I had come here first of all, and Fraulein Paula had 
 asked what the tall George was going to do ? " 
 
 The sergeant scratched his curly gray head. " To be sure, 
 to be sure ! " he said. " Self is the man. With a woman or 
 a girl, of course, it is quite different ; and so one had to bring 
 them away at once that they might have some one to rely on 
 on the way, and here, upon first moving in, some one to look 
 after things ; for women are women and men are men. Am 
 I not right ? " 
 
 " Doubtless, Siissmilch, doubtless. So you have been here, 
 of course, ever since .'' " 
 
 " Of course," said the old man, who had taken a seat op- 
 posite to me, but sat upon the extreme edge of the chair, as 
 if to show that he knew how to keep within the bounds him- 
 self had fixed. " And apart from other things, can they ever 
 get on without my head .'' " 
 
 " And without your hands ? " 
 
 " Not of so much consequence, though they come into play 
 sometimes too," the old man replied, arranging the brushes 
 
 between his fingers, " but the head " and he thoughtfully 
 
 shook this interesting and important part of his person. 
 
 " I have just seen it at the exhibition," I said, a light sud- 
 denly flashing upon me in regard to the part the old man's 
 head really played in the family arrangements. 
 
 " Does pretty well, don't it ? " said the sergeant ; " but 
 the monk is better still." 
 
 "Who?" 
 
 "The monk. To be sure nobody knows what we are 
 painting. But you must see it." 
 
 The old man sprang up with youthful alacrity and led me 
 into a large and high apartment adjoining, which was Paula's 
 19* 
 
44- ■ Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 studio. Sketches and designs of all kinds were hanging and 
 leaning upon the walls, with heads, arms, and legs in plaster, 
 a couple of sets of ancient armor, a lay figure draped with a 
 long white mantle, and near the window, which reached to 
 the ceiling, an easel with a picture from which the sergeant 
 removed the covering. 
 
 " Here's the place to stand," he said. " Is not that splen- 
 did .? " 
 
 " Splendid indeed ! " I exclaimed. 
 
 " Was I not right that my head is quite another thing 
 here ? " said the old man, pointing proudly to the work. 
 The scene was from Nathan the Wise., and represented the 
 monk about to sound the intentions of the templar. Both 
 figures stood out clear and plastic, with such animation in 
 their looks that one might almost catch the words from their 
 lips ; the grand simplicity in the good weatherbeaten face 
 of the pious brother who had once been a squire, and had 
 many a valiant lord and accomplished many a hard service, 
 none of which had ever been so hard to him as this commission 
 of the patriarch. On the other side the templar, young 
 and slender, his head thrown defiantly back, his lips com- 
 pressed with an expression of discontent, and his blue eyes 
 bent upon the poor monk. In the middle distance a por- 
 tion of Nathan's house, and the palms that surround the 
 Holy Tomb ; behind these the domes and slender minarets 
 of Jerusalem, with the haughty crescent sharply defined 
 against the southern sky, where the eye lost itself with de- 
 light in the immeasurable distance. 
 
 " The young gentleman has something from us ; here, for 
 instance, and here," said the sergeant, pointing with his fin- 
 ger at the eyes and mouth of the templar, and then looking 
 again at me ; " but I said at once that it is not so good as 
 King Richard ; by far not so good," and the old man shook 
 his head gravely. 
 
 " But the Frilulein cannot paint me always," I said ; " that 
 would at last become too monotonous. With you it is dif- 
 ferent : such a head as yours is not to be met with again." 
 
 " Yes," said the sergeant. " It is curious : one never be- 
 lieved it ; in fact one hardly knew he had a head ; but that's 
 the way they all talk that come here, and they want me in all 
 their studios ; and Fraulein Paula did lend me once or twice, 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 443 
 
 but in the other pictures one looks like a bear with seven 
 senses, and don't know himself again." 
 
 " And how is she ? " I asked. 
 
 " Oh, well enough, if we did not have to work so much ; 
 but from morning, as soon as it is light enough, until even- 
 ing when it is too dark to tell one color from another, work- 
 ing here in the studio, or copying in the museum — no bear 
 could stand it, let alone such a good young lady who has not 
 yet got over her father's death, and secretly weeps for it 
 every day. It is a real pity." 
 
 The old man turned away, laid the brushes in the box, and 
 passed the back of his hand quickly over his eyes. 
 
 I stood with folded arms before the picture, which no longer 
 pleased me when I thought that she worked on it unresting 
 from morning till night, while grief for the loss of her be- 
 loved father still dimmed her eyes. It would be a ' great 
 thing to have fifty thousand thalers and be able to say : " You 
 shall not have so hard a life of it ; you shall not lose your 
 beautiful eyes like your poor mother." 
 
 " How is Frau von Zehren t " I asked. 
 
 " Well enough in health," answered the sergeant, moving 
 back the easel ; "but she has scarcely a glimpse of light ; and 
 the doctor, who ought to know best, told her, when she asked 
 him, that there was no hope that she would ever see again." 
 
 " And Benno and the others ? " 
 
 A bright gleam passed over the old man's brown face, 
 
 "Ah," said he, "there we have our pleasure, and with 
 each one more than the other, Benno has been a student 
 now for a month, and Kurt will soon enter. Yes, we are 
 happy in these. And our youngster too ! He is going to be 
 a painter, and has begun of course upon my head, and not 
 done so badly for his fifteen years. Look for yourself, if it is 
 not " 
 
 At this moment there was a ring at the door. The old 
 man stepped to the window and looked out. 
 
 " I thought it was they. You see we all went out walking, 
 because the day is so fine ; but it is too soon yet for them to 
 be back ; it must be some one else ; I will see ; " and the 
 old man put back the drawing-board on which Oscar had 
 sketched his first head from the life, and left me alone in 
 the studio. 
 
444 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 I heard a voice in the passage which I thought I recog- 
 nized as Paula's, and then the door opened, and Paula en- 
 tered. 
 
 At first she did not observe me, and I saw at a glance 
 that the sergeant had said nothing of my arrival. Advanc- 
 ing quickly she looked eagerly at the covered picture on 
 the easel. The fresh air of the winter day had reddened 
 her cheeks, her lips were slightly parted. I had never seen 
 her so fair, nor could I have believed it possible. Suddenly 
 she perceived me ; she stopped, gazed at me with fixed eyes 
 and a frightened look. " Paula," I said, hastily coming for- 
 ward, " dear Paula, it is really I." 
 
 " Dear George ! " 1 
 
 She stood before me, and I took both her hands, while 
 she looked at me, smiling and blushing. 
 
 "Thank heaven, George, that you are here at last. I 
 have had no quiet hour since I knew that you were free 
 again, and on the way here : I could not imagine where you 
 were staying ; I even feared something had happened to 
 you. What have you been doing, and what adventures have 
 you had, you bad boy .'' I know of one already, and that 
 from the fairest mouth in the world." 
 
 Paula had seated herself upon a low chair near the picture, 
 and looked up to me with smiling eyes. 
 
 " You need not be so confused," she said, mischievously. 
 
 " With a sister, you know, it makes no matter. I am in 
 the exclusive possession of all Benno's tender secrets, and 
 lately Kurt has honored me with his confidence. He is 
 smitten with the twelve-year-old daughter of the geheimrath 
 who has recently moved into the rooms below, and vows 
 that Raphael never painted such a head. Why should I not 
 be your confidante also, especially since you are my eldest 
 brother — or are you not ? " 
 
 I was surprised to hear Paula, who usually weighed every 
 word, chattering after this fashion. A great change must 
 have taken place in her since we had parted. It was no 
 longer the Paula who in the shade of the high prison walls 
 had developed under my eyes from a child to a maiden, and 
 whom I thought I knew as I knew myself. What had 
 loosened her tongue in this way ? And whence had she the 
 free carriage which I so much admired in her, as she now sat 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 445 
 
 in a graceful posture in the low chair, while a beam of sun- 
 light touched her head which seemed surrounded with an 
 aureola ? 
 
 " But you don't answer me," she resumed ; " and really you 
 have no cause to be ashamed of what you have done. Her- 
 mine says that without you the boat would have been lost, 
 and probably the ship also. You may judge how proud I 
 was when I heard it. And what do you think was my first 
 thought.'' — that my father could have heard it too." 
 
 Paula's large eyes filled with tears, but she quickly sup- 
 pressed her emotion and said : 
 
 " Yes, I was proud of you, and happy in the thought that 
 you should commence life with such a noble deed, a deed 
 worthy of yourself. And now you must tell me what you 
 have been doing all this time, and you must expect to pay 
 the penalty if I am not entirely satisfied with you. Sit here 
 in this chair. We have a quarter of an hour yet before my 
 mother and the boys come back. An idea about the picture 
 there had come into my mind, but it is better so." 
 
 I gave the dear girl an exact account of all that had hap- 
 pened to me since my discharge. She listened with the 
 closest attention, and only once smiled when I took pains to 
 prove that I should have entered the machine-works in any 
 event, and that the fact that the commerzienrath was my 
 employer was far from agreeable to me. 
 
 " But neither the commerzienrath nor Hermine know any- 
 thing about it." . 
 
 "No," I answered; " and that is one comfort." 
 
 " Which will not last long, for they will soon learn it." 
 
 " From whom will they learn it? " 
 
 " From me, for one. Hermine has adjured me by sun, 
 moon,. and stars, to give her notice of the runaway as soon 
 as he is found ; and the tears were standing in her beautiful 
 eyes, and Fraulein Duff laid her hand upon her shoulder and 
 said, ' Seek faithfully, and thou wilt find !' I can assure you, 
 George, it was a moving scene." 
 
 Paula smiled, but so kindly that her banter, if she was ban- 
 tering me, did not wound me. On the contrary I was thank- 
 ful to her, very thankful. I had considered over and over 
 how I should tell her of my strange meeting with Hermine 
 without embarrassment, and now under her kindly hands all 
 
44^ Hammer and Anvil. . 
 
 was smooth and straight, which my clumsy fingers would 
 have hopelessly entangled. I was grateful to her — very 
 grateful. 
 
 And now Paula told me of Hermine, and how amiable 
 and good she had been to her, and had spent the three days 
 she had stayed in Berlin almost exclusively in her company, 
 and had at once fallen in love with the picture at the exhibi- 
 tion — here Paula smiled again very slightly — and could not 
 reconcile herself to leaving it, after she had bought it, for a 
 whole month at the exhibition. She further related how the 
 notice which Richard the Lion-heart had excited . had already 
 brought her new commissions, and that her Monk and Tem- 
 plar was already sold for a handsome sum to a Jewish 
 banker ; and how her studio had since been visited by very 
 distinguished persons, indeed more frequently than was 
 agreeable, and she had had to lock up her portfolios of 
 sketches because they began unaccountably to disappear. 
 
 " You can judge," she went on, " how inexpressibly happy 
 all this makes me. Not that I think myself entitled to be 
 proud — I think that I well know my defects and how great 
 they are — but it is a sweet consolation to me to be at ease 
 about the future of my mother and brothers, and that the 
 boys can now go boldly forward in the paths they have 
 chosen, without being compelled anxiously to consider every 
 step — all the boys, from the youngest to the oldest, is it not 
 so, George? — from the youngest to the oldest." 
 
 She looked full into my eyes, and I very well understood 
 what she meant. 
 
 " I do not anxiously consider every step, Paula," I said. 
 " I know that I am in the right path ; why should I then be 
 anxious ? " 
 
 " I have boundless confidence in you," replied Paula ; 
 " both in your clear-sightedness and your energy. I know 
 that you will make your way ; but one can make his way 
 with greater or with less labor, and in longer or in shorter 
 time ; and your sister desires that her brother, who has been 
 so cruelly cheated of so many years of his life, may lose no 
 moment, and may encounter no obstacle which his sister can 
 remove from his path." 
 
 " I thank you, Paula," I said ; " from the whole depth of 
 my soul I thank you ; but you will not be angry with me for 
 
I 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 447 
 
 trusting that the hour may never come when you will have to 
 work for me ; for that I may ever be able to care for you 
 and yours — this, my clearest hope and most cherished desire, 
 I see that I must now renounce." 
 
 " How can you speak so ? " said Paula, gently shaking 
 her beautiful head. " True, I deserve it for my own wilful- 
 ness. You must consider me a foolish girl who allows her- 
 self to be dazzled by the false glitter of success. But 
 believe me, it is not so. I know very well that I may be let 
 fall just as quickly as I have been lifted, far above my desert. 
 And then I may fall sick, or my invention may fail me : I 
 cannot go on forever painting you and old Siissmilch ; and 
 a girl has so little opportunity to make well-grounded studies, 
 and to extend the narrow circle of her experience. And 
 then what would become of the boys, of me, of all of us, if 
 we had not our eldest to look to ? " 
 
 "You are jesting with me now, Paula." 
 
 " Indeed I am not," she said, earnestly. " I have only 
 too often felt how my powers are no longer sufficient for my 
 brothers, and that young men need to be guided by a man, 
 and not by a woman, who does not know where the limit lies 
 to which a youth may go, nay, must go, if he is to become 
 anything. Good friend as the doctor is, I cannot rely onf 
 him in this point, for he is an eccentric, and an eccentric is} 
 no fitting model for a young man. For this reason I have 
 been all the time wishing for you. You know the boys so 
 well, and they are so fond of you. I know no one to whom 
 I would so willingly intrust them." 
 
 " But, Paula, a workman in a machine-shop, a mere com- 
 mon journeyman blacksmith, is no pattern for students and 
 young artists." 
 
 " You will not — yes, you will always be a workman, but 
 not always a journeyman : you will become a master, a great 
 master in your craft. And the day is no longer distant ; at 
 least it is much nearer than you think. You do not know 
 your own worth." 
 
 Paula said this with a slightly elevated voice, and with 
 flashing eyes. I was so in the habit of giving full confidence 
 to her words, and it had so prophetic a sound, that I did not 
 venture to express the slight doubt that arose in my mind as 
 to its fulfilment. 
 
44^ Hammer and Anvil. ' 
 
 At this moment came a ring at the bell. " It is my 
 mother and the boys,'' Paula said hurriedly and softly. 
 
 " They do not know that you have been two weeks at lib- 
 erty ; my mother could not comprehend how you could let 
 so long a time elapse without coming to see us, after you had 
 once reached the city. You must not let her know that it 
 has been so long.'' 
 
 At this they came rushing in at the door : Oscar, my fa- 
 vorite, Kurt, my second favorite, and Benno, who had always 
 been my third favorite, who came with his mother on his 
 arm ; and there was rejoicing, and shaking hands, and kisses, 
 and exultations, and perhaps some tears, though I am not 
 sure. Of course I must spend the day with them. And in 
 the evening nothing could keep them from seeing me home, 
 that they might bring their sister word where and how I was 
 living : and then I went back with them a piece of the way 
 until they were out of the workmen's quarter, and in a part 
 of the town which they knew better ; and when I returned 
 it was very late, and I fell asleep at once and had a long 
 dream about the picture which Paula had painted, and Her- 
 mine had bought, and the fair Bellini, who resembled Con- 
 stance von Zehren, had so much admired. 
 
 C H A P T E R I V . , 
 
 TO be sure, if I had any fancy at this time for indulging 
 in dreaming, I had to do it at night, for by day I had 
 no leisure for such vagaries. By day I was taken pos- 
 session of by work — hard jealous work, that kept me busy 
 from the early morning to late at night — now thrusting the 
 heavy hammer into my hand and giving me a mass of iron 
 to conquer, and then placing in my fingers the pen with 
 which I covered page after page with long rows of figures 
 and complicated formulas. Altogether it was a pleasant 
 time, and even now I think of it with pleasure tempered with 
 sadness. In our memory the brightest light always lies 
 upon those periods of our lives in which we have striven for- 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 AA^ 
 
 ward most eagerly, and I was now, in all senses, a striver, 
 and there was no day in which I did not mount at least one 
 round of the steep ladder. Now it was some bit of technical 
 dexterity that I caught from my fellow-workmen ; now a new 
 formula which I had calculated myself ; and at all times the 
 delightful sensation of rising, of progressing, of increasing 
 powers, the joyous consciousness that a far heavier burden 
 might lie upon my shoulders without danger of my sinking 
 under it. It was a happy, a delightful time ; and whenever 
 I think of it, it is as if the perfume of violets and roses were 
 floating around me, and as if then the days must all have 
 been days of spring. 
 
 And yet it was not spring, but a rough severe winter, in 
 which the icy sky lay gray and heavy above the snow-piled 
 roofs and the filthy factory-yards, while the sparrows fluttered 
 about all day, seeking in vain for food, and at night the fam- 
 ishing crows expressed their sufferings in incessant cawing ; 
 and day by day we saw pale, hollowed-eyed, ragged figures, 
 in ever-increasing numbers, wandering in the stormv streets, 
 or crouching at night in the dim light of the lamps up>on the 
 steps of the houses, or where any projecting masonry offered 
 therrf a little shelter. 
 
 I now walked the streets more frequently, for, notwith- 
 standing the distance at which my friends lived, no week 
 passed in which I did not spend at least one evening with 
 them. Then Benno, who was now studying chemistry and 
 physics, and had occasion to repair some deficiencies in his 
 mathematics, came twice a week to my room to work with 
 me, and I then accompanied him back half the way, and 
 sometimes the whole distance. It had been discussed 
 whether I had not better take another lodging, nearer to 
 them ; but Paula decided that it was best for me to live where 
 my work was ; and one Sunday forenoon she came with her 
 brothers to pay me a visit, and convince me that I by no 
 means lived entirely out of her reach, as I had maintained. She 
 pronounced my inhabiting the lonely ruinous court of the 
 machine-works, which her hope looked to in the future, per- 
 fectly absurd ; and the fitting-up of my room with the old 
 worm-eaten rococo furniture of the previous century a crack- 
 brained fancy ; but she observed it all with the warmest in- 
 terest, and did not conceal that she was touched by the sight 
 
45© Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 of the terra-cotta vases on the mantel-piece, and the copy of 
 the Sistine Madonna on the walk. 
 
 " Stay here," she finally said ; " not because this lodging 
 is convenient for you, and is really original enough ; nor be- 
 cause the fitting-up does honor to your taste, wanting only a 
 set of curtains, which I will make for you, and a piece of 
 carpet by your writing-table, which I undertake to provide ; 
 for these are trifles. What determines my opinion is the 
 feeling that you belong here ; that this place belongs to you 
 already, as if like a conqueror you had taken possession of 
 this desolate province, and planted your standard first of all. 
 The rest will surely follow. I fancy that I see these heaps 
 of stone already growing up into stately buildings, the fire 
 leaping from the tall chimneys, and these vacant courts alive 
 with busy workmen ; this house changed to a handsome 
 villa, and you ruling and directing the whole as master and 
 owner. Stay here, George ; the place will bring you good 
 fortune." 
 
 Words like these, from Paula's lips, had for me the force 
 of irresistible conviction, as the words of a consecrated 
 priestess might have for her trusting worshippers. Not that 
 I always cheerfully and willingly acquiesced in her views ; it 
 would have been, for example, far more pleasant to me if 
 Paula had said: "Your lodging is very well situated for 
 your purposes, it is true ; but I would rather have you nearer 
 to me ; I see you now once a week, and I could then see 
 you twice, or perhaps every day." And then I upbraided my- 
 self that I did not value Paula's desire to advise me always 
 for the best, higher than all else ; but still I could not help 
 wishing that this advice, however good, had not seemed 
 quite so easy for her to give. 
 
 When I was thus brought to reflect upon my relations with 
 Paula it could not escape even my inexperience that these 
 relations were different from what they used to be. One cir- 
 cumstance especially proved this fact. The boys and I had 
 from the first used to each other the familiar " thou ; " but 
 between Paula and myself the formal " you " had never been 
 laid aside, not even in those trying days after the death of 
 her father, when we had hand-in-hand to face the storm 
 which had burst over us all. Even then, when our hearts 
 were moved to their lowest depths, and our tears were 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 451 
 
 mingled, the brotherly " thou " had never risen to our lips. 
 And now she used it to me from the very moment of our 
 meeting. The evening before I would have deemed it im- 
 possible ; now, that it was really so, I could scarcely believe it. 
 Did I feel that the very thing which made our intercourse 
 easy and unrestrained was at the same time a strong fetter 
 with which Paula bound my hands ? Was it with that inten- 
 tion or, not 1 I did not know nor hope ever to know. 
 
 Of course I did not go about tormenting mj'self with this 
 enigma. Guessing riddles was a kind of work in which I 
 had no skill, so for the most part I enjoyed unalloyed the 
 happiness which the friendship of this noble-hearted girl, 
 and of her amiable family afforded me. Every moment 
 spent in their society was precious to me, nor could I any- 
 where have found more purifying and ennobling influences. 
 
 I do not recall a single instance of the slightest misunder- 
 standing occurring between the members of this family, or 
 even of one raising the voice in momentary irritation. In 
 affectionate devotion to their mother, in chivalrously tender 
 love for their sister, the brothers were literally one heart and 
 one soul ; and if even a shadow of misunderstanding threat- 
 ened to fall between them, one word of Paula's, yes, often a 
 mere glance from her loving eyes, sufficed to banish it. Now 
 as ever was Paula the good genius of the family, the honored 
 priestess to whose keeping was committed the sacred flame 
 of the hearth, the helper, the comforter, the adviser to whom 
 each turned when he needed aid, consolation or counsel. 
 And with what maidenly grace she wore this priestly crown ! 
 Who that did not know her could have divined that this deli- 
 cate creature was not only the moral support of the whole 
 family, but that this small, slender, diligent hand also pro- 
 vided their daily bread ? Yet this was the fact : indeed it 
 could hardly now be doubted that she would soon be able to 
 raise her family to a comparatively brilliant position. Her 
 Monk and Templar had been purchased by one of the wealthi- 
 est bankers at an unusually high price, and there was al- 
 ready another picture upon her easel which had been bought 
 at an even higher price before it was begun. 
 
 A picture-dealer — not the one who used to buy at a trifling 
 price those pictures of Paula's which he afterwards sold to 
 Doctor Snellius for handsome sums, but one of the first in 
 
452 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 the city, came to Paula and asked if she could paint a hunt- 
 ing piece. Just at that time there was a run on hunting- 
 pieces : Prince Philip Francis had brought them into fashion, 
 and the nobility had run mad about them, so the Jewish 
 bankers naturally began to take an interest in hares and 
 foxes. Paula answered that she had not yet painted a pic- 
 ture of this kind, and did not feel warranted to undertake 
 the commission \ but the dealer was so importunate, and the 
 price he offered so high — " what do you think of it ? " Paula 
 asked me. " Do you think I can do it ? " 
 
 " How can you doubt it ? " I replied. " The landscape 
 and the figures will give you no trouble, and as for the tech- 
 nical part, I can help you, if you have an)'^ difficulty with it." 
 
 " You have told me so many things about your hunter's 
 life with Uncle Malte," said Paula, " and one scene has es- 
 pecially fixed itself in my memory. It was in the earlier 
 time of your stay at Zehrendorf, and you were sitting at 
 breakfast with my uncle on the heath, in the shadow of a 
 tree which grew on the edge of a hollow ; my uncle was en- 
 joying the repose of the bivouac, when suddenly a hare 
 came in sight on the edge of the mound. Flinging bottle 
 and glass away, you siezed your gun, when the hare turned 
 out to be a lean old wether grazing on the heath. Would 
 not that make a picture ! " 
 
 " You might try it at all events," I said. 
 
 She tried it, and the attempt, as I had never doubted, 
 succeeded capitally. Even one who took no interest in the 
 somewhat humorous character of the incident must at least 
 have been captivated by the beauty of the landscape. The 
 autumnal sunlight on the brown heath, to the left the white 
 dunes between which here and there glistened the blue sea, 
 — all this was painted with a delicious freshness that one 
 felt invigorated even by looking at it. And the little scene 
 which comprised the action of the picture was so clearly 
 rendered that no one could fail to understand it — the elder 
 hunter, lying in the grassy bank with his hand under his 
 head, only taking the short pipe from his mouth to laugh at 
 his companion, who with flashing eyes and in the greatest 
 excitement has half-risen to his knee, and a few paces off 
 the silly sheep's face looking over the heath, and saluting 
 his over-hasty friend with a bleat of insulting confidence ; — 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 453 
 
 it was enough to bring a smile upon the face of the gloom- 
 iest hypochondriac. Naturally the elder hunter gradually 
 assumed the features of the Wild Zehren, and the young 
 novice day by day grew into a likeness of me. 
 
 " I ought not, really, to have introduced you again into 
 one of my pictures," said Paula, " for two reasons : first, 
 that you may not grow vain, and secondly that people may not 
 think me barren of all invention. But in fact I cannot picture 
 ^the scene to myself without you, any more than I can with- 
 out my poor uncle ; and I fear if I were to leave you both 
 out the picture would be a poor one. You must give me one 
 or two of your Sunday mornings. Of course I know your 
 face well enough, and could paint it, I think, with any ex- 
 pression ; but the action of a person throwing down a glass 
 with his left hand, and reaching for his gun with his right, 
 half-raised on his right knee while the left is still extended, 
 is too complicated for me to paint without a model." 
 
 Thus it came that for several successive Sunday mornings 
 I spent delightful hours in Paula's studio. The time never 
 seemed long to us. I had so frequently gone over the 
 ground of Paula's landscape that I could describe to her 
 every bush, every tuft of grass, every peculiarity of the sur- 
 face, and every effect of light upon the sandy dunes or the 
 bushy heath. And while I was able thus to be really of use 
 to the dear girl, it was a sweet reward to me to hear from 
 her own lips that, if the picture turned out a good one, as 
 she almost believed it would, it was in great measure owing 
 to me. Then we had so many things to talk about : my pro- 
 gress in my trade, my increasing knowledge of the steam- 
 engine, were topics of which Paula could never hear enough. 
 Or else the question was discussed whether Kurt, who was 
 now in his sixteenth year, ought to remain longer at school, 
 or commence learning his trade, and if Streber's works were 
 the right place, and Klaus, who was now a master-workman, 
 the right master for this richly-gifted pupil. This led us 
 again to speak of Klaus, what a good-natured and excellent 
 fellow he was, and of Christel, whether any one would re- 
 spond to her inquiry in the Dutch newspapers, and if so, 
 whether this some one would be a Javanese aunt, as Klaus 
 and Christel firmly maintained, or a Sumatran uncle. 
 
 So we were chatting together one morning, Paula at her 
 
454 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 easel, while I was pacing backwards and forwards at the 
 farther end of the room, with my hands behind my back. 
 The winter sun shown so brightly that the light had to be 
 lessened at the high window near which the easel stood, 
 while at the others it streamed brilliantly in, in clustering 
 beams in which the motes were dancing. Frau von Zehren 
 was out walking with her sons. A Sabbath stillness per- 
 vaded the house, and when Paula ceased speaking I felt like 
 Uhland's shepherd, who " alone upon a wide plain hears the 
 morning bell, and then all is silent, near and far." 
 
 Suddenly the hall-bell rang. 
 
 " I had hoped we should not be troubled with any visitors 
 to-day," I said with some annoyance. 
 
 " Eminence must pay its penalty," said Paula, jestingly. 
 " Let us only hope they will not stay too long." 
 
 At this moment the girl opened the door. I stopped my 
 walk, and stood, stark with amazement, in the background, 
 as I saw two gentlemen enter, one of whom was Arthur von 
 Zehren, while the other, whom with a polite bow he had 
 motioned to precede him, awakened in me some faint recol- 
 lection which I could not precisely define. 
 
 " I have the honor," said Arthur, after apologizing to his 
 cousin, with that grace of manner that always belonged to 
 him, for not having called upon her immediately after his re- 
 turn — " I have the honor to present to you Count Ralow, 
 whose acquaintance I was so fortunate as to make in Lon- 
 don, and who is a great connoisseur, and an equally great 
 admirer of your talents." 
 
 " My friend has not described me quite correctly," said 
 the count, bowing respectfully to Paula. " I am by no 
 means a great connoisseur ; but he is quite right in calling me 
 a great admirer of your talents. I have seen your picture at 
 the exhibition, and been charmed with it, like all the world ; 
 and as your cousin was presumptuous enough to offer to pre- 
 sent me to you, I could not forego a piece of such singular 
 good fortune." 
 
 The young man, whose glance now fell for the first time 
 upon the picture, suddenly started back, but rather with the 
 gesture of one who is unpleasantly startled "than of one who 
 is agreeably surprised. And well might he be startled, when 
 he suddenly recognized in the hunter by the willow-tree the 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 455 
 
 Wild Zehren. the man who had only needed an opportunity 
 to bathe his hands in the blood that flowed in the veins of 
 Prince Karl of Prora-Wiek. 
 
 It had been now eight years since I had seen him, and m 
 my whole life I had only seen him twice : once in the dim 
 light of an autumn afternoon as he flew by me at a rapid 
 gallop, and the second time in the dark forest by the glim- 
 mering moonlight ; but the slender figure and the pale, re- 
 fined face had impressed themselves indelibly upon my 
 memory. 
 
 " Beautiful ! " said the prince. " Admirable ! superb ! 
 This sunlight, this heath — I know all this — know it perfectly. 
 I tell you, Zehren, even to the minutest details it is nature 
 itself! Is it not?" 
 
 Arthur did not answer, for if the confusion of the prince 
 at the first sight of the picture had surprised him, he 
 entirely lost his presence of mind when he caught sight of 
 me in the background, where I had been standing motion- 
 less the whole time. I think there were few men whom Ar- 
 thur von Zehren would not have preferred to meet in his 
 cousin's studio just then. 
 
 " Is it not so, Zehren ? " the prince repeated, rather impa- 
 tiently. 
 
 " Certainly ; it is perfectly superb : I said so before," re- 
 plied Arthur, evidently in doubt whether it would not be 
 best to overlook me altogether. 
 
 But as his hesitation did not prevent him from casting un- 
 easy glances at me, which caused the eyes of the prince to turn 
 in the same direction, the result was that the latter perceived, 
 at the end of the studio, a tall, broad-shouldered, plainly- 
 dressed young man, with curly blond beard and hair, whom 
 he had already seen in the character of King Richard in the 
 picture at the exhibition, and now again saw in the hunting- 
 piece on the easel. Whom could he suppose that he had 
 before him but one of those persons who go from studio to 
 studio, now as a model for Joseph, and now for Pharaoh ? 
 And though it is probable that the prince was by no means 
 addicted to minute observation of models in artists' studios, 
 at this moment any opportunity of diverting attention from 
 the unlucky picture was too welcome not to be seized at 
 
 once. 
 
456 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 " Ah ! here is our original for King What's-his-name ! A 
 splendid fellow, whom I should like to see in the regiment of 
 my cousin, Count Schlachtensee ; don't you say so, Zehren ? " 
 
 The unlucky Arthur's part of second-fiddle was a hard one 
 to play to-day. But it was impossible for him, now that I 
 had been brought directly into the conversation, to pretend, 
 not to know his old schoolmate, apart from the fact that 
 Paula would hardly have forgiven such a piece of insolence ; 
 and he perceived, moreover, by my looks that I was malicious 
 enough to enjoy his confusion. Indeed I fear that I even in- 
 dulged in a smile whose significance could not escape him, 
 so he had no alternative — it was highly exasperating, but he 
 really had no other — but to turn to me with as pleasant a 
 smile as he could force to his whitened lips, and while toy- 
 ing with his eyeglass, so as to have no hand free to offer me, 
 to accost me in an affectedly condescending tone : 
 
 "Ah ! see there ! are we at last out of the — ahem — again ? 
 Congratulate you — congratulate you with all my heart — upon 
 my honor — ahem ! " 
 
 The young prince's looks grew by no means brighter dur- 
 ing this singular salutation of his second. The expression 
 of my face, which he now observed more closely, and Arthur's 
 evident embarrassment, showed that there was something 
 wrong here ; and at this moment he happened to catch a 
 glance exchanged between Paula and myself, which probably 
 seemed another mesh in the net which was here being drawn 
 over his princely head. But now it seemed to Paula high 
 time to interpose and put an end to this singular scene. 
 
 " You would have sooner had the pleasure," she said, 
 turning to Arthur, " of meeting your old schoolmate, if you 
 had found your way to our house earlier during the fortnight 
 that you have been here ; George has been in the city three 
 months. This gentleman" — she went on, turning to the 
 prince — " is my oldest and dearest friend, who stood faith- 
 fully by me at a time of great trial, and who now devotes a 
 few hours of his valuable time to aid my imperfect invention 
 with his advice. I esteem it an honor to introduce to you 
 Herr George Hartwig." 
 
 At hearing my name the prince changed color and bit his 
 lip, though he made a great effort to accost the lady's oldest 
 and dearest friend with a polite phrase. Doubtless he had 
 
Hammer and Anvil. . 
 
 457 
 
 heard my name too often from Constance and others, and 
 the associations connected with it were of too peculiar a 
 character for more amusing and more agreeable experiences 
 to obliterate it entirely, even from the defective memory of 
 the young prince. A dim recollection of a tall figure before 
 which he had once crouched in a dark forest — and then the 
 circumstance that this man with the broad shoulders and the 
 memorable name stood by the side of the Wild Zehren in the 
 picture by the hand of Paula von Zehren, — all this suddenly 
 fitted into one combination. The prince had to find the 
 meaning of it all, however pleasant it might have been to 
 have been spared the whole riddle. 
 
 Just at this disagreeable moment, that is to say just at the 
 right time, the Prince of Prora-Wiek remembered what he 
 owed to himself The signs of embarrassment vanished 
 from his face and his manner ; he looked calmly at the pic- 
 ture and at me, comparing the copy with the original, and 
 said a number of pretty things to Paula, which, if not quite 
 well considered, and possibly not even well meant, sounded 
 as if they were both. He hastily glanced at the drawings 
 on the walls, and turned over the sketches in an open port- 
 folio, declared that the light in the studio was admirable, and 
 the whole arrangement exquisitely original and poetic, then 
 remembered that he had been summoned to an audience of 
 the princess, for which he would be too late if he did not 
 take his leave at once, and went off with his companion. 
 
 In half a minute we heard the prince's coupe, which had 
 been standing at the door, drive off, and we looked at each 
 other and laughed, laughed with great apparent enjoyment, 
 and then suddenly became grave. 
 
 " This is the great annoyance of our calling," said Paula. 
 " Inquisitive visitors cannot be refused admission ; indeed 
 we are expected to be highly gratified if they come, and then 
 chatter everywhere about our skill and the subject of our 
 last picture. But, as I said, it is an annoyance at best ; and 
 Arthur might have been more considerate than to present 
 himself in this fashion after staying away so long. His oniv 
 apology is that he meant kindly, and thought he was bring 
 ing me a distinguished and wealthy patron. Certainly, if 
 one may judge by the exterior, this Count Ralow must be 
 both very distinguished and very rich." 
 
 20 
 
458 . Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 " The inference is correct this time, at all events," I said ; 
 " and if you want the proof — it was the young Prince Prora." 
 
 " Impossible ! " said Paula. 
 
 " I am sure of it," I replied. " I have seen in the papers 
 that the prince has lately visited England, where Arthur says 
 he made the acquaintance of this Count Ralow. But I 
 should have recognized him without that ; and besides, I now 
 remember that the Princes of Prora are also Counts von 
 Ralow." 
 
 "I am glad to hear it," said Paula, "though I should 
 have preferred to make the acquaintance of the prince under 
 his proper title." 
 
 " I consider this incognito a piece of rudeness. Why can 
 he not call upon you as he does upon the princess ? But 
 the real impertinence lies in his coming here at all. The 
 former lover of Constance had no business to present him- 
 self to Constance's cousin. I felt all this strongly enough 
 at the time, Paula ; but I also felt that your house and your 
 apartment were not the place to discuss these matters." 
 
 " I thank you for your considerateness," said Paula, 
 taking my hand in hers. " I saw in your eyes that you were 
 placing a restraint upon yourself about something. Men 
 best prove their respect for women when they do not suffer 
 any storms of this kind to break loose in their presence ; 
 and as to this matter, I beg of you to dismiss it from your 
 thoughts. You have suffered far too much from it already \ 
 it is time you had rid yourself of it once for all." 
 
 '* Yes, if that were only possible," I said ; and then I told 
 Paula, what I had never mentioned to her before, about my 
 meeting at the exhibition with the beautiful Bellini, who had 
 so striking a resemblance to Constance. " I have certainly 
 no reason to cherish any love for Constance," I said ; " on 
 the contrary, I can meet her seducer without the slightest 
 feeling of hatred or revenge ; and yet the image of that 
 beautiful woman follows me everywhere, and it could not be 
 otherwise had I seen Constance herself Now why is this ?" 
 
 " Constance was your first love," Paula answered, *' and 
 that makes a difference with men." 
 
 " With men, Paula ? Do you mean that with women it is 
 otherwise ?" 
 
 " I do mean that," she replied. " A woman's first love 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 459 
 
 differs from a man's, and exceeds it. Exceeds it in proper- 
 tion as a man is more to a woman than a woman to a man." \ 
 
 " What kind of new philosophy do you call that ?" 
 
 "It is no new philosophy: at least it is as old as my 
 thoughts upon these matters, which is no very great age, it 
 is true." 
 
 A faint flush tinged her usually pale cheeks, but it seemed 
 that altogether she was not displeased that we had fallen 
 upon this theme, and she continued with some animation : 
 
 " A man's life is more full of change, richer in deeds and 
 events, than a woman's ; and for this reason individual im- 
 pressions, even the strongest, do not remain so long with 
 them. They have so many new and more important things 
 to record on the tablet of their life that they are obliged 
 from time to time to efface the old writing with the sponge 
 of forgetfulness. With us women it is altogether different : 
 we do not willingly efface a word which sounds sweetly to 
 our ears, much less a line, much less a whole page of our 
 poor life. And then even when a man has an unusually te- 
 nacious memory, he can not act and choose as he will : the 
 stronger and manlier his nature, the more does he act and 
 choose as he must. And he must choose suitably to his age 
 and circumstances — to use another phrase, suitably to his 
 development. The man of twenty-five differs from the youth 
 of nineteen far otherwise than the woman of twenty-five differs 
 from the girl of nineteen ; and the man of thirty-five again 
 is another man. If the man of twenty-five or thirty-five 
 should make the same choice as the youth of nineteen — 
 I mean such a choice as youth makes, romantically unsel- 
 fish and inconsiderate — ^he would commit a folly, in my eyes 
 at least" 
 
 " How did you come to be so selfish and practical, Paula ? " 
 I inquired, in laughing astonishment. 
 
 " One grows so, I suppose," she said, taking up palette 
 and brushes, and beginning to work. 
 
 " It may be as you say," I said, " when one, as has been 
 your case, passes through a marked process of development ; 
 so that the laws which you have just laid down as governing 
 us men are very possibly applicable to yourself. I knew 
 you when you were but fifteen, and you were then a beginner 
 in your art ; now, at two-and^twenty, you are an artist, and 
 
460 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 at five-and-twenty you will be a distinguished one. In your 
 case it is intelligible enough that the Paula of to-day has no 
 longer those romantic illusions — to the future Paula, alas, 1 
 cannot venture to raise my thoughts." 
 
 " You are jesting, and cruelly too," she said ; " and your 
 good face has not the expression that I could wish it to wear 
 at this moment." 
 
 " I do not jest at all," I answered emphatically. " 1 per- 
 fectly understand that your claims upon life must rise higher 
 with everv vear — I might say with every picture you pro- 
 duce." 
 
 " Are you really speaking in earnest ? " 
 
 " Perfectly so ; do you not wish to become a great artist? " 
 
 " Assuredly," she replied ; " but is that within a woman's 
 power? How many out of the hundreds and thousands of 
 inspired girls and women who have turned to the easel or 
 the desk have become great artists? Upon the stage they 
 may ; but I have often questioned whether the dramatic art 
 be a true art, or rather a half-art, in which half-talents can 
 reach the highest eminence. And those who are called ac- 
 tors of genius, what are they in comparison with men of true 
 genius in art, in literature, in music ? As far beneath them 
 as I am beneath Raphael. And what have I produced so 
 far ? Two or three passable heads ; a striking scene or so, 
 which I took directly from the life ; recollections from books ; 
 Richard Cceur de Lion, the Monk — where in these is an 
 original invention, a single trace of real genius ? And what 
 is this picture here ? What have I done towards it ? Little 
 more than mix the colors ; the rest is all of your invention. 
 You told me how the sunlight falls in the sandy dunes, how 
 the wind waves the heads of the heath-flowers ; you " 
 
 " But Paula, Paula', you talk as if I were painting your pic- 
 ture, and as if you could paint no picture without me." 
 ' " And I have painted none without you : there you see my 
 miserable poverty." 
 
 I could not see with what expression she pronounced 
 these words, for she had bent her face down to her easel. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 461 
 
 CHAPTERV. 
 
 SINCE her success at the exhibition Paula had been over- 
 whelmed with invitations, and she had accepted one for 
 this day from the banker Solomon, the purchaser of 
 the Monk and Templar. So I was left with Frau von Zehren 
 and her sons. Yet Paula was present with us all, and with 
 none more than her poor mother who was bereft of the pleas- 
 T'.re of seeing her daughter's works. 
 
 " But all that she has she has from you, mother," said 
 Benno ; " and she knows that herself better than any of 
 us." 
 
 " Then she has it from her grandfather," said Frau von 
 Zehren. " He was really a great artist : what I might have 
 done I cannot say. Unfortunately it was never granted me 
 to develop the talent that I had ; but how can I say unfor- 
 tunately ? If it is true, as you say, that Paula's talent is 
 mine, then her success is my success, and thus I perform 
 the miracle of becoming a great painter with blind eyes." 
 
 A gentle smile played about the refined lips of the still 
 beautiful woman, and as shortly afterwards I retraced my 
 steps homewards through the dark streets her face contin- 
 ually recurred to my memory. She must in her youth have 
 been even more beautiful than Paula, though Paula's beauty 
 had wonderfully increased. How superbly indignation and 
 shame contended in her features as that coxcomb of a prince 
 strutted about her studio without the slightest idea of how 
 impertinent he was^ and probably fancying all the time that 
 he was making himself unspeakably agreeable. 
 
 This meeting with the prince who had been my favored 
 rival with Constance, and with Arthur, whom I had so long 
 believed to be the favored lover of Paula, gave me much 
 matter for reflection, more indeed than was advantageous 
 for the progress of my work, to which I had applied myself 
 on my arrival home. As I recalled the refined and hand- 
 some but sadly worn face of the young prince, his eyes now 
 vacant, now burning with unnatural fire, the twitchings of his 
 brow and cheeks, his manner, at once insinuating and super 
 cillious, I felt more and more indignant that Arthur should 
 
462 ITammer and Anvil. 
 
 have dai-ed to introduce such a man into Paula's house. 
 What, at best, could be his motive for seeking the introduc- 
 tion ? The gratification of ordinary curiosity. And at 
 worst ? I ground my teeth to think of the horrible possi- 
 bility. My only consolation was that my fear that Arthur 
 might have won, or yet win, Paula's affections, now appeared 
 in all its absurdity. Clearly such a fop as he could never be 
 dangerous to such a girl as Paula ; though fop as he was, he 
 was wonderfully handsome, the perfect model of an elegant 
 gentleman in irreproachable kid gloves and varnished boots ; 
 a little vacant, perhaps, about the mouth, adorned with a 
 slight black beard, and a little hollow under the large dark 
 eyes that had lost all their brilliancy. It is possible that for 
 certain women this rendered him all the more dangerous ; 
 but what had Paula in common with such ? 
 
 Then my thoughts wandered from the prince, whom I had 
 seen again so unexpectedly, to the fair Bellini who so singu- 
 larly resembled Constance ; and I pushed back my chair, step- 
 ped to the window, which Paula's kindness had furnished with 
 dark curtains, and leaning my heated brow against the glass 
 looked out, in drear}'^ musing, into the yard, across which I 
 observed a figure coming through the freshly-fallen snow, di- 
 rectly to the house. My thoughts involuntarily recurred to 
 the figure I had once seen stealing by moonlight across the 
 lawn to Constance's window. Was it the prince ? What 
 brought him to me ? The figure came to the stair that led 
 up from the yard, and began to ascend the steps. I took the 
 lamp from the table to give light to the visitor, whoever he 
 might be. As I opened the door of my room he was just 
 entering the house, and the light of my lamp fell brightly on 
 the face of Arthur von Zehren. 
 
 " Thank heaven that I have found you at last, and with- 
 out breaking my legs or my neck !" he cried upon seeing me. 
 " How can any man in his senses live in such a place ? But 
 you always were an original. And really you seem com- 
 fortably fixed for a machinist, or whatever it was that the 
 fellow at the gate called you," — and Arthur, who had entered 
 the room as he spoke, threw himself into the arm-chair which 
 I had pushed near the fireplace, and held his gloved hands 
 over the coals. 
 
 I remained standing by the fire, and said : " What pro- 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 463 
 
 cures me the pleasure of seeing you for the second time to- 
 day?" 
 
 "The pleasure does not seem to be overwhelmmg, to 
 judge from your tone ; and in fact I should scarcely have 
 come had not the prince — I mean to say, had not I — what 
 was I going to say ? oh, yes — had a bit of business to settle 
 with you. While you were — ^you know where — ^you were sev- 
 eral times so obliging as to help me out of some small diffi- 
 culties. I took exact note of it all, for a man who owes as 
 many people as I do must be particular in these matters to 
 keep his creditors from swindling him. Of course I had 
 nothing of the sort to fear from you ; but out of mere habit 
 I took a note of it, and this is the amount, without the in- 
 terest, which I cannot calculate, and therefore would rather 
 leave off— a hundred and sixty thalers. I happen to be in 
 funds just now, and it is a pleasure to me to acquit myself 
 of my debt to you." 
 
 And rising from his chair he counted down a pile of 
 treasury-notes on the table. 
 
 "Will you count them over?" he continued ; "I have just 
 come from a dinner where we had famous champagne, and a 
 charming little game afterwards ; and it is quite possible 
 that I may have miscounted them." 
 
 He looked at me with a smile that was meant to be sly, 
 and balanced himself unsteadily on his toes and heels : it 
 was too evident that he had come from a dinner at which the 
 champagne had not been spared. 
 
 " What I was going to say," he went on — " your lamp bums 
 so dim that one can hardly collect his ideas — going to say, 
 was this : it was with the very best motive that he sent me 
 here. He is the noblest fellow living — ^heart and purse — all 
 genuine gold, as long as he has any. So you need not have 
 any scruple, old fellow. And I was going to say — oh, in 
 what relation did you ever stand to the prince ? He told me 
 himself that he was under an obligation to you ; but what it 
 can be is a mysterious enigma to me — a mysterious enigma," 
 he repeated, leaning back in the arm-chair into which he had 
 thrown himself again, and warming his feet alternately at 
 the fire. 
 
 " You do not seem to be in a condition to solve enigmas," 
 I said. 
 
464 Hammer and Afwil. 
 
 " Because I have had a little wine, you mean ? Oh, that 
 is nothing at all ; on the contrary, but for that I should 
 never have found my way here, notwithstanding I took the 
 precaution this morning to get your address from Paula's 
 porter. Was not that a happy idea ? But one must always 
 be ready in matters of that kind when one wishes to be inti- 
 mate with men of high rank ; and he takes an interest in 
 you, too — a most astonishing interest." 
 
 I had by this time enough of his tipsy talk, and said : 
 " I do not know, Arthur, if you are in a condition to under- 
 stand me. If you are, let me tell you once for all, that I am 
 fortunately in a position not to care a single farthing whether 
 Prince Prora takes an interest in me or not ; and you your- 
 self, as far as I can see, would be doing yourself a service by 
 mixing yourself as little as possible in the prince's concerns, 
 in this direction at least." 
 
 " Thank you," said Arthur, " but that I foresaw. You 
 are a lucky fellow ; you need no one, and are sufficient for 
 yourself Always sober, always prudent, always clear- 
 headed, and always in funds ; while a fellow like me is for- 
 ever in some devilish embroilment. But so it always has 
 been and always will be. I have often wished I had been 
 the son of a carter, had been beaten and knocked about, and 
 forced to work ^r my bread, instead of this glittering misery, 
 in which I starve one day and live in luxury the next. It is 
 a misery, old fellow, a misery ; but the best thing is that one 
 can blow his brains out whenever he chooses." 
 
 I knew this declamation of old. It was the same, with 
 but a slight alteration of the words, which Arthur used to 
 deliver in our school-days when he had drunk too much of 
 the bad punch at a boyish carouse, and got to talking of 
 his unpaid glove bills and his little dealings with Moses in 
 the Water-street. And it was the same Arthur, too, the 
 same frivolous, selfish, cold-hearted voluptuary, with the soft 
 voice and the insinuating manners ; and I — I was just the 
 same good-natured fellow, whom a light word carelessly 
 spoken could move as if it came direct from the heart. And 
 I had loved him in my young days, when I wore a linen 
 blouse and he a velvet jacket ; we had played so many 
 merry pranks together, and so often basked in the afternoon 
 sunshine in field and wood, and in the boat at sea ; and 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 465 
 
 things like these cannot be forgotten — at least I never 
 could forget them. 
 
 "Arthur," I said, '^ must you then always be in trouble 
 and distress ? Could it not be otherwise if you chose ? A 
 man like you, with so much talent, so much tact, such en- 
 gaging manners " 
 
 " And such a father ! " cried Arthur, with a laugh that 
 went to my heart. " Do you suppose that one can do any- 
 thing with such a father, who compromises me every moment 
 — every moment places me in the pillory, or at least keeps 
 me in perpetual fear that he will do it ? " 
 
 " I would never speak thus of my father, Arthur," I said. 
 
 " I suppose not," he answered. " You never had reason 
 to : if I had had such a father as yours I would be a differ- 
 ent man. But my father ! Here he runs from this man to 
 that, and begs for me a sort of position in our legation at 
 London, and a few weeks later he goes round to the very 
 same men and begs for himself; and the result is that they 
 don't want in the London legation the son of a man whom 
 they have to shut their door upon at home ; and if I had 
 not in London made the acquaintance of Prince Prora, who 
 most kindly took an interest in me, I should not know how 
 to pay for my cup of coffee to-morrow morning." 
 
 " Arthur," I said, " I believe you need the money more 
 than I do. Suppose you take it back to the prince, for it 
 comes from the prince, as you might as well confess — and 
 say to him from me that I neither need it nor desire it, and 
 request that it may be given to you. As for our little ac- 
 count, that we can settle when you really are in funds." 
 
 " You dear old George ! " cried Arthur, springing up and 
 seizing my hand. " You are the same dear fellow you always 
 were ; I intended it for you, but if you don't need it — ^" and 
 he hastily clutched up the notes which he had so carefully 
 counted, and thrust them into his breast pocket. 
 
 " Cannot the prince open some definite career to you ?" I 
 asked. 
 
 " The prince ! " he replied. " Bah ! you remind me of 
 the game the young girls used to play when we were children — 
 Emilie Heckepfennig, Elise Kohl, and whatever their names 
 were — the game of the meal-pile, into which a ring was 
 stuck, and each one of the girls cut away in turn a part of 
 20* 
 
466 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 the pile, and then more, and then a little more, until down 
 fell the meal-pile, and the little snub-noses went to rooting 
 in it for the ring. That is the very image of the man : every- 
 day one charming hand or another cuts away a portion of 
 the meal-pile that is called Prince Karl of Prora-Wiek, and 
 before long down the pile will tumble ; it leans over now, I 
 can tell you," and Arthur buttoned up his overcoat, and 
 drew on again his right glove, which he had pulled off to 
 count the money. 
 
 " I should be sorry to know that, if I were, as you are, a 
 friend of the young man." 
 
 " Friend ? " said he, lighting a cigar at the lamp. 
 " Friend ? pah ! I am as little his friend as he is mine. He 
 needs me, because — well, he needs me, and I need him ; and 
 whoever first ceases to need the other will give him a friendly 
 kick ; only I imagine I shall need him longer than he me, or 
 than his lungs will hold out, which I suspect are more than 
 half gone already." 
 
 Arthur had put on his hat, and as he stood before me, and 
 the light fell upon his handsome, pale, smiling face, I felt a 
 sharp pang of sorrow for him, which he probably perceived 
 in my looks, for he began to laugh heartily, and said : 
 
 " What a doleful face you are making, as if I were on my 
 way direct to the gallows, and not to the Albert Theatre to 
 see the fair Bellini who makes her debut to-night. And after- 
 wards a supper at Tavolini's with her, if we can manage it. 
 You see my life has its bright sides, for all. Good-by, old 
 raven ! " 
 
 And he nodded familiarly to me, and lounged out of the 
 door, which he forgot to close behind him. 
 
 I closed it, and put fresh coals on the half-extinguished 
 fire, trimmed the light, and sat down at my table, and said ais 
 I ojjened my books : " It is very singular that a young prince 
 should take such an interest in a poor blacksmith. Bah ! 
 I should be a fool to let such people move me from my path." 
 
 But though I strove to be wise, and to banish from my 
 thoughts the folly of the world, it kept drawing as by some 
 magnetic power my thoughts away from the dry formulas to 
 bright life, of which I had caught, as it were, a glimpse 
 in the opening and closing of the door. Gay enough was 
 the scene ; a table covered with half-emptied bottles and the 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 467 
 
 dainties of a dessert, and around the table a half-dozen jovial 
 faces ruddy with the wine, and mine among them, glowmg 
 with wine and pleasure brighter than all the rest, since I was 
 so much stronger than they that I could have drunk them all 
 under the table, and I sang a bacchanalian song, and they all 
 clapped and stamped, with cries of Bravo ! Encore.' 
 
 1 passed my hand across my brow. What insane dream 
 was this ? What had the solitary workman to do with thmgs 
 which had been invented only for rich idlers ? Here was the 
 work to which I had devoted myself; it was a jealous mis- 
 tress, and I could, not divide my affection between it and the 
 fiiir Bellini. 
 
 I sprang up, and I believe I struck my forehead with my 
 clenched fist without producing any perceptible result. 
 There she stood in my imagination just as she looked when, 
 going out of the door, she turned round to take another look 
 at the picture — the woman who so resembled Constance—the 
 actress who made her first appearance to-night. And in a 
 box close to the stage would be sitting the young prince with 
 his boon-companions, staring through their opera-glasses at 
 the fair Bellini, while I sat here by the comfortless light of 
 a lamp, in a chilly room, with burning head and freezing 
 hands, putting down upon paper long rows of figures which 
 would lead to no result. 
 
 I do not know by what steps the evil thought that had 
 arisen in my soul suddenly mastered my will ; I only know 
 that a few minutes later I was hastening through the dark 
 snow-covered streets, and soon arrived, breathless, at the 
 ticket-office of the Albert Theatre. Every place was taken 
 the box-keeper assured me, but in the lowest proscenium-box 
 on the right there was a standing-place. 
 
 " Give me that, then." 
 
 The man looked at me with surprise ; he had mentioned 
 the fact as a mere piece of information without the slightest 
 intention of offering it to me, whose place was evidently in the 
 pit or gallery. He looked doubtfully at me ; but he had 
 shown me the ticket and could not now deny it, so he put 
 the best face on it he could, and let the plebeian pass to the 
 aristocratic box. 
 
 The box was entirely full with the exception of the place 
 I had taken, which was in the furthest corner, on the side 
 
468 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 that looked toward the stage, so that I could see but a 
 small portion of the latter, but could look into the depth 
 of one of the wings, and had a view of the opposite prosce- 
 nium-box, and of so much of the audience as occupied the 
 extreme places in the various tiers. 
 
 When I took possession of this enviable place a couple 
 of elegantly-curled heads looked around to see the disturber, 
 and then exchanged remarks of a nature apparently not 
 flattering to me ; but as I had not the look of one who could 
 be unceremoniously shown the door they left me unmolested, 
 and I was allowed to give myself up to that delight which a 
 feeling heart can find in the contemplation of an empty pro- 
 scenium-box, and a side-scene in which a dozen painted ladies 
 and gentlemen in Spanish costume were apparently only 
 waiting the prompter's signal to step upon the stage. The 
 signal was given. The Spanish ladies and gentlemen marched 
 in couples out of the wing, and I observed one or two in 
 the extreme foreground taking their places upon chairs. 
 Then I heard a tumult upon the stage, as if from a throng 
 crowding in, and the chorus broke forth — . ~ = 
 
 " Hail, Preciosa, maiden most fair ; 
 Twine ye fresh flowers to garland her hair !" 
 
 During this chorus castanets clicked and tambourines re- 
 sounded : there was applause upon the stage, all crying 
 " Hail to Preciosa ! " and as if the crv had found an echo, 
 the whole house, from pit to gallery, burst into a shout of 
 " Brava ! Brava !" and I saw the men applauding like mad, 
 and the ladies straining forward to see better, and it seemed 
 as if their rapture would have no end. At last they were 
 quieted a little, and one of the Spanish gentlemen upon the 
 chairs in the foreground, who was called — I think, Don Fer- 
 nando — said to another : " By heaven, a lovely girl !" and the 
 other — Don Francisco — answered: "An enchanting little 
 beauty, indeed !" and at this the shouts and the bravas and 
 the applause burst forth again, as if the house were coming 
 down, so that the old gypsy mother could scarcely make her- 
 self heard when she asked if it was the gentlemen's plea- 
 sure to hear a song from her grand-daughter Preciosa. 
 
 Don Fernando asked for "something describing the hap- 
 piness of a child in the arms of its loving parents." The 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 469 
 
 voice of Don Alonzo, whom I could not see — a voice vibrat- 
 ing as if with passion — pronounced it "a cruel thought- 
 lessness to ask an orphan to sing of joys which heaven had 
 denied her." Don Fernando expressed his regret that he 
 had hit upon so ill-chosen a theme ; but Don Francisco in- 
 terrupted him with the words : " Hush, she is about to sing ; 
 she begins — " Then a momentary pause, and then 
 
 I had followed all these preliminaries with an intense ex- 
 pectation which could have been shared by none in the 
 house. I knew nothing of the piece, had never even heard 
 of it, that I know, but a sort of instinct revealed to me 
 everything that, invisible to me, was going on upon the stage ; 
 and I knew that the moment had now come in which she 
 who took the part of Preciosa would speak for the first time. 
 But a few seconds elapsed between the last words of the old 
 Don Francisco and the first words of Preciosa, and yet they 
 seemed to me an age. A wondrous intuition seized me that 
 it was certainly she, and my heart beat wildly at the thought, 
 when the first sound of her voice reached my ear, and my 
 head sank against the side of the box as I involuntarily 
 gasped, " It is she ! " 
 
 The ear has a faithful memory, more faithful perhaps than / 
 that of any other sense ; and the ear it was that had drawn " 
 me into my passion for Constance von Zehren when in the 
 evening I stood at the open window and listened to catch 
 the sound of her voice when I might no longer see her, 
 though it were but a word to her old servant. And some- 
 times I caught the notes of those songs which her deep, rich 
 voice poured forth with such matchless melody. Yes ; it was 
 herself, Constance von Zehren, the daughter of the proudest 
 of the proud, the kinswoman of Paula, an actress here upon 
 the stage of a suburb-theatre ! 
 
 How strangely the times had changed ! A sadness seized 
 me, and I could have wept ; I wished to be away, for it 
 seemed to me a crime against the memory of my unhappy 
 friend that I should listen here to what would have been so 
 horrible to him ; but I could not go ; I stood as if spell- 
 bound, my head leaned against the partition, without motion 
 and almost without breathing ; I stood thus during Preciosa's 
 improvisation, and scarcely moved when the curtain fell and 
 the storm of applause broke forth more furious than ever. 
 
470 Hafumcr and Anvil. 
 
 There was a movement in my box. A young lady, who 
 found the high temperature of the box more than her nerves 
 could endure, had fainted, or was about to faint, and was 
 conducted out by two elder ladies, followed by several young 
 gentlemen of the party. In this way some half-dozen seats 
 were left vacant, which were at once taken by those who re- 
 mained. And thus it happened that when the curtain again 
 rose, besides the left wing I could now also see a part of 
 the gypsy camp under the Spanish cork-trees, and one or 
 two members of the respectable gypsy family, who were re- 
 clining about the great kettle under which a fire was flicker- 
 ing. The captain and Viarda have determined to go to 
 Valencia. They are only waiting for Preciosa, who is wan- 
 dering alone in the woods. The g\'psies scatter in various 
 directions ; for a moment the stage is empty, and then I 
 saw her as I had seen her before. 
 
 As I had seen her on that autumn morning under the 
 beeches of Zehrendorf, through whose lightly- waving branches 
 the golden sunlight fell upon her ; a slender, deep brunette, 
 in a strangely fantastic dress of green veh-et with golden 
 braidings, her beloved guitar by her side. Just as she was 
 then — as if the years that had flown had left no trace upon 
 her, nor been able to steal one of the dark roses from her 
 cheeks, or quench the lustre of her radiant eyes. And just 
 as then my heart palpitated, and I could scarcely breathe as 
 she began to descend the rocks under the lofty trees as she 
 before came down the mossy bank to the tarn where I was 
 standing, and sitting upon a mossy bank at the foot of the 
 rocks, and raising her voice — that soft rich voice of which my 
 heart remembered every tone — she sang : 
 
 " Lone I am, but am not lonely ; 
 
 When the moonbeams round me glide, 
 One loved presence hovers near me, 
 
 One dear form is at my side." ( ' 
 
 Just so I had heard her voice in those balmy moonlight 
 nights, floating to me from the glimmering park, and the 
 memory of those happy days completely overcame me. My 
 throat seemed compressed, my heart beat violently, hot tears 
 burst from my eyes and hid her and everything from my 
 sight. . . 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 47 1 
 
 The thunder of applause with which the public greeted 
 the close of the romanza recalled me to myself. I saw that 
 she bowed, and prepared to obey their repeated calls ; I saw 
 the leader raise his baton, and heard the first notes of the 
 charming melody, 
 
 " Lone I am, but am not lonely " 
 
 when suddenly a tumult occurred in the theatre. All eyes 
 were turned upon the lower proscenium-box on the left, 
 directly opposite to me, into which at this moment a party of 
 young gentlemen, elegantly dressed, and with heated faces, 
 as if they had just been dining, entered noisily, and seated 
 themselves upon the t\\'0 front rows of chairs. In the left- 
 hand corner a young man took his place, who seemed, by the 
 attentions the rest paid him, to be the most distinguished 
 among them. His right hand, in a yellow glove, hung indo- 
 lently over the front of the box, and his face was turned to 
 one of his companions. The threatening hisses of the audi- 
 ence did not disturb him as he conversed half aloud, and he 
 only turned his head when the singer suddenly paused. At 
 this moment I recognized Prince Prora, and plainly saw him 
 change color as he caught sight of Preciosa. She had 
 recognized him at the first glance, and the blood forsook her 
 cheeks and her voice failed her. Suddenly she arose from 
 her seat, as if intending to hasten off the stage ; then stopped, 
 as if about to faint, and pressed her hand upon her heart. 
 The audience imagined that their favorite — for this the beau- 
 tiful girl had at once become — was so deeply hurt by the rude 
 behavior of these aristocratic young gentlemen that she 
 could not sing, and they began to hiss more loudly — to cry 
 " Silence ! " and even " Turn out the aristocrats ! turn out 
 the yellow gloves ! " 
 
 The young prince looked around with the expression of 
 one whom the matter did not concern in the least, but his 
 companions felt called upon to do more : they laughed 
 loudly, bowed with ironical politeness, and openly scorned 
 the audience, who now seemed disposed to carry their threats 
 into execution. Several Hotspurs were clambering over the 
 backs of the seats towards the box, when suddenly the 
 singer, who had been standing with her eyes riveted upon it, 
 gave a cry, dropped her guitar, and would have fallen had 
 
472 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 not Don Fernando, in whom I recognized her companion at 
 the exhibition, rushed out of the wing and caught her in his 
 arms. At the same moment the curtain fell. I hastened 
 out of the box, not knowing what I was doing nor where I 
 was going, and only recovered myself when the icy-cold air 
 of the winter night blew in my burning face. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 I DO not know how many hours I passed in wandering 
 thus through the streets : I have only a dim remem- 
 brance of great blocks of houses rising dark into the 
 gray of the night ; of flakes of snow fluttering down from 
 this gray into the yellow light ; of vehicles rolling past me 
 almost without sound, over the fresh-fallen snow ; and figures 
 that glided by me with heads down, sheltering themselves as 
 they best could from the snow-storm. 
 
 There were not many of these latter, for every one sought 
 a shelter from the bad weather. Those who were out in it 
 were those who had no choice, such as the unhappy crea- 
 tures who with pale lips murmured to the passers-by words 
 intended to sound warm and inviting. 
 
 One of these unfortunates I thought I saw before me, as 
 wandering through a wide street in the most distinguished 
 quarter I reached one of the small palaces, before the door 
 of which just then drove up at a sharp trot a carriage 
 drawn by two fiery horses, and throwing around a bright 
 light from both its lamps. In the light of these lamps stood 
 the girl, crouching close to the wall, and I saw that at the 
 moment when the equerry sprang from the box and helped 
 his master out of the carriage she advanced a step and 
 extended her arm from her cloak, as if she wished to stop 
 the latter as he descended. But he had pulled the fur col- 
 lar of his cloak up around his face, and as he rapidly hurried 
 up the steps did not see the girl. The door, which had 
 given a sight of a brilliantly-lighted hall, closed behind mas- 
 ter and servant ; the coachman touched his spirited animals 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 473 
 
 lightly with the whip, the carriage rolled away and vanished 
 into the open gate of an adjoining building. 
 
 No one remained without but myself, the poor girl, and 
 the snow-flakes still fluttering down from the darkness into 
 the yellow light of the lamps. The girl came towards me 
 and passed me by. It was plain that she did not see me, 
 but I saw her as the light of one of the lamps struck upon 
 a face distorted by mental anguish. 
 
 " Constance ! " I exclaimed. 
 
 She suddenly stopped and stared at me with her glowing 
 black eyes. 
 
 " Constance ! " I repeated, " do you not know me ? It is 
 I— George " 
 
 " My dragon-slayer, who was to kill all the dragons in my 
 path ! Why have you not killed that one — that one ! " and 
 she laughed a frightful laugh, and pointed to the door which 
 had closed on Prince Prora. 
 
 Her cloak was loose and fluttering in the icy wind, and I 
 saw she was still in the costume of Preciosa. She must have 
 rushed off the stage into the street. The snow-flakes were 
 driving into her fevered face. 
 
 " Poor Constance ! " I murmured, and wrapped the cloak 
 closer around her shoulders, drew her arm in mine, anxious 
 first of all to lead her from this place. She willingly fol- 
 lowed me, and we walked thus through the long, wind-swept 
 streets, I looking down from time to time at the poor girl, 
 who clung even closer to me, and asking her in a compas- 
 sionate tone how she was, and whither I should take her. 
 
 I had several times i-epeated these questions without re- 
 ceiving an answer, when she suddenly stopped, and mur- 
 mured with pale lips — " I can go no further ! " It seemed 
 to me that she was on the point of fainting. I was in the 
 greatest embarrassment. There was not a public convey- 
 ance to be seen anywhere in the street, and in our objectless 
 flight we had wandered far from' the fashionable quarter 
 where, upon my repeated inquiries, she informed me that 
 she lodged. But it so happened, I know not how, that we 
 had strayed into the neighborhood of my own lodging, and 
 I thought it the best, indeed the only thing I could do, to 
 take her there. " You can at least remain there long enough 
 to warm yourself, while I get a carriage to take you home." 
 
474 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 Without answering a word she followed me. I had the key 
 of the outer door, so that I did not need to disturb the old 
 watchman ; and his dog, that came growling up to us, as soon 
 as he recognized me, leaped about me, wagging his tail. 
 
 I congratulated myself that I had hit upon this expedient, 
 for Constance hung heavily upon my arm, and I had almost 
 to carry her across the yard and up the steps to my room. 
 And when we had reached the room, and by the dim light 
 of the fire I had led her to the arm-chair, and lighted my 
 lamp, I saw that her eyes were vacant of expression and half- 
 closed, while a deep pallor overspread her whole face. 
 
 My confusion in a situation so new for me was less than I 
 should have supposed. I had no other thought than as 
 promptly as possible to assist one who was in such urgent 
 need of assistance. I stirred the fire until it blazed brightly ; 
 I took off her cloak, now saturated with the melted snow, 
 and wrapped her in a plaid ; I folded a coverlid around her 
 feet, and warmed her cold hands in my own. Then it oc- 
 curred to me that probably a cup of tea, which I could pre- 
 pare in a moment, would be of service ; so I got out the tea- 
 things from my cupboard, boiled the water in a tin kettle over 
 my fire, and poured her out a cup of the refreshing beverage, 
 not forgetting first to add a little good cognac. She drank 
 it eagerly ; I offered her a second cup, which she also drank. 
 
 The warm drink seemed to have greatly revived her : she 
 looked at the pictures on the walls, at the furniture, and last 
 at me, and said, reaching out to me her small hand, in which 
 the warm life began to pulsate again, " How good you are ! 
 how good ! You are the best creature I have ever known. 
 How much happier might my life have been had you come to 
 our house a i^vi months earlier : you good, good George ! " 
 
 It was again the Constance of those old times : the same 
 fascinating prattle in the same soft melodious voice : and I, 
 who knew so well what confidence to place in all this kind- 
 ness and gentleness, stood like the great oaf that I was, my 
 whole soul thrilled by the sweet, unforgotten tones, and 
 trembling from head to foot at the touch of her soft hand. 
 But my reason made an effort to obtain the supremacy once 
 for all. I drew my hand from hers, stepped back to the fire- 
 place, and said, while with great apparent calmness 1 was 
 warming my hands behind my back : , i 
 
tJammer and Anvil. 
 
 475 
 
 " You are very kind ; but your kindness must not make 
 me forget that I have undertaken to see you safely home. 
 If you are so disposed, and feel sufficiently recovered, I will 
 now go for a carriage." 
 
 "You are still angry with me," she said, leaning back in' 
 the chair and looking up to me under her long lashes. 
 " Why are you angry ? What have I done to you ? What 
 have I done that another in my place would not have done ? 
 For my love I gave reputation, home, myself: was I to bear 
 so tender a solicitude for the feelings of a youth, who 
 scarcely knew himself what those feelings were? Did you 
 love me? Did you ever love me?" she repeated, springing 
 up and looking into my eyes. " You never loved me. You 
 could not else stand so calmly there, and you are not worth 
 the regret it cost me to play off that little deception on you. 
 Do you know that I was so childish as never entirely to get 
 over it ? That your friendly face with its honest eyes looked 
 continually in upon my dreams, and drew from me tears of re- 
 morse ? You, of all men, have least right to be angry with me. " 
 
 And she threw herself back in the chair, and defiantly 
 folded her arms over her breast. 
 
 " Who said that I was angry with you ? " I replied. 
 
 "You must be angry," she returned with a sort of vio- 
 lence. " I will have you angry : should I wish you to 
 despise me ? There is no third case possible. The third 
 would be indifference ; and I am not indifferent to you, am 
 I, George ? Not indifferent, though you are now making an 
 amazing effort to appear so. When two p«rsons have once 
 stood as near to each other as we two, and are connected by 
 such recollections as ours, thev can never entireiv lose each 
 other in the desert of indifference. Do you know that some 
 weeks ago, when I saw a likeness of you in the exhibition, 
 I was startled as if I had seen a ghost, and could not bring 
 myself away from it, and afterwards I returned to it again 
 and again, and wept many tears at the thought of vou ? 
 Then I saw by the catalogue that it was painted by my 
 cousin, and I made a pair of you both, a happy pair, and 
 blessed you in my inmost heart. Now indeed I see that it 
 is otherwise. What are you ? What are you doing ! How 
 did you come to this strange place ? " and she looked again . 
 around the room. 
 
476 Hammer and Amnl. 
 
 " I am a simple workman," I answered ; " a blacksmith in a 
 neighboring machine-shop." 
 
 " Blacksmith ! — machine-shop ! — what do you say ? Who 
 would have said this that afternoon when I saw you setting 
 out for the hunt with the others, in high hunting-boots and 
 a short velvet coat, with your gun and game-pouch, so tali 
 and stately, the tallest and stateliest of all ! What would 
 my father have said ? You always sided with him — perhaps 
 you do so still ; but believe me, he did not deal well with me ; 
 and if I am to blame, and am an outcast and accursed, it all, 
 all falls upon his head. Do you know that the old Prince 
 Prora, when my father grew indignant at his refusal, flung 
 in his face the taunt : ' My son cannot marry your bastard, 
 nor can I fight with a smuggler !' My father sprang at him 
 and would have strangled him — as if that could restore his 
 honor or mine ! And you see, George, of all this I knew 
 nothing : I first learned it from Kar — from him when he 
 proposed to abandon me in a foreign country. Can a man 
 know what it is to a girl, when she has loved a man, be he 
 worthy or unworthy — given herself to him wholly, staked her 
 all upon him, like a desperate gamester upon a single card 
 — to be thrust out by him into wretchedness, with mockery 
 and shame ? Not into common wretchedness, such as seeks 
 a subsistence by the light of a poor working-lamp, or in the 
 glare of the street-lanterns — I was always surrounded by 
 splendor and luxury, and the Marchese of Serra di Falco 
 was as much richer than he as sunny Sicily is fairer than our 
 foggy native island. And j^et it was wretchedness — bound- 
 less, glittering wretchedness — which no woman escapes who 
 is deceived in her love, whatever the compensation that may 
 be offered her. I tried hate ; but hate is the twin brother of 
 love, and they can not deny their common parentage. There 
 is but one remedy for love, and that is revenge. Avenge me 
 on him ! You can do it ; you are so strong ; you have al- 
 ready once had him in your power — that night when you met 
 him in the wood?. He told me about it and asked who the 
 giant was. Why did you let him escape.-* Why did you not 
 strangle him — brain him ? — and then come to me and say, * I 
 am your lover, for I am stronger than the other,' and take 
 me in your arms and carry me off? But you men never 
 show us that you are men, and you wonder then that we play 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 477 
 
 with you I As if we could do anything else with a creature 
 that we do not see to be stronger than ourselves, and often 
 so much weaker ! Show what you can be — what you are ! 
 Crush the head of this serpent, and I will fall at your feet/ 
 and worship you !" 
 
 While thus speaking she had let fall the plaid in which I 
 had wrapped her and had risen from the chair, and with her 
 last words she sank" upon her knees, holding out her arms to 
 me. The flickering light of the fire played upon her fantas- 
 tic gypsy dress, gleamed upon her dark hair which hung in 
 dishevelled locks over her cheeks and shoulders, and glowed 
 upon the face which had so fatal a beauty for me. The name- 
 less charm with which she had at first fascinated me over- 
 came me with all the old might : my heart beat as if it 
 would burst from my bosom, and feverish shudders ran over 
 my whole body, but with a vehement effort I collected my- 
 self, stretched out my ice-cold hand and raised her, and said : 
 
 " You apply to the wrong person. Entrust your vengeance 
 upon the prince to one who has a nearer interest in it : to 
 the young man, for instance, upon whose arm you were lean- 
 ing when I saw you in the gallery, and who, this very even- 
 ing, if I am not mistaken, was the personage in the play 
 whom Preciosa made happy with her favor." 
 
 Constance had risen slowly, her eyes ever fixed upon mine, 
 and began to pace the room with hasty steps, pausing at in- 
 tervals before me, and speaking as she walked : 
 
 " How base you men are ; how horribly base and unfeel- \ 
 ing ! Was it for this reason — to heap these cruel reproaches - 
 upon me — that you enticed me here ? Is this your hospitali- 
 ty ? Do you think your fire has warmed me too much, that 
 you now drench me with ice- water ? But your heart is so 
 cold only because your brain is so dull ; because, for instance, 
 you cannot comprehend how a woman who, from childhood 
 up, has been lapped in visions of future splendor, and has 
 seen her life's dream almost realized, when this dream at 
 once scatters like light mist, and she, with her high-wrought 
 feelings and pampered taste, with her cherished pretensions 
 to beauty and luxury, is about to be given over to a coarse, 
 commonplace existence — that such a woman of necessit}' 
 must catch at the wretched reflection of the brilliant reality 
 that is irrecoverably gone ; that the beloved of princes can 
 
478 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 afterwards be nothing else than a stage princess. And not 
 even this pitiful reflection does he leave me undisturbed ! 
 Again he forces himself upon me, and embitters my poor tri- 
 umph. But why do I speak of all this to a man who under- 
 stands it not, and can never understand it — who has chosen 
 the happy lot of a modest existence full of labor, and toil, 
 and quiet sleep ? " 
 
 I had thrown myself into the chair from which she had 
 arisen, and she stood before me, and went on in a strange, 
 soft, trembling voice : 
 
 " If I could only sleep ! , If I could only sleep ! Could I 
 but drink from the fountain that daily flows for you, and will 
 flow for that happy woman whom some day you will bring to 
 this peaceful hearth ! Could I banish the fever that here 
 burns me, and here allows me no rest " — she pointed with 
 these words to her breast and her head — " no rest — none ! 
 Oh to sleep thus, amid the perfumes of rosemary and violets 
 — a sweet sleep upon a strong, true heart ! " 
 
 And as I sat with bowed head, and heart filled with pain, 
 I felt a pair of soft arms wind about my neck, a swelling 
 bosom pressed to mine, and a pair of glowing lips that 
 sought my own. Had the dream which the enamored, pas- 
 sionate boy had dreamed become reality, or was I really 
 dreaming ? And was. it only as one who strives to arouse 
 himself from a dream that I pressed her to me, then sprang 
 to my feet and let her glide from my arms, and again caught 
 her to my heart ? 
 
 The light which had been burning dimly now sank into 
 the socket and expired, but in the flickering glimmer of the 
 fire I saw the outlines of the lovely form that clung and 
 pressed down to my breast, and as if in a dream I heard a 
 voice murmur at my ear : "to sleep sweetly upon a strong, 
 \ true heart ! " 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ARE you sick, my dear George ? " said Doctor Snellius, 
 entering my room one evening. 
 
 I had not seen the doctor since we last parted so 
 unpleasantly, and the visit of the man with the keen specta- 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 479 
 
 cles and the keen eyes behind them was doubly disagreeable 
 to one who wished to avoid the gaze of every one. He 
 must have noticed my embarrassment, for the tone of his 
 voice was unusually soft and gentle when he spoke again, 
 after taking his place by the fire. 
 
 " I knew it from Klaus Pinnow, who perceived that some- 
 thing was amiss with you, and from Paula, who has per- 
 ceived nothing because you have not been near her, and who 
 sends me to you for this reason. What is it, my friend ? 
 Your hand is hot, you look wretchedly, and you have decided 
 fever. What is amiss .'' " 
 
 " I feel quite well," I answered — drawing my large hand 
 out of the doctor's, which was small and delicate as a 
 woman's, and with it screening my brow and eyes from the 
 sharp spectacles — " perfectly well." 
 
 You must then have some mental trouble, some great dis- 
 tress, which affects natures like yours more powerfully than 
 severe sickness does others. Is it so ? " 
 
 " You may be right there," I answered. 
 
 " And can you not tell me what it is t " asked the doctor, 
 drawing nearer to me, and laying his small hand upon my 
 other hand which rested on my knee. 
 
 " It is not worth talking about," I answered. " A curious 
 story — something like one which I have read somewhere or 
 other — about a young man who loved a beautiful woman who 
 was a witch, and one night as he stretched out his hand to 
 take hers she had vanished — out of the chimney — to the 
 Blocksberg — ^to the devil, I suppose !" 
 
 And I sprang up, paced the room for a few minutes in 
 great agitation, and then threw myself again into my chair. 
 
 "The story is rather too mystical to build a diagnosis 
 upon," the doctor remarked, in a kind voice, drawing still 
 nearer, and, as he could not take my hand, laying his own 
 familiarly upon my knee. 
 
 " Then listen to this : A youth of nineteen loved a beau- 
 tiful girl of about the same age — Gloved her passionately, as 
 one loves at those years, especially, when solitude and 
 romantic associations heighten the charm. He was decieved 
 by the girl, and finally shamefully betrayed ; and yet he 
 never could forget her, and in the eight or nine years that 
 follows his heart palpitated in his breast whenever he 
 
480 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 thought of her. And then an accident brought her to him 
 again — just as he had expected to find her — a lost girl, who 
 had been the mistress of I know not how many men. He 
 cannot doubt it — indeed she tells him so herself — and yet 
 while she tells him his heart throbs violently, and in his soul 
 he longs to join the long train of his predecessors. And 
 when she opens her arms he hastened to sink upon her 
 breast in which there beats no heart. He plainly feels that 
 no heart beats there ; but a childish, an insane pity seizes 
 him : he will warm this chilled heart again with the glow of 
 his burning kisses, with his own heart's blood. And the 
 phantom drinks his neart's blood — one, two, three nights ; 
 and when he wakes in the third, she has vanished as witches 
 vanish, and the next night he sees her at the theatre coquet- 
 ting with a young dandy, who drives home with her, while 
 outside " 
 
 " Stands the poor man, and beats his head with his fist, and 
 tears out his hair by handfuls; we know all about that '."said 
 Doctor Snellius, and softly patted my knee. " We know all 
 about that," he repeated, touching me still more softly j " it 
 is painful ; but when a jaw-tooth with three long roots is 
 pulled out, that is painful too, and so is the setting a broken 
 arm. And I think the poor man whom I have just left is 
 not in a frame of mind to be envied. It is a poor workman 
 in your establishment ; you doubtless know him ; his name 
 is Jacob Kraft, and he works, if I am not mistaken, in your 
 shop. Well, his wife, a dear good woman, whom the young 
 fellow had courted for many a long day, nine days ago bore 
 a dead child, and now she lies dead herself, and by her bed- 
 side kneels poor Jacob and wishes that he had never been 
 born. I do not think the poor fellow's feelings are to be 
 envied. And young Frau Miiller is not particularly happy 
 either. Her husband left home this morning, well and 
 cheerful, to go to his work on the new tramway, had his 
 breast crushed in between two wagons, and will die to-night. 
 Besides, my friend, we must all die, and ' after nine it will all 
 be over,' as the manager of the theatre said when the pit 
 hissed." 
 
 " Dying is not so much," I said ; " I have more than once 
 in my life wished to die, and thought it rather a greater thing 
 that I did not, but kept on living this cursed life." 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 481 
 
 " And you did right, my friend," said the doctor. 
 
 " I am not sure," I replied, "if those Romans of whom I 
 heard at school did not act both nobler and wiselier when 
 they fell upon their swords so soon as the game was lost." 
 
 " Every one to his taste," said the doctor. " When a 
 horse breaks his leg we shoot him ; but with a man, we set it 
 again ; or, if it cannot be saved, cut it off and buckle on a 
 leg of wood or cork, with which he hobbles on the remainder 
 of his earthly pilgrimage. You have no idea, my friend, how 
 little is really necessary to life : hardly more than head and 
 heart. Yes, scarcely even that. You have, no doubt, your- 
 self observed how many a man goes through life without a 
 head ; and that one can live with half a heart, or a quarter, 
 I can testify from personal experience." 
 
 The doctor said this in a low, dejected tone of voice, as if 
 talking to himself And he went on still, as if talking to 
 himself, softly stroking my knee, and looking into the fire. 
 
 " Yes ! with half a heart. It is not very easy or very pleas- 
 ant living ; one sometimes feels as if the breast would be 
 crushed, or as if we must lie down just where we happen to 
 be, and never rise up again. But we do get up again, and 
 do some good, if not to ourselves to another whose shoe 
 pinches him somewhere, and whom with our experience and 
 our cobbler's skill we may possibly help. For, my friend, 
 there are very few who are able to pull off their shoes, which 
 in truth is not merely the best but the only way to be rid of 
 all pain. So these people must be helped ; and my life for 
 many years has been but a pondering and study how this 
 may be done on a large scale ; for in a smaller sphere, as far 
 as very limited private means can reach, I very well know 
 what is to be done, and do all I can. Au revoir, my dear 
 George : I still have a pair of old shoes to patch and a com 
 or two to trim." 
 
 Doctor Snellius gave me a friendly slap on the knee, 
 clapped his worn hat on his bald head, turned in the door 
 to give me an amicable nod, and left me alone. 
 
 A man not naturally ignoble is perhaps never more dis- 
 posed or better fitted to sympathize in other's misfortunes 
 than when he himself has a, heavy sorrow. Thus the horrible 
 treachery which Constance had practiced upon me opened 
 my eyes and my heart to the doctor's trouble. That the 
 
 21 
 
482 Ha77imcr and Anvil. 
 
 singular man loved Paula I had never doubted ; but as he 
 always draped his love in a humorous cloak, I, in my sim- 
 plicity, had never seen how strong and deep this love was. 
 It seemed to me so evident that this dwarfish figure, with the 
 misshapen bald head and the grotesquely ugly face, could 
 never be loved by a beautifial slender maiden, as one looks 
 upon it as a matter of course that a man who goes on crutches 
 cannot dance upon the tight-rope. Now for the first time I 
 saw what this man must have suffered through all these years 
 — the man who, not without reason, and assuredly not with- 
 out a reference to himself, said that a man to live scarcely 
 required more than a head and a heart. And then I com- 
 pared him, the stoical sufferer, with myself, and asked my- 
 self if he, the pure, the good, the noble, did not better deserve 
 Paula's love than I, for this good fortune had always 
 seemed to me a kind of miracle, of which I had ever felt 
 myself unworthy, but never so unworthy as now. 
 
 Perhaps more than one youth of eighteen, who may read 
 these lines, will smile compassionately, in the consciousness 
 of his maturer experience, at the man of twenty-eight, who 
 took such a trifle so deeply to heart. But he should consider 
 that I had grown up among the simplest associations, had 
 been eight years in prison, and now since I had lived in the 
 city had employed all my time in carrying out my determi- 
 nation to be a good machinist. How could I have accumu- 
 lated the experience of my wise censor ? How could I know 
 that love-troubles of this kind are to a man of the world 
 what scars are to a brigand — not only honorable in his own 
 eyes and those of his companions, but also in the eyes of 
 the fair whose grace and favor he counts upon winning ? I 
 was but a great boy with all my twenty-eight years ; I con- 
 fess it with contrition, and beg my wise friend of eighteen to 
 . have patience with me. 
 
 Perhaps he will find this a difficult task, when he learns 
 that I carried my folly so far as to feel convinced that I had 
 given myself to the fair sinner, body and soul, forever, and 
 that it was my duty henceforth to live for her ; to save her 
 if I could, to perish with her if I must ; and that I felt my- 
 self nowise released from this obligation and free once more, 
 when she wrote me a delicate little perfumed billet, saying 
 that I was still- as ever her good George, whom she loved 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 483 
 
 dearly, but that she could not live with me, and had no wish 
 to be saved by me, far less to perish with me. 
 
 But in my own eyes I was and remained a condemned 
 criminal, severed from the companionship of the good and 
 pure. Never for me should the flame glow on the domestic 
 hearth, never a pure woman make me happy with her hand, 
 never laughing children play around my knees. The curse 
 with which unkind Nature had smitten the good doctor — the 
 curse of never being loved as his heart yearned to be — I had 
 in my folly invoked upon myself; and thus nothing remained 
 for me but, like him, to renounce individual love, and, like 
 him, to draw comfort and solace from the overflowing foun- 
 tain of love for suffering humanity. 
 
 I was able to see, later, that the doctor, as wise as he was 
 skilful, judged pretty accurately of my condition, and took a 
 far less tragical view of it than I did. But the state of my 
 thoughts and feelings at the moment fitted very well with his 
 purposes. For years he had looked upon me as his pupil, 
 and he might do so in more than one light. He had a great 
 scheme in view in which he counted on his pupil's assistance, 
 and this, in his opinion, was one step necessary to success. 
 
 I had always known that the worthy man, although he con- 
 stantly maintained that while it was true that stupidity was 
 a misfortune, it was none the less true that misfortune was in 
 most cases mere stupidity — cherished a great love for the un- 1 
 fortunate stupids and the stupid unfortunates. How great 
 this love was, I was now to know. He made me theoreti- 
 cally and practically acquainted with those social questions 
 with which the whole world is now occupied, but then were 
 only seen in their full importance by a few enlightened 
 minds. He showed me the state of things in England, in 
 France, and at home, and what might also be done in Ger- 
 many upon the pattern of what had been done in England 
 and France. Then he spoke of benefit-societies, of co-opera- 
 tive associations, and workmen's unions, of play-schools 
 for children and trade-schools for adults, and all the means 
 that have been devised to fight the universal enemy upon his 
 own ground. At this time there had been next to nothing 
 of this sort done among us : which was all the more unfortu- 
 nate, as just at this time, with the springing up of the first 
 railroads, manufactures received a quite unlooked-for expan- 
 
484 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 t 
 sion, the increased demand for labor brought an enormous 
 influx of workmen, and with this an enormous increase of 
 those evils which even under the old patriarchal relations it 
 had not been possible entirely to prevent. 
 
 In my frame of mind at the time I was soon brought to 
 enter into his views with passionate ardor. An ordinary 
 workman, as I was, in brotherly intercourse with my fellow- 
 workmen, I heard and saw everything that went on among 
 them. Where my knowledge was at fault, Klaus, from his 
 fuller experience, could supply the defect, and further than 
 either reached the keen vision of the doctor, who saw into the 
 darkest recesses which poverty and misery hide from the 
 eyes of all but the physician. So we three interchanged ex- 
 periences, and many an evening, after the heavy work of 
 the day, sat around the doctor's table in consultation over 
 the projects which the doctor had so long been nursing. 
 
 Alas ! it was little, very little that we could do. On the 
 one side, we had to contend with the stupidity of those who 
 would rather go to ruin than abandon their old routine ; and 
 on the other side, with the dull selfishness of those who could 
 not see why they might not prosper, even if the others were 
 ruined. 
 
 " It is the old story of Hammer and Anvil," I said one 
 evening to my two friends. " The workmen have so ac- 
 customed themselves to the dull passive part of the anvil 
 that they can set nothing in motion, even when their own 
 interest manifestly requires it. The manufacturers, on the 
 other hand, think that as they are now the gentlemen of the 
 hammer, they have only to pound away upon the anvil which, 
 heaven be thanked, has remained patient so far." 
 
 " Have I not always told you that it has been so as long as 
 the world has stood ? " replied the doctor. " Now you see 
 it for yourself" 
 
 " But there must be some remedy discoverable ! " I cried. 
 " I cannot let go the precious faith of our beloved friend." 
 
 " Not in the way in which he sought it," returned the doc- 
 tor, shaking his big head. " He imagined that he could 
 make men free by teaching them the dignity and sanctity of 
 labor. ' They were not willing to work when they should have 
 been ; now they must whether they will or not ; and my task 
 is to bring them to will that which they must. They were 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 485 
 
 not free when they were at liberty; I would make them truly 
 free while they are in captivity, that from bondage they may 
 come forth as free men '—such speeches as these, how often 
 have we heard from his lips ? And he firmly believed it all, 
 noble enthusiast that he was, because he did not know the 
 world, did not know that labor is a commodity in the market 
 of the world, which, like every other, is subject to the great 
 laws of supply and demand ; and that these may stand so 
 adjusted that the free diligent workman may find himself in 
 a pass where neither his freedom, his diligence, nor his work 
 is worth a farthing. So the cause of Anvil versus Hammer 
 is appealed to a higher court, where it will be decided ac- 
 cording to the great laws of history and political economy, 
 with a verdict — as our friend had correctly discovered — , 
 that both parties were guilty and liable for the costs of the ; 
 suit." 
 
 " That may quiet our anxiety as to the final result," I said ; 
 " but if I rightly understood our friend, the better man might 
 in himself compose this difference, as he is conscious that at 
 every moment he at once acts and suffers, gives and receives, 
 bears and is borne — in a word, is both Hammer and Anvil." 
 
 " Very fine and honorable for him who so penetrates him- 
 self with this truth that it influences all his actions," replied 
 the doctor. " But the common good is less dependent upon 
 this than it seems ; and lucky that it is so, for so soon as the 
 individual has power, for instance riches, he is seized with a 
 damnable itching to abuse it. What then is to become of 
 poor humanity ? " 
 
 "And yet you abused me that I did not clutch with both 
 hands at your offer to intrust all your fortune to me, which 
 I should have cheated you out of forthwith, as a good start 
 on my way to a million." 
 
 " That is a very different matter," said the doctor, in some 
 confusion. 
 
 " I do not see why," I answered. " What security have you 
 that I can resist temptation better than another? Or do I, 
 with my broad shoulders, look as if I would go through the 
 needle's eye easier than our. worthy commerzienrath ? " 
 
 " Do not compare yourself with that monster," cried the 
 doctor in a rage. " Did I never show you the letter in 
 which he answered my request that he would take an inter- 
 
486 ILjmmer and Anvil. 
 
 est in our projects ? Here, you can skip that part — a coarse 
 joke about people who count their chickens before they are 
 hatched — -but here: ' Co-operative associations ? Stuff and 
 nonsense ! There is a shop at every corner. Beneficial 
 societies for the sick ? — burial societies ? I want healthy 
 workmen, and have always had as many as I wanted, and 
 more too. The sick are your affair, not mine, respected 
 Herr Doctor ; and as for dying, it is not likely that either of 
 us can hinder that ? ' " 
 
 " He is a fool ! " cried the doctor, tearing the letter in frag- 
 ments and stamping upon it ; "a fellow with no bowels ; no 
 better than a caterpillar in human form ! " 
 
 "But so is every one who has a million, doctor." 
 
 " Oh, you always have an apology for him," crowed Doctor 
 Snellius. 
 
 In this he was not altogether wrong : I could never feel as 
 indigna^it with the man as 1 should have felt with another. 
 For, after all, the man in the blue frock-coat with gold but- 
 tons, and the yellow nankeen trousers, was a figure that be- 
 longed to the days of my childhood, upon whom, be he what 
 he might, there ever lay a light from the sun that had shone 
 upon those days. And what this is, is known to ever}- one 
 who has had a childhood ; which, unhappily, is more than 
 many can say of themselves. Let this sun but once shine 
 upon any one, nay, upon any lifeless thing, and they are 
 invested with a charter that at all times we willingly re- 
 spect. And then there was another reason or two for my 
 looking upon the rich commerzienrath in another light than 
 did my good but bitter friend. To be sure, when I thought 
 of it, I could not comprehend — nor have I comprehended to 
 this day — how this man could be the father of the lovely, 
 blue-eved Hermine ; but so he was, like an uncouth, rough, 
 prickly, and not over-clean shell, in which lay this precious 
 pearl, and which had to be grasped if one wished to enjoy 
 the sight of the pearl's beauty. This was easier for me, 
 as I had always seen shell and pearl together ; that is, I 
 had always seen the best side of the shell, the smoothest 
 and most agreeable side, which it turned towards the daugh- 
 ter pearl within. Another reason was, the old cynic seemed 
 to me a kind of original in his way, and I had always had a 
 liking for that class of men. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 487 
 
 I had not seen him since our meeting on board the 
 steamer, although he had been once or twice in the city and 
 had visited the works. The winter he had spent, according to 
 his custom, in Uselin, but with the opening of spring had 
 taken up his residence at Zehrendorf, where his various new 
 arrangements urgently required his presence. Hermine was 
 with him, who for years had spent her summers in the 
 country, having an intense delight in country life and pleas- 
 ures. As a matter of course, Friiulein Amalie Duff accom- 
 panied her young lady. 
 
 All this I learned from Paula, who indeed was the only 
 person who kept me informed of what went on in the Streber 
 family, as she kept up a pretty active correspondence with 
 Hermine. Whether or not 1 was honored with a passing 
 mention in their letters I could never rightly learn. Some- 
 times I thought so, and again I thought not ; and I did not 
 like to ask Paula directly. I had wished indeed to ask her 
 not to mention to Hermine that I was employed in her 
 father's establishment, but I had never done so, because it 
 seemed to me like a bit of childish vanity to request that I 
 should not be spoken of to a girl who, very possibly, never 
 asked about me. But I almost believed that Paula had di- 
 vined and complied with my unspoken wish, and that they 
 knew nothing of me. Even if I w'ere entirely indifferent to 
 Hermine, I was well assured that I occupied no small place 
 in the kind heart of her duenna, and that she certainly would 
 never cease seeking faithfully for her " Richard" until she 
 found him. But over all these things there hung a mist, 
 which was only to be lifted for me later, perhaps too late. 
 Once or twice, it is true, I was struck by the warmth with 
 which Paula, especially lately, spoke of Hermine. " She is 
 a charming creature," she once said, " with the happiest ad- 
 vantages ; and she will develop into a noble woman if she 
 finds the right kind of a husband." And again: "Happy 
 the man who wins this treasure ! But he must be a man 
 worthy the name, for I fancy the keeping will be a harder 
 task than the winning." 
 
 Did Paula know that after that memorable meeting on the 
 steamer, as the wanderer plodded his lonely way towards 
 the great city, the blue eyes of Hermine were his lodestars ? 
 When she thus praised the fair girl to me — and she knew 
 
488 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 what weight her praises bore — did she wish to show me 
 clearly the folly of certain fancies which might have arisen 
 in my mind ? But what ground had I given her for believ- 
 ing me capable of this folly ? Just here there was a secret, 
 like a dark cloud, between Paula and myself; and it was 
 not the only one, nor, unfortunately, the darkest. I had 
 dropped no hint — how could I ? — of my unhappy meeting with 
 Constance : it was the only wound which her pure hand 
 might not touch ; a wound which must secretly bleed until 
 it closed of itself But such a secret wound, which one 
 carefully hides, pains us thrice as much, and is thrice as long 
 in healing ; and the worst is, that with it we have an evil 
 conscience, and shrink from the touch of the hand that is 
 dearest to us, always dreading that at some time, unwares, 
 it will make the cruel discovery. 
 
 Thus it was now between Paula and myself I had never 
 visited her so rarely, never been so cautious in my speech 
 with her — indeed there were times when the unwavering 
 kindness of this lovely and amiable girl was really painful 
 to me. I trembled lest the conversation should turn upon 
 Constance, or lest Paula should learn that Constance and 
 the Bellini were one and the same person. Certainly, if no 
 one else did, the young Prince Prora knew the secret ; and 
 so, probably, did Arthur. 
 
 But my uneasiness seemed groundless ; neither the prince 
 nor Arthur repeated their visit, and I only learned .from 
 rumor that the prince, after throwing the whole residence 
 into uproar by his extravagances and caprices, had been 
 sent into the country by his father, and that Arthur had ac- 
 companied him. About the same time the newspapers, 
 which then occupied themselves much more with matters of 
 this sort than in our agitated times, reported that the man- 
 ager of the Theatre Royal had at once engaged the young 
 artist who had excited so much admiration at the Albert 
 Theatre, but that in high circles it was thought unfit that a 
 star, however brilliant, should be transferred from a com- 
 paratively humble sphere to the lofty heights of a royal 
 stage without a becoming process of transition, and that on 
 this account they had given Fraulein Bellini leave of absence 
 of several months, to be applied to filling certain deficiencies 
 in her repertoire, and to careful cultivation of her eminent 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 489 
 
 talent, for which purpose she had at once undertaken a 
 journey to Paris. Others added : In the company of the 
 premier amoureiix of the Albert Theatre, Herr Lenz, who also 
 had been engaged for the Theatre Royal ; or, as others again 
 said, had to be engaged because the Bellini, as self-willed 
 as she was beautiful, made that gentleman's engagement a 
 condition of her own. In this connection the, papers gave 
 the intdVesting information that Herr Lenz's real name was 
 Herr von Sommer, and that he was the son of a high func- 
 tionary — of the minister, according to some — of a small 
 neighboring state. The origin of the fair Bellini was also 
 surmised to be traceable to high- quarters, but they were not 
 at present able — others phrased it that it was not altogether 
 discreet — to lift the mysterious veil. 
 
 When I heard this I drew a long breath, like a man fright- 
 ened by a ghost, when he hears the clock strike one. The 
 spectre may come again the next night, but for twenty-three 
 hours at least he will be undisturbed. I might be sure of 
 not meeting her for several months ; in the evening, when I 
 returned from Paula's house, I could pass through the street 
 in which she lived without seeing her range of windows 
 lighted, or carriages with lighted lamps and footmen in livery 
 standing at the door. Yes, the cold, cruel, ghostly winter 
 night was at an end : once more it was morning, once more 
 it was spring. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 I 
 
 T was spring once more ; the first spring for nine years 
 that I had greeted as a free man. True that fair season 
 had not debarred me the sight of her loveliness in the 
 prison : I recalled with pleasure the bright mornings which 
 I had spent in the superintendent's large garden, and how I 
 had stood at the Belvedere and looked over the high bastion 
 to the reach of sea which flashed a greeting to me under the 
 bright sky. But this pleasure was never without a dash of 
 sadness, like the greeting of a dear friend, who from the 
 deck of an outward bound steamer waves a farewell to us 
 
 21* 
 
49P ' Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 who are standing on the shore — " God be with you ! " — 
 " And with you ! " A parting word, a regret that we cannot 
 go with him, and then silent and earnest we return to our 
 silent, earnest work. 
 
 All was different now ; different and far fairer, though I 
 missed the great garden with its trees and flowers, and the 
 sea I loved so well. But, on the other hand, there were no 
 walls here nor bolted doors ; and it was no passing ^eeting 
 that I exchanged with the spring at a distance, but a clasp 
 of the hand and a kindly embrace. We met in the evening, 
 when, after my work was done, I rambled for an hour in the 
 remotest parts of the great city park, regions to which 
 seldom any one extended his wanderings, and where the 
 nightingale sang undisturbed her sweet song in the budding 
 bushes. And we met again when I stood on my balcony 
 before sunrise and looked eastwards, where over the crowd 
 of roofs and chimneys the eastern sky was bordered with 
 purple clouds ; and an hour later, as I went to work, when 
 the first rays fell upon the pointed gables of the smoky old 
 factory buildings, and the sparrows twittered so merrily on 
 the eaves and in the crannies of the walls, and the earliest 
 swallows darted over the yard, alert and busy as if the thick 
 black laver of coal-dust that covered it was a sheet of the 
 clearest water. 
 
 Yes ; spring is here once more. I feel her warm breath 
 playing around my cheeks and in my hair, and her kiss upon 
 my brow, and I said to myself: " All must come right yet ! 
 All the snow which was piled up in the long winter nights is 
 melted away, and the ice which then froze is melted ; should 
 not the frost which fell upon my heart in those winter nights 
 also vanish away ? Kind, gentle spring, and stern, earnest 
 labor, what could resist you both when you go hand in hand? 
 and what heart not beat more courageously that you two 
 have filled ? " 
 
 So I threw myself into the expanded arms of spring, and 
 I caught the hard, honest hand of labor, and felt almost all 
 my old strength and confidence once more. Almost all — 
 assuredly, I thought, it could not be long before all were re- 
 stored. 
 
 There was work enough in our establishment, and there 
 would have been much more if the commerzienrath could 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 49 1 
 
 have resolved to undertake the building of locomotives. 
 The matter was one of extreme importance ; indeed in my 
 opinion it involved the question of the very existence, or, at 
 least, of the prosperity of the works. If our establishment 
 in this branch of industry did not comply with the require- 
 ments of the time, its well-earned reputation was at an end. 
 Rival establishments, that were perhaps less favorably situ- 
 ated than ours, would throw themselves with all their energy 
 into the new movement, and outstrip us, possibly for ever ; 
 for in the great departments of industry, if anywhere, not to 
 progress is to retrograde irretrievably. Strangely enough, 
 the man usually so intelligent and enterprising shrank from 
 a resolution which to be sure was not to be carried out with- 
 out great exertions, great alterations, and some temporary 
 sacrifices. New machinery would have to be procured, the 
 steam-power increased, the staff of the office and the force 
 of workmen enlarged ; new buildings would have to be 
 erected, and this could not be done without bringing to a de- 
 cision that long-pending question of the purchase of the 
 ground on which my lodging stood. All this demanded 
 ample funds, clear insight, and prompt decision. 
 
 Now with the commerzienrath there was, at least accord- 
 ing to general opinion, no lack of money ; but he seemed 
 by no means so well furnished with the two other necessary 
 qualities. All who understood anything of the matter — the 
 manager of the works, a plain but intelligent man, with whom 
 I had several times been brought into contact in matters 
 concerning the workmen, and always found him friendh'^, the 
 young chief of the Technical Bureau, the head-foreman, even 
 Klaus himself — all were impatient and dissatisfied with their 
 employer, who still held back from saying a decisive word, 
 though every month- of delay was an irreparable loss. But 
 probably no one was more impatient and dissatisfied than I. 
 I had carefully studied the recent brilliant history of rail- 
 ways in England and Belgium, and was convinced that the 
 system would expand with us into colossal proportions, with 
 an immense demand for locomotives. Then the locomotive 
 had always been a favorite study of my beloved teacher, 
 whose genius had already invented, even with the limited 
 means at his command, and introduced in his models, the 
 most important improvenaents which would be demanded by 
 
492 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 the growth and development of this branch of industry. It 
 had been my good fortune to be allowed to help him in his 
 theoretical studies and in the construction of his models, and 
 my brain glowed as I saw that w^iat bad been planned and 
 devised in the quiet closet of the thinker would now become 
 a reality. So must a racer feel when he sees before him the 
 course which he is to run, and yet is held back frorn the start, 
 however he may champ the bit and paw the ground. I pon- 
 dered and pondered how it might be possible to overcome this 
 fatal resistance. At last I hit upon this plan : I would draw 
 up a memorial, in which I would set forth in detail the reasons 
 which rendered an enlargement of the establishment an abso- 
 lute necessity, and at the same time a plan for carrying out this 
 extension. This paper was to be sent to the commerzien- 
 rath, and it was to be hoped that it would not be without its 
 effect upon him. The doctor, to whom I communicated my 
 plan, did not exactly disapprove it, but by no means entered 
 into it with the warmth that I had hoped. To be sure he 
 was not qualified to comprehend the theoretical necessity of 
 the case, nor did he share my passion for the locomotive ; 
 but it was impossible that he could be blind to the fact that 
 I would open a way to give bread to hundreds and hundreds 
 of workmen, and this was really the chief object with him. 
 Instead, he again pressed me to accept his offer, and even 
 to set up an establishment with his money, and we had very 
 nearly had another quarrel when, for the second time, I felt 
 myself obliged to decline his generous offer. 
 
 But how could I rob him, whose whole life was a sacrifice 
 for the poor and miserable, of the means which he so gener- 
 ously and judiciously employed, if my enterprise failed, as 
 well might happen ? No ! my plans were to be realized, if 
 at all, with other money than the doctor's. But where was 
 I to get it without stealing it, or waiting for the coming of the 
 Javanese aunt, whose speedy arrival was an unconditional 
 article of faith with Klaus and Christel ? So my thoughts 
 were compelled to revert to the commerzienrath, and one 
 evening I began to write my memorial, which I completed 
 in a few nights. 
 
 But no sooner was it finished than a new and weighty con- 
 sideration presented itself. If I signed the paper with my 
 name, my incognito was at an end ; and, even if I did not 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 493 
 
 sign, it it came to about the same thing, for it could only be 
 the production of some one thoroughly acquainted with the 
 establishment, and the commerzienrath would of course 
 inquire for the author, and after creating much talk it would 
 sooner or later be traced to me, when I should probably find 
 that by a useless secrecy I had injured the cause I was advo- 
 cating. 
 
 It was a perplexing dilemma, and I went about as m a 
 dream, ever pondering over the unlucky memorial which lay 
 finished upon my table, and might just as well have been 
 left unwritten. 
 
 " But you must come to some decision," said Paula, " and 
 here there can really be no question what that decision 
 should be." 
 
 From a very intelligible feeling of shyness I had refrained 
 from telling Paula what it was that lay so heavy on my mind ; 
 but Kurt, who worked in the establishment under Klaus's 
 direction, and almost every evening, when he came from 
 work, spent an hour with me, could not be kept ignorant of 
 what I had in hand, and he had told all to his sister. 
 
 " You must not be angry with Kurt for it," said Paula ; 
 " he cannot imagine that you would wish to keep anything 
 secret 'from your sister." 
 
 " Have you then no secrets from me ?" I said. 
 
 " What do you mean ? " she asked, with a look in which I 
 thought I detected traces of confusion. 
 
 I did not wish to press my question, for this would have 
 brought me to the ticklish point which I had so carefully 
 avoided — whether there was any mention of me in the cor- 
 respondence between Paula and Hermine ; so I muttered 
 something unintelligible in reply, and brought the conversa- 
 tion back to my plans, my hopes, and wishes in reference to 
 the works. 
 
 " You have lately kept me so uninformed as to what is 
 going on in your world that I am quite in the dark. Let 
 me read your memorial ; give it to Kurt this evening to bring 
 home." 
 
 This was on a Sunday, and the next week there was much 
 work to do in the factory, for me especially. A large ma- 
 chine of peculiar construction had been built, intended to 
 operate in a chalk- quarry, which the commerzienrath had 
 
494 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 opened at Zehrendorf among his other industrial undertak- 
 ings there. I was employed in mounting the machine. All 
 went smoothly on : the bed-plate had been laid exactly level, 
 and some little unevenness left in planing corrected ; the 
 fly-wheel was hung, the journals adjusted, and the bolt-holes 
 drilled ; the machine was at last so far finished that all that 
 remained to be done was the arrangement of the guiding- 
 apparatus, and the regulation of the piston-rod. This was 
 also set right ; but when the foreman took hold of the fly- 
 wheel to set the machine in motion to try it, it became evi- 
 dent that the driving-rod did not work with a true motion. 
 The foreman and I looked at each other anxiously ; we most 
 carefully compared the dimensions of the various parts by 
 scale with those of the plan, but there was no error discov- 
 erable. 
 
 " This is a confounded piece of business ! " said the fore- 
 man. 
 
 " What is the matter 1 " asked the head-foreman, Roland, 
 who came up at the moment. i 
 
 Head-foreman Roland was a man of Cyclopean stature, 
 whose left leg had once been broken in some machinery, giv- 
 ing him a limping gait, of which he was rather proud after 
 once hearing that the god Vulcan, the patron of his' craft, 
 had the same infirmity. Head-foreman Roland had more- 
 over so good an opinion of himself that under the project- 
 ing thatch of his thicTk moustache, around the left corner of 
 his mouth, there was usually playing a consequential smile, 
 which from time to time glided into the dense forest of his 
 bushy beard and whiskers, where it continued its course un- 
 seen. 
 
 When the matter was explained to him he looked first at 
 the foreman and then at the two workmen, each in turn, let 
 the consequential smile play under the thatch, and said : 
 *' There must be some mistake in the execution ; give me 
 the plans." 
 
 These were handed him, and he began to compare meas- 
 urements, just as we had done before he came up ; but the 
 longer this comparison lasted, and brought no lurking error 
 to light, the -feebler grew the smile, and it had vanished 
 entirely in the forest depths when a quarter of an hour later 
 he went with the plans jn his hands to the Technical Bureau, 
 
Hantmer and Anvil. 495 
 
 muttering in a surly tone that there must be some blunder in 
 the cursed plans. 
 
 This had been my own idea at first, but I had changed my 
 opinion. A suspicion began to dawn upon me that the 
 drawings might be all correct, and the measurements exactly 
 followed, and that the cause of the trouble lay deeper. 
 
 So I stood with my -arms crossed upon my breast while 
 the foreman, with the other workmen, and some few more 
 who had come up to look on, as work was now over for the 
 evening, exchanged opinions on the subject. Some thought 
 that the thread of a screw on one of the shafts had been cut 
 to an erroneous angle, and others had other suggestions to 
 make. 
 
 " The thing must be simple enough," said Herr Windfang, 
 of the Technical Bureau, who now entered with the troubled 
 head-foreman. 
 
 There was nothing Cyclopean about Herr Windfang ; on 
 the contrary, he was an elegant young gentleman, with a 
 touch of dandyism about him. 
 
 " It must be simple enough," he repeated ; " try it 
 again." 
 
 I cannot tell how many times they tried it, but the abom- 
 inable driving-rod persisted in its false movement. 
 
 "Give me the drawings," said Herr Windfang. " Ah, here 
 they are. The error must be in the work." 
 
 While they were once more making the comparisons and 
 measurements, which the foreman and myself and then Herr 
 Roland had made in vain, I had studied the matter further, 
 and was so convinced of my view that when Herr Windfang, 
 very much out of countenance, looked at Herr Roland, and 
 Herr Roland, with a faint gleam of a smile playing in the 
 left corner of his mouth, looked at Herr Windfang, I could 
 no longer keep silent, and said : 
 
 " It is no use to compare measurements : the dimensions 
 all agree : we shall not get at the error in this way, for it is 
 an error of construction, and lies in the guiding movement." 
 
 So bold a speech could not fail to turn the eyes of all pre- 
 sent upon me. Young Herr Windfang measured me with 
 his eyes from head to foot, a process which, as he was of 
 rather small stature, occupied some time ; the familiar smile 
 came out of the forest of Roland's whiskers, and played 
 
496 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 quite gaily under the thatch of his moustache ; for, if the mat- 
 ter was as I said, the fault fell neither upon him nor any one of 
 his subordinates, but went back to the Technical Bureau — a 
 very gratifying thing, under the circumstances, for the worthy 
 head-foreman. The foreman, who had a high opinion of 
 me, nodded, as if to say : There you have it. The workmen 
 looked at each other and smiled. 
 
 " Why do you say that, sir ? " asked Herr Windfang, com- 
 ing up to me, and taking another hasty measurement of me. 
 
 " Because I am convinced of the fact," I answered. 
 
 " That is a piece of arrogance on your part, sir ! " cried 
 the engineer. 
 
 " You and the other gentlemen are not infallible, like the 
 pope!" I retorted. . , ) 
 
 Here the men laughed loudly. 
 
 " We will speak of this matter again," said Herr Wind- 
 fang. -, , ( 
 
 "We will indeed," was my reply. 
 
 The irascible young -man hurried out of the building in a 
 rage, but the head-foreman shook me by the hand and said : 
 " Thank you, Hartwig ; you took him down handsomely ; " 
 and the men accompanied me across the yard, loudly taking 
 my part, and giving me to understand that my cause was 
 their own. Klaus and Kurt, who had come out of another 
 shop, now joined me. They had heard of the little skirmish 
 I had had with the Technical Bureau, and wanted to know 
 the facts. I did not go into details, for I was eager to get 
 home to maintain the gauntlet I had thrown. I had all the 
 designs of the machine, in the construction of which I had 
 helped throughout ; the necessary works of reference were 
 in my possession ; my lamp was trimmed, and a little fire 
 burning on my hearth, as the nights were still chilly. 
 
 So I spent all the cool spring night measuring, calculat- 
 ing, comparing, constructing, and when the first rosy morn- 
 ing clouds rose over the throng of roofs and chimneys I had 
 found what I was seeking, and fixed it in irrefragable for-, 
 mulae and figures. There it lay upon my table in a careful 
 drawing, with the measurements all noted, and there it stood 
 fast in my head, and from my head a sense of triumph 
 hurried to my heart, which began to beat violently. But I 
 checked my rising pride by remembering that I owed it all 
 
iTammer and Anvil. 497 
 
 to ///;//, and I fancied I saw the face of my beloved teacher 
 smiling upon me, and tears sprang to my eyes. Then I 
 went back to my room and slept an hour or so, as deeply 
 and sweetly as I ever slept in my life. 
 
 " How is it, Malay } " asked my comrades when I appeared 
 among them. 
 
 " How is it, Hartwig .? " asked the head-foreman, who was 
 again standing before the unlucky machine, without a smile 
 this time. 
 
 " How is it, George ? " asked Klaus and Kurt, coming 
 over from their shop. 
 
 " I will show you," I said. I went up to the machine and 
 gave a sort of little lecture, in which I set forth the result of 
 my night's work in a way, as I think, both clear and con- 
 nected, for they all listened with the most eager attention ; 
 and their faces grew brighter and brighter as I proceeded, 
 until, when my demonstration was finished, Kurt clapped his 
 hands, Klaus looked around with inexpressible pride, the 
 men nodded to each other with expressive looks, and head- 
 foreman Roland, with a really sunny smile under the thatch, 
 shook my hand as he said : 
 
 "Go ahead, my son, go ahead ; we will give it to them." 
 
 "Malay, you must come to the manager," said the office- 
 messenger, coming up. 
 
 My audience exchanged expressive looks. 
 
 " Go ahead, my son 1 " said Herr Roland ; " give it to 
 them ! " 
 
 The Manager, Herr Berg, a worthy, modest man, but of 
 no great breadth of views, was alone in his office, which ad- 
 joined the Technical Bureau. 
 
 " I have heard, Hartwig," he said, " that you think you 
 have discovered the error in the new machine. Although 
 this appears rather more than doubtful to me, still men in 
 your place now and then hit upon things which others search 
 after in vain for days. I worked up from the ranks myself, 
 and know that. What do you believe to be the difficulty ? " 
 
 " I do not now believe it, Herr Manager ; I now know it," 
 I answered. 
 
 I said this firmly, but quite modestly, and took my calcu- 
 lation and drawing from my pocket and began to explain 
 them to the manager. The matter was a tolerably compli- 
 
498 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 cated one, and so were the calculations, while the formulae 
 that I had employed were by no means simple. In my 
 eagerness I never thought that while I was displaying my 
 knowledge so lavishly I was dropping the incognito I had 
 maintained so long and so strictly, and was first made aware 
 of it by the singular manner in which the manager was look- 
 ing at me. He stood there, looking as much amazed as did 
 Menelaus when before his eyes and in his hands the won- 
 drous " Old Man of the Sea " changed into a tawny moun- 
 tain lion. 
 
 " How in the name of heaven did you learn all that .-• " 
 he cried at last. 
 
 " You have yourself just told me, Herr Manager, that you 
 rose from the ranks, and you then must know what can be 
 done with industry and attention." 
 
 Herr Berg looked at me with an expression in which it 
 was plainly visible that he did not know precisely what to 
 make of me, but like a sensible man he repressed his sur- 
 prise, and asked me to leave the drawing and the demonstra- 
 tion with him awhile, upon his pledge that no one should 
 have sight of them but himself If my views were correct 
 I should have the full credit for them, and in the meantime 
 the gentlemen of the Technical Bureau would hand in their 
 statement. 
 
 One, two, three days passed before they did this, however, 
 and by this time the whole establishment was in a fever of 
 expectation. From the head-foreman down to the last hand 
 who wielded the heavy sledge, all knew that *' the Malay " 
 had found the defect in the new machine, and that the gen- 
 tlemen of the Technical Bureau had been working over it 
 for three days and had not found it yet, and that Klaus 
 Pinnow had said he would bet his head that Malay would 
 win, and that young Herr von Zehren, in Klaus Pinnow's 
 shop, had said to Herr Windfang, who was a great friend of 
 his, that it was a piece of extreme folly for Klaus to wager 
 his head against the Technical Bureau, as the latter, though 
 it consisted of six heads, had none to stake against it. 
 
 Saturday came. The unlucky machine stood there un- 
 touched, an obstinate sphinx that had yielded her riddle to 
 no one but myself We had taken in hand another job, 
 but the men did not work with their usual spirit. It is an 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 499 
 
 inborn peculiarity of man that he does not willingly under- 
 take anything new until the old has been completed. 
 
 " You will have the goodness to come to the manager, 
 Herr Hartwig," said the office-messenger, coming in. 
 
 The men looked up from their work, surprised to find that 
 the "Malay" had suddenly become a "Herr Hartwig." 
 They exchanged looks ; each one felt that now the decision 
 had arrived, and head-foreman Roland, who happened to be 
 crossing the yard, limped solemnly up to me, offered me his 
 Cyclops-hand, and said: "Go ahead, my son; give it to 
 them ; give it to them well ! " 
 
 Equipped with this benediction I entered the manager's 
 room, who rose from his desk at my entrance, came forward 
 and shook me by the hand. He seemed a little nervous, 
 and his honest face expressed considerable confusion. 
 
 " I congratulate you, Herr Hartwig," he said. " You 
 were right. For these three days I have had no doubt of 
 it ; but, to be sure, when one has made the e:^^ stand upright, 
 another knows how it is done. And then I was not quite 
 certain that I would have found it out myself, so it was but 
 fair that I should let the gentlemen of the Technical Bureau 
 first try their hands. They have been long getting at it, and 
 your calculation is just three times as simple as theirs. I 
 have already combed their heads for them a little, and there 
 they sit with them hanging down." 
 
 The modest man let his own head hang a little also as he 
 finished. 
 
 " Well, Herr Manager," I said, " the error has been dis- 
 covered, and that was the main question ; who discovered it 
 is a matter of little consequence." 
 
 " Excuse me, Herr Hartwig," he answered, " but I disa- 
 gree with you here. To the manager of such an establish- 
 ment as this it cannot be a matter of indifference whether 
 the work of the Technical Bureau is done by its staff, or in 
 the machine-shop, for the main thing is that every man shall 
 stand in the place where he belongs, and after this example " 
 • — here he laid his hand upon my drawing, which was on the 
 table — " no other proof is needed that you are altogether in 
 a false position." 
 
 " But, Herr Manager," I replied, " that is entirely my own 
 fault, and as a man makes his bed so must he lie." 
 
500 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 " Yes," said the manager, " that is my comfort ; but I had 
 much rather that you had been candid with me from the 
 first. I might then be able to send back with a protest the 
 snub which the commerzienrath has sent me to-day. There 
 — read for yourself." 
 
 I took the paper which the manager offered me, and 
 glanced over a letter four pages long, in which all possible 
 reproaches were heaped upon poor Herr Berg because he 
 had had so long in the works a man like myself, whose mathe- 
 matical and technical genius had long been known to him, 
 the commerzienrath, and had not reported the fact at once — 
 " and even granting that you considered yourself bound to 
 conceal matters of the highest importance, it was, at the very 
 least, your duty and obligation to give my young friend a 
 position corresponding to his talents and abilities ; or did 
 you fear that perhaps this position would, in that event, be 
 no other than your own place, Herr Manager ? 
 
 " But that is shameful ! " I cried, throwing down the let- 
 ter. 
 
 The worthy man shook his head. " His meaning is not 
 so bad as his words," he said, " and if it were, we are used 
 to it. Read further." I 
 
 "I do not wish to read any more." 
 
 " But you must : the most important is to come : see 
 here " 
 
 " Under these circumstances there is but one reparation 
 to my young friend possible. This consists, first, in placing 
 him at once in the Technical Bureau ; secondly, in asking 
 him, in my name, to oversee on the spot the erection of the 
 machine at the chalk-quarry at Zehrendorf. I have also 
 written him to this effect myself" 
 
 " Now," said the manager, with a good-humored smile, 
 " as for the first point, you have already, by your work, won 
 yourself a place in the Technical Bureau ; and as for the 
 second, you will do me a special favor, which perhaps you owe 
 me on account of that snub — you understand me — to under- 
 take the business at Zehrendorf I had intended to send Herr 
 Windfang. The alterations in the machine will occupy a 
 week at least, and, as I know the commerzienrath, I shall 
 risk my position by this delay, unless there is a friend who 
 will speak a good word for me. And now go home ; you 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 501 
 
 will have much to attend to, and you must be off by the last 
 train ; but I will come round to see you first." 
 
 The manager shook hands with me heartily, and I went 
 home in a rather singular frame of mind. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 AND my perplexity was still further heightened when on 
 reaching home I found a letter from the commerzien- 
 rath lying on my table : 
 
 " My Dear Young Friend : 
 
 " Oh, these women, these women ! I just now learn for 
 the first time what you have kept from my knowledge half a 
 year — that you have so long been working, like Samson 
 among the Philistines, in my establishment. Did I not, 
 when I last saw you in the house of our never-to-be-forgot- 
 ten friend, entreat )'0u again and again to let me know as 
 soon as you recovered your liberty .'' Why have you not 
 done so ? why have you hidden your light so long under a 
 bushel ? You always had a great inclination that way, but 
 so much the more is it now time that you should let it shine 
 before men — and, just now, before me. Therefore come here 
 as soon as possible ; 1 have a multitude of things to talk 
 over with you about matters here, as well as at the works, 
 which last — as I now, unfortunately, know for the first time 
 — ^you thoroughly understand. [These words were under- 
 scored.] You will here pass some pleasant days among 
 none but good old acquaintances, of whom none is older 
 nor a better friend of yours than your obedient servant, 
 
 " Philip August Streber." 
 
 I laid the letter, which was written in a large, round busi- 
 ness-hand, somewhat tremulous in places, upon the table, 
 and paced my room in extreme astonishment. How upon 
 earth did the man know that I was here .? that I understood 
 these things ? Who could have told him ? There was but 
 one explanation possible. But why 
 
502 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 " But why torment myself about the matter ? " I cried, 
 took my hat, and set out for Paula's house. 
 
 "We are a little nervous this morning," my old friend 
 whispered to me at the door of Paula's studio. 
 
 " Don't you know what it is ? " I asked in the same tone. 
 
 The worthy man shook his head, the head which in his 
 opinion was playing so important a part in the history of 
 modern art, and said : 
 
 " One would have to have seven senses, like a bear, to 
 know what is in the hearts of the dear creatures." | 
 
 With these words he opened the door. 
 
 Paula was alone, as Siissmilch had told me. She hastily 
 laid pencils and palette aside, and came to me with her 
 hand extended. I saw at the first glance that she had been 
 weeping, and, although her cheeks were flushed at this mo- 
 ment, she looked to me pale and unwell. 
 
 " You were expecting me, Paula ? " I asked, holding her 
 hand in my own. 
 
 "Yes," she answered; "and as you come at an unusual 
 time, I suppose you know why I was expecting you." [ 
 
 " It was your doing, Paula, was it not ? " I said. i 
 
 " Yes," she replied. 
 
 She looked me full in the eyes. Her look had that strange, 
 half-sad, half-indignant expression which I had only observed 
 once, on the morning of that fatal day when she disengaged 
 herself from my arms in which I had clasped her to save her 
 from the falling Belvedere. It was a recollection which filled 
 me with an indefinite fear, and so confused me that my 
 glances fell before the maiden's large luminous eyes. 
 
 At this moment I heard her draw a long breath, and as I 
 looked up the strange expression had vanished from her 
 eyes, and her voice was soft as ever, as, taking my hand and 
 leading me to a small sofa, she said : 
 
 " Come, let us sit down and consult what is to be done 
 right calmly and wisely, as brother and sister should do." 
 
 " Did they know then all the time that I was here ? " I 
 asked. 
 
 " Yes," she answered ; " and I would have told you all if 
 you had asked me ; but you did not ask ; it was a little se- 
 cret which you, quite unnecessarily, seemed to think yourself 
 bound to keep ; a harmless game of hide-and-seek, such as 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 503 
 
 every one plays now and then. She played the same game : 
 I was on no account to let you know that she was resolved, 
 at any price, to have Richard the Lion-heart, and that she in- 
 quired after you in every letter, I told her that I would say 
 nothing about it so long as you did not ask. But the com- 
 merzienrath, I believe, really did not know, although we can- 
 not altogether trust him. For that he now writes for you so 
 eagerly as you tell me, is no proof: he needs you just now." 
 
 " Did you send him my memorial ? " I asked. 
 
 "That was dreadful, was it not } " said Paula, smiling with 
 pale lips ; " but I had to do what you hesitated at doing, and 
 perhaps could not do yourself: I had to do it, even at the 
 risk of your displeasure, for it was a matter in which, as it 
 seemed to me, your whole future was at stake." 
 
 " My whole future "i " 
 
 " Scarcely less. Indeed rather more ; for you must know 
 that I am proud of you, George, and convinced that you only 
 need the means to accomplish really important things in 
 your profession. The commerzienrath has these means. 
 You must teach him to employ them ; you are the only one 
 who can, for I have long known that he has taken the exact 
 measure of your talents with that acuteness of insight which 
 is peculiar to men of his stamp. And now he has in his 
 hands the proof of what you can do. Then you have the 
 advantage that he is personally well-disposed toward you, so 
 far as such an egotist may be said to be capable of unselfish, 
 genuinely human interest in any one. In a word : the op- 
 portunity is a more propitious one than you are likely ever 
 to have again." 
 
 " You send me away, Paula," I said, " out of these dear 
 old associations into others altogether new and strange, from 
 which it is scarce possible that I can return as I departed, 
 while it is quite as improbable that I sh'all find again what I 
 leave. Have you well considered all this ? And if, as I 
 
 must suppose, you have considered it, then Paula, I wish 
 
 it were less easy for you to send me away." 
 
 " Who says that it is easy for me .'' " asked Paula, quickly 
 rising and taking a few steps across the room. These steps, 
 by chance apparently, brought her to her easel, and she re- 
 mained standing before it with her face averted from me. 
 
 " I mean," I said, " that I wish vou found it harder to 
 
504 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 do without me, if not on your own account for the sake of 
 your mother and your brothers ; that, in a word, I were to 
 them what you are now. But, Paula, you have always been 
 so proud ; and in truth you have now more reason than 
 ever." 
 
 Paula had found something to do at her easel, and some 
 little time passed before she answered : 
 
 " You men are strange creatures : everywhere you wish 
 your influence to be felt ; even what you approve does not 
 come to pass satisfactorily unless it is your doing. But this 
 is only a transient feeling of yours, which I can well under- 
 stand " 
 
 " I do not know whether you quite understand it," I said 
 • in a low tone. 
 
 " Perfectly, perfectly," she said, bending lower over her 
 easel ; " when any one is as much attached to another as 
 you are to us, he desires to be always giving, and feels it a 
 heavy loss if this comes to be out of his power. But I 
 really do not see why we sadden ourselves so unnecessarily. 
 You are not going to be carried away from us forever. 
 You are only moving out of a narrow, wretched channel, 
 unfit for so proud a ship, into the broad ocean. Of course 
 you will of necessity often forget us a little, or perhaps 
 entirely ; for the man who wishes to do anything great and 
 complete must have his arms free : he cannot and must not 
 drag the toys of his childhood or the idols of his youth with 
 him through life. I wish that you would see that clearly, 
 George ; bring yourself to see it clearly in this moment, of 
 which I repeat that I consider it a decisive one ; since now, 
 for the first time in your life, after long years of apprentice- 
 ship, you enter on the rights of a master — can for the first 
 time show yourself as you are. At a decision like this, all 
 subordinate interests must stand back : all, George ; even 
 we — our mother, your brothers, your sister." 
 
 I could not see her face, which she still held down, but 
 there were tears in her voice. 
 
 I approached her, but she turned her face away. 
 
 "Paula! " I said. 
 
 I wished to say more ; to tell her all ; to tell her that if I 
 were to lose her by my decision, whatever else I might win 
 by it seemed inexpressibly worthless to me ; that 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 505 
 
 " Paula ! " I said once more, but I said it at her feet, with 
 hot tears streaming from my eyes. I strove for words, but 
 they would not come. 
 
 A soft hand passed gently over my hair, and it seemed to 
 me — I was not sure then, nor am I now — but it seemed to 
 me that she lightly touched my brow with her lips. Then I 
 heard her voice, and its tone was calm, sweet and clear : 
 
 " George, my brother, you must not thus distress your 
 poor sister. Now go and bid our mother farewell. She has 
 long foreseen the approach of this moment, and has impa- 
 tiently longed for it. In her lives, far more than in us, 
 George, the spirit of the war for freedom. She knows, from 
 her own experience, that a man must give up home and 
 goods and wife and children, and all that is dear to him, 
 to devote his life to a great and good cause. Come, 
 George!" 
 
 -o- 
 
 CHAPTER X. . V 
 
 A LIVELY breeze was blowing in my face as the car- 
 riage in which I was jolted along the road from Fahr- 
 dorf to Zehrendorf, a bad one in the best of times, 
 but now, in the spring, at its worst. The driver on the box 
 had wrapped himself close in a horse-blanket and sat hud- 
 dled together, while the strong horses had as much as they 
 could do to drag the light vehicle through the deep miry- 
 ruts. It was about eight in the evening, and the moon was 
 an hour high, but only from time to time did a glimpse of 
 her disc peer out through the heavy clouds, throwing a de- 
 ceitful light, quickly succeeded by darkness, over drenched 
 fields and meadows, with pools of water glistening here and 
 there over the wide expanse of barren heath. 
 
 And as lights and shadows chased each other over the 
 wide expanse, so alternated in my soul the memories of joy 
 and grief that I had experienced here. The days that I had 
 spent here came all back, and passed by me with faces beam- 
 ing with smiles, clouded by grief, or distorted with pain. 
 22 
 
5o6 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 And there were far fewer of the smiling days than of those 
 with sad and gloomy looks ; and at last — for during the 
 whole journey it had seemed to me almost a wickedness that 
 I should dare to return to this spot — this feeling overcame 
 me so strongly that I could scarcely refrain from calling to 
 the driver to stop, that I could go no further to-night. 
 
 "We shall reach the top directly," said the man, giving his 
 tired horses a cut with the whip. 
 
 I do not know why he thought it necessary to offer me this 
 consolation ; perhaps he had thought that the groan which 
 escaped me was extorted by the badness of the road. 
 
 But he was right. I knew that as well as he did. The 
 light below us, which seemed to shine out of the earth, came 
 from a little house leaning against the foot of the hill, and 
 those broad white patches, which contrasted so singularly 
 with the black hills, were the great chalk-quarries belonging 
 to Prince Prora, to which the house belonged ; and not far 
 from us, on the ridge which we were slowly climbing, was a 
 piece of woods — part of the same woods in which I fled from 
 my pursuers for four days. 
 
 The sturdy horses stretched to their work, and now we 
 were on the ridge. Down the other side we went, over a 
 hard sandy road, and the wind came sweeping on its mighty 
 pinions from over the sea, making the driver wrap himself 
 still closer in his blanket. But I drew long deep breaths, 
 and drew in full draughts of deliciousness that I had wanted 
 so long. 
 
 Heartily I greeted the loved sea-breeze, that friend of my 
 childhood. Long had I pined for it in the narrow streets of 
 the city, where only a mockery of it blew in fitful puffs and 
 with malicious pranks, and whistled shrill and spitefully 
 around the corners. How often had this mighty sea-wind 
 filled my young heart with inexpressible gladness ; and now 
 it chased the dark memories from my soul as it swept away 
 the black clouds from the sky, so that the whole broad ex- 
 panse of the plateau reaching back from the promontory lay 
 in clear moonlight before my eyes. That great cluster of 
 buildings, with a garden like a park, and short white church- 
 steeple, is Herr von Granow's estate ; and that lower down, 
 only distinguishable as a dark patch, is Trantowitz ; and be- 
 yond Trantowitz, in the direction of the wind, lies Zanowitz 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 507 
 
 among the white dunes at whose feet chafes the everlasting 
 sea. Melchow, Trantowitz, Zanowitz — what memories were 
 attached to these names and these places! But the glad 
 mighty wind would not suffer them. It comes rushing on in 
 vast, regular impulses like the strokes of an eagle's wings, 
 and amidst its rush I fancy I can hear a rough honest voice 
 saying : All that could happen, and you thought you could 
 never endure it, yet you have not b^en crushed, but stand 
 firm upon your feet, and still carry your head erect between 
 your broad shoulders ; and all this is so because I have 
 blown around you from your childhood, and you have drawn 
 me into your blood until your heart beats strong and daunt- 
 less within your breast, even though you know that those 
 lights shining on that height to the left come from the win- 
 dows of the new castle which the new master of Zehrendorf 
 has built in the place of the old which you saw sinking in 
 flames on that terrible night. 
 
 Not quite in the place of the old one : the old castle had 
 been built upon the higher ground, so that it looked proudly 
 out over the whole land. The new possessor did not wish a 
 haughty site, but one sheltered from the north and east 
 winds, so he did well to fix his habitation somewhat lower. 
 
 " And where are the magnificent old trees of the park, 
 which reached to the old house, and here joined the forest?" 
 I asked. 
 
 " They are cut down," said the driver ; " the whole park is 
 cleared away ; there is hardly enough left to make a coffin of." 
 
 I do not know what suggested this melancholy expression 
 to the taciturn man, but it struck me strangely. Did not 
 the Wild Zehren once, when we were standing at the win- 
 dow and looking out into the park, say that not enough of 
 it belonged to him to make him a coffin, and that it all stood 
 only to be cut down and turned into money by his succes- 
 sors ? And now it had all come to pass, and that light was 
 shining from the new home which the new master had built 
 on the ruins of the old. 
 
 Away, gloomy thoughts ! Blow harder, thou glad, strong 
 sea-wind ! Gallop, you stout horses, down the hard, smooth 
 road ! And now, rattling through the gate, we enter the 
 court before the great, stately house, and as we stop at the 
 door servants come out with lights. 
 
5o8 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 They come rather incited by curiosity than obsequious- 
 ness, which last, had it been present, would have suddenly 
 cooled at the unpretending garb of the visitor and the limited 
 amount of his luggage. Indeed, as 1 crossed the lower hall 
 1 caught sight, in a tall mirror, of the face of the servant 
 who preceded me carrying my portmanteau, and who, by 
 dint of thrusting his tongue into his right cheek, was making 
 a frightful grimace, undoubtedly intended to express his dis- 
 gust at having to carry such a disgraceful old mangy seal- 
 skin portmanteau — 1 had borrowed it from Klaus — up the 
 brilliantly lighted staircase of the great house of Zehrendorf. 
 The honest fellow's feelings were apparently much hurt by 
 the incongruity of the visitor's appearance with the service 
 he had to render, and he found a neat way of exhibiting the 
 fact by tossing the question to me over his shoulder, as he 
 rather flung down my portmanteau than set it down : " 1 
 suppose vou are a countryman of our Mamsclle ? '' 
 
 "Who is vour ATamselle? " T asked in a tone of perfect 
 good humor, for T confess to my shame that the contempt- 
 uous manner of the man, far from offending me, afforded me 
 considerable amusement.. 
 
 " Whv. the old scarecrow with the " and he made an 
 
 undulator\' wave of his hand down from his shoulder, a bit 
 of pantomime in which a lively imagination could see the 
 fluttering of long tresses. 
 
 " You mean Friiulein Duff, I suppose, friend — what is 
 your name ? '' I asked. 
 
 "William Kluckhuhn," answered he. "You can call me 
 William, for short." 
 
 '' Tiiankyoii. And why do you suppose me to be a country- 
 man of Friiulein Duff, friend William ?" 
 
 " Well, the old girl made a great fuss about you to me. I 
 was to show you every attention, and you were to have this 
 room which looks on the garden, and is really our young 
 lady's room, and which she, heaven knows whv, took a notion 
 three days ago to make a guest-room. It seemed a little 
 queer to us, for you arc, after all, a workman in the master's 
 factory in Berlin, as the master himself said at the table to- 
 day. 1 am from Berlin myself, you must know, and we 
 know there that a hand in a machine-shop is not exactly the 
 Great Mogul. But what are we to do ? After all, we have 
 
Ha77imer and Anvil. 509 
 
 to dance to the old girl's piping, or she will abuse us to our 
 young lady, and she reports it to the master, and then there 
 is the deuce to pay, of course." 
 
 " So that is the way it goes, eh?" I said, laughing ; " from 
 Friiulein Duff to your young lady, and from her to the Herr 
 (Jommerzienrath." 
 
 " Well, sometimes it goes the other way," said the philo- 
 sophic William ; '• but this is not so bad, for we can hold 
 our own with the old scarecrow ; that is an eternal truth." 
 
 As I heard the pet phrase of my good friend from the im- 
 pudent lips of this ironical rascal I had to look another way 
 to avoid laughing. 
 
 " Well, and I was to ask you if you wanted any supper. 
 Tea will be served down-stairs in half an hour. But you 
 will get nothing: with it but stale biscuit and thin sandwiches, 
 and she thought you would be hungry'." 
 
 " So r am, my friend," I replied, " and you will oblige me 
 if you will bring me a bit of cold chicken, with a glass of 
 wine, or whatever you happen to have handy. And one 
 thing more, friend William. I am not a countryTnan of 
 Friiulein Duff, hut you will particularly oblige me if in future 
 you never mention that lady in my presence in other than a 
 respectful manner. Now you can go ; and you will have the 
 goodness to ask the Herr Commerzienrath if I shall wait 
 upon him before tea." 
 
 1 said these words in an impressive manner, not with the 
 intention of humbling my friend in livery, but simple because, 
 as a guest of the house, I considered it my duty. The face- 
 tious William gave me a look in which astonishment was 
 blended with suspicion, and in his heart, I fancy, he thought 
 that the old proverb, " Do not trust appearances," might also \ 
 be a scrap of an eternal truth. 
 
 While he went to do what I had told him I cast a look 
 of some curiosity round the room which three days before 
 had been that of the beautiful capricious girl. I could hardlv 
 believe it, and yet it did not look like a guest-room — cer- 
 tainly not like one intended for so unpretending a guest as 
 myself. A thick soft carpet of a Persian pattern covered 
 the whole floor. The curtains of the windows and lambre- 
 quins of the doors were of heavy damask, also of a bright 
 fantastic pattern, and looped with rich cords and tassels. 
 
5IO Hammer and Anvil. j 
 
 The whole decoration and furniture were in harmony with 
 thi^, to my eyes, oriental magnificence. A very low broad 
 divan occupied nearly three sides of the room, while on the 
 fourth, where the windows were, low chairs were standing in 
 the recesses, and between the windows stood a costly cabi- 
 net of rosewood, inlaid with mother-of-pearl. From the 
 ceiling hung by gilt chains a lamp in a red globe, diffusing, 
 with the two wax candles that were burning upon the table, a 
 soft rosy light throughout the apartment. 
 
 On drawing a curtain, behind which I thought there was 
 a door, I discovered a deep alcove, with a wide low bed, 
 with silken pillows and coverlids. I dropped the curtain 
 again. 
 
 Again T examined the room, in ever increasing surprise at 
 the singular reception which had been provided for me here. , 
 Upon the rosewood cabinet stood a vase with fresh flowers — 
 hyacinths and crocuses. As I bent over the vase to inhale 
 their perfume my eye was caught by a blue ribbon entwined 
 among them which had letters embroidered upon it in gold 
 thread, and upon examining it more closely I read the 
 words " Seek faithfully and thou shalt find." 
 
 A sudden change came over my feelings at this discovery, 
 and I broke into a fit of laughter, but checked myself sud- 
 denly and dropped the mysterious ribbon again into its fra- 
 grant hiding-place, as William Kluckhuhn entered with a 
 large salver, from the contents of which he arranged an ex- 
 cellent collation upon one of the small tables standing before 
 the divan. 
 
 " Well, when does the Herr Commerzienrath wish to see 
 me ? " I asked, as William, his napkin under his arm, stood 
 before me at the respectful distance of three paces. 
 
 " The Herr Commerzienrath will have the honor to meet 
 the Herr Engineer at tea," replied Willaim Kluckhuhn. 
 
 I took a closer look at the man, his style of expression 
 and even the tone of his voice had undergone such a change. 
 Was I then suddenly promoted to the rank of engineer ? 
 Something must have happened to him that had wrought a 
 revolution in his views of the new guest. 
 
 I pondered on what it might be, but it was a superfluous 
 trouble. William Kluckhuhn was not one of those who can 
 keep a secret hidden in the depths of their souls. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 511 
 
 He cleared his throat in an emphatic significant manner, 
 and observed : 
 
 " The gnddige Frdulein will not be down to tea." 
 
 " Ah," I said in an indifferent tone, which was belied by 
 the sudden beating of my heart. 
 
 " Yes," went on my communicative friend, " I was just now 
 in the parlor to ask the Herr Commerzienrath when he 
 
 wished to see the Herr Engineer- " William Kluckhuhn 
 
 laid a strong accent upon the last word. " ' At tea, of course,' 
 said the commerzienrath. ' I wish to receive him quite fa- 
 miliarly.' ' Do you not wish first to have some private con- 
 versation with him 1 ' said the gnddige Frdulein. The gnd- 
 dige Frdulein had risen quite suddenly from the piano-forte 
 at which she had just been playing and singing, and turned 
 to the door where I was — standing. ' Good heavens, no,' 
 said the commerzienrath. 'Where are you going.-'' 'To 
 my room,' said the gnddige Frdulein ; ' I have been suffering 
 with headache all day.' 'Then you will not be down again, I 
 suppose,' said the Herr Commerzienrath. Th^ gfiddige Frdu- 
 lein said nothing, for she had already gone past me out of 
 the door ; and I can tell you, Herr Engineer, she had a pair 
 of cheeks like my shoulder-knots here," and he pointed with 
 his finger to the dark-crimson knot on his left sleeve. 
 
 "This is all very remarkable," I said. 
 
 " It is, indeed," said William, elevating his eye-brows as 
 high as his long forehead would allow, and drawing down 
 the corners of his mouth into a horse-shoe curve, " very re- 
 markable. And so it seemed to the others, for they looked 
 
 at one another, so " and William Kluckhuhn stretched 
 
 his little eyes as wide open as he could get them, and stared 
 at me so that I thought for a moment he was going out of 
 his senses. 
 . " Who are the others ? " I asked. 
 
 " Well, the master himself, and Mamselle — I mean Friiu- 
 lein Duff, and the Herr Steuerrath and his lady " 
 
 " They here too 1 " I asked, not very agreeably surprised. 
 
 "They have been here for three weeks," answered Wil- 
 liam ; " but the day is yet to come when any one of us has 
 
 seen this from them ~" and he made a gesture with the 
 
 right forefinger and thumb over the palm of his left hand. 
 " And they all looked queer, and the Herr Commerzienrath 
 
512 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 looked very angry, but restrained himself, which is not his 
 usual way, and said : ' That is unfortunate : but it is not 
 to be helped. I must invite the Herr Engineer to tea.' 
 Apropos ! — excuse me, but it is a word we use in Berlin — 
 why did not the Herr Engineer tell me at first that he was 
 the Herr Engineer ? " 
 
 " Very well, William," I said. " You can take away now, 
 and when it is time, come and call me." 
 
 When the talkative William had left me I sprang up from 
 the divan and paced the room in an excitement which I had 
 carefully concealed from the servant. The information 
 which he had just given me afforded me more matter for 
 reflection than I could deal with at the moment. A singu- 
 lar scene must have occurred, or it would never have made 
 so deep an impression upon the by no means susceptible 
 William Kluckhuhn. And why had Hermine's headache 
 grown so intolerable all at once ? And why had my old 
 friends, the steuerrath and the born Kippenreiter, seemed so 
 much disturbed ! 
 
 To all this I could give but one explanation; for a second, 
 that might also have been possible, my modesty rejected at 
 once. The pretty girl had been angry with me ever since 
 our meeting on the steamer. But if this were so, why all 
 those inquiries about me of Paula ? Whence came the in- 
 terest which she manifestly took in my fate ? I saw her 
 again before me as I had seen her on the steamboat, her 
 red lips closely compressed, and her blue eyes darting indig- 
 nant flashes at me. She had told me that I must let her 
 father help me, since her father was rich ; and I had replied 
 that for that very reason I did not wish to be helped by him. 
 Was not that the exact state of the case ? Did I want any- 
 thing from him ? Had I not rather come to give the rich 
 man some advice of which he seemed to be greatly in want ? 
 advice which, if he followed it, was to make him richer than 
 he had ever been ? No, I did not come into this house as 
 an asker of favors. I could hold my head proudly erect, as 
 beseems a free man ; and if it was meant as an irony upon 
 my humble position that I was here assigned this splendid 
 apartment, I had only to consider myself worthy of the atten- 
 tion, and the solecism vanished. 
 
 " Will you please to come now ? " said William Kluck- 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 513 
 
 huhn, appearing at the door. I had intended to put on my 
 best suit of clothes, which, with the necessary supply of 
 linen, and a few papers and drawings, formed the entire 
 contents of my portmanteau, but the radical state of mind 
 into which I had happily wrought myself scorned such 
 trivialities, and it was a gratification to me to follow my 
 guide just as I was down the wide staircase to the lower 
 hall, and to a door which he obsequiously threw open for 
 me, and through which, without the least confusion, I entered 
 a large parlor, richly furnished and brilliantly lighted by 
 lamps standing on various tables. 
 
 At one of these tables, at the further end of the room, sat 
 the company, consisting of the commerzienrath, his brother- 
 in-law the steuerrath, the steuerrath's lady, and Fraulein 
 Duff. The commerzienrath came to meet me with out- 
 stretched hand, crying in his loud voice that he was unspeak- 
 ably delighted to welcome his dear young friend to his house. 
 
 " To be sure I have had you in my house a long time already," 
 he went on, after he had grasped my hand — " a half year 
 already, and I never knew it ! It is outrageous ; but these 
 girls never will learn reason. For the merest nothing they 
 will make a secret of things that we would cheerfully pay a 
 thousand thalers to know." 
 
 He said this with so much warmth that if I had ever 
 doubted whether he had really known that I was in his es- 
 tablishment, that doubt now entirely disappeared. He had 
 known it all along, but had no interest in appearing to know 
 it until I could be of real profitable use to him. 
 
 Perhaps it was this observation that made me receive so 
 coolly the friendly protestations of the rich man ; but I had 
 to smile, and I felt real pleasure when now the kind-hearted 
 Fraulein DufF put down the tea-pot, at which she had been 
 officiating, and came gliding towards me with a coy smile 
 upon her thin lips, and her eyes lifted to express the emo- 
 tions of her soul. She held out her hand with the fingers 
 bent and drooping, in precisely the style of a tragedy-queen 
 who expects it kissed by a loyal vassal. But the good lady 
 was thinking of nothing of the sort ; it was merely her way 
 of offering her hand ; and I took the thin pale hand and 
 pressed it cordially, though cautiously. The sensitive na- 
 ture of the excellent Fraulein felt at once the sincere good- 
 22* 
 
514 UitJnmcr and Am'il. 
 
 feeling that my pressure implied, and she returned it with 
 nervous force, her pale eyes filled with tears, and she whis- 
 pered up to reach my ear : " Do not be annoyed, and do not 
 be angry with her ; it is not hate, it is maidenly coyness; 
 do not despair — wait and trust — seek faithfully "' 
 
 Friiulein Duff had not time to complete her favorite phrase, 
 for the commerzienrath turned again to me and drew me 
 to tlie table,'by which the steuerrath and his lady had been 
 standing straight as candlesticks from the moment I en- 
 tered the room without moving from their places, like a pair 
 of wax-figures in a cabinet. 
 
 " You have no idea how glad my brother and sister-in-law 
 are to see you again !"' said the commerzienrath, malicious 
 joy sparkling in his small glittering eyes. 
 
 " Delighted !" said the steuerrath, offering me two fingers 
 of his long white hand, which I did not take. 
 
 " Delighted !" said his lady, with a fixed look at the lamp 
 on the table. 
 
 I was not especially glad myself, so T did not say so, but 
 T looked closely at the amiable pair, whom time had certainly 
 not passed by without leaving marks upon them. The steuer- 
 rath's high forehead was now bald to the crown, and deep 
 ugly furrows were ploughed in his long smooth aristocratic 
 face. His eyes seemed to me smaller and more expression- 
 less, and his mouth larger. 
 
 Still more rudely had the ungallant years dealt with the 
 born Kippenreiter. Her hair indeed was thicker and more 
 lustrous than of old, but the unkind suspicion that she owed 
 this gratifA^ng luxuriance to the beneficent skill of the per- 
 ruquier was confirmed at a second glance. Nor had her 
 face been deprived of the ingenious resources of art : her 
 hollow cheeks were flushed with a bloom too delicate to be 
 altogether natural, and her thin pale lips disclosed two rows 
 of teeth of irreproachable whiteness. In a word, the Born 
 had made herself younger by twice the number of years that 
 had passed since I last saw her, only the expression of her 
 small piercing eyes, which could not possibly be worse, had 
 remained the same, and the wide red ribbon of her cap, 
 which she tied in a large bow under her chin, apparently to 
 hide her hollow cheeks, nodded at every word she spoke in 
 the old exasperating way. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 3'0 
 
 They had taken their seats again at the tea-table. The 
 commerzienrath led the conversation in a style less adapted 
 to the gratification of his brother-in-law than to his own en- 
 tertainment and my instruction. So I learned in five min- 
 utes that the young Prince of Prora was residing at Rossow 
 again, and that Arthur was keeping him company in his 
 
 exile. 
 
 " For it is an exile," cried the commerzienrath to his brother- 
 in-law, " you may say what you please ; I know it from Jus- 
 tizrath Heckepfennig, whom, as his 'Justitiarii/s, the old 
 prince had to summon to the family council, in which the 
 question was handled in all its length and breadth, whether 
 his son should or should not be declared a spendthrift. The 
 old prince at last yielded so far as to grant his son a proba- 
 tion of half a year more, which he is to pass in the country, 
 while they make some arrangement with his creditors. A 
 nice position for a prince, is it not?" 
 
 ^" Crowned heads are seldom happy," said with a sigh 
 Friiulein Duff, who had taken her seat by us with some work 
 in her hands. 
 
 " I thought that princes only wore hats," remarked the 
 commerzienrath with a sardonic grin, " though of such mat- 
 ters a poor plebeian like myself is incompetent to judge : you 
 understand those things better, brother-in-law." 
 
 " Doubtless, doubtless," replied the latter absently. 
 
 " No doubt you are thinking of your amiable son," con- 
 tinued the commerzienrath, " and whether, for a young man 
 of his stamp, a better companion could not be found than a 
 young prince who is in a fair way to ruin himself. I can 
 easily understand that the thought causes you to make a face 
 like a tanner who sees his hides floating down the stream." 
 
 " Excuse me, brother-in-law, but I was not thinking of Ar- 
 thur at that moment," replied the steuerrath, but whether the 
 negotiations for the sale of Zehrendorf, which you have 
 recently opened with his highness — and which, by the way, 
 would seem to indicate that you give his highness credit for 
 more acuteness and business knowledge than your words 
 imply — will come to any result." 
 
 " What has that to do with his wisdom or his folly ? " 
 cried the commerzienrath. " Yes, so far that the greater 
 fool he is the dearer will I be able to sell it to him. But I 
 
5i6 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 am not sure that I shall have my daughter's permission to 
 sell, for she has set her heart upon not letting it pass into 
 other hands. To be sure she has noble blood in her veins — 
 is that not so, sister-in-law ! — and naturally looks at the mat- 
 ter in a different light from a poor rotiericr like myself I 
 might have sold it long ago to Herr von Granow, among 
 others, who made me a very handsome offer, who, as one of 
 our nearest neighbors, can put it to the best advantage. But 
 H ermine insists that Frau von Granow is too vulgar a per- 
 son — of course she is not a Born Anything, sister-in-law, for 
 the Born can never be vulgar, can they, sister-in-law ? — but 
 what I was going to say is this : Hermine insists that I shall 
 not giv'^e her such a successor as that. But good heaven ! 
 she will fnid nobody she thinks worthy of it, unless it be 
 Herr von Trantow." I 
 
 " How is he? " I exclaimed. 
 
 " O, very well. He eats and drinks and sleeps: why 
 should he not be well .'' He is a great favorite of my Her- 
 mine ; and I believe she could find it in her heart to marry 
 him if she could only see him sober once." 
 
 At such horrible words Fraulein Duff could only clasp her 
 hands and cast a look at me, while the steuerrath and his 
 wife exchanged a look of intelligence with the quickness 
 of lightning. I observed a slight encouraging twinkle of the 
 steuerrath's eyelashes, upon which followed a slight attack 
 of coughing on the part of the Born, and then the following 
 observation : 
 
 " There is an old proverb, my dear brother-in-law, which 
 always comes to my mind when I hear sportive allusions, 
 such as that which you have just uttered." 
 
 " You mean that ' we shouldn't paint the devil on the 
 wall ? ' '" exclaimed the commerzienrath ; " but you need not 
 be uneasy on that score, for even if the devil does not come, 
 neither will your Arthur ; no, not by a great way ! " and the 
 commerzienrath broke into a boisterous laugh at his own wit. 
 
 " I am conscious of my innocence of all covetous plans of 
 that sort, brother-in-law," replied the Born, whose cheeks at 
 the moment had no need of any supplementary carmine. 
 
 " So ! " cried the commerzienrath. " Well that is a very 
 good thing. Are you conscious of your innocence too, 
 brother-in-law ? If your son can say as much, then you are 
 
. , Hammer and Anvil. 517 
 
 all three conscious, and no one can ask more of you than 
 that. Besides, sister-in-law, the Trantows are so old a 
 family, that, for this reason, if for no other, you should think 
 twice before you compare the last descendant of their race 
 with Old Nick." 
 
 " If family antiquity is in question," said the steuerrath, 
 " you must know, brother-in-law, that while it is true that 
 the Trantows trace back their pedigree to the fourteenth 
 century, the Zehrens -" 
 
 " I know ! I know ! I have heard it a hundred thousand 
 million times ! " cried the commerzienrath, hastily, rising 
 from his chair. " You are a frightfully old family ; yes, 
 sister-in-law, frightfully old ! But content yourselves ; old 
 as you are, you may grow a year or two older yet. And now 
 come with me to my room, my young friend, and let us have 
 at least a little sensible talk." 
 
 He preceded me, through another parlor as brilliantly 
 lighted as the first, into a smaller room, which, to judge by 
 the comfortable horsehair-covered furniture, bookcases with 
 docketed papers, and other tokens, was his own especial 
 apartment, which he had fitted out exactly to his own taste. 
 
 Several eminently bad copies of celebrated old masters, 
 with sundry still worse originals of modern date, animal- 
 pieces and landscapes, covered the walls, and corresponded 
 exactly in artistic merit with several busts of the reigning 
 sovereigns and other princely personages, placed appropri- 
 ately or inappropriately, just as it happened. A lamp hung 
 from the ceiling over a round table, upon which were various 
 papers, a lighted candle, and an open box of cigars. 
 
 "Now, ray dear young friend," cried the commerzienrath, 
 throwing himself into a chair and stretching out his legs, 
 which time had made still leaner, in a fashion meant to ex- 
 press supreme comfort, " help yourself ; here is something 
 superior, just from Havana, brought me by one of my cap- 
 tains a week ago ; duty-free as I have them, they are 
 ' worth a hundred and twenty thalers, between brothers. So ! 
 Now what do you think of that ridiculous old ass of a steuer- 
 rath and his scarecrow of a wife .'' They have been spong- 
 ing upon me now for three weeks, but I show them no quar- 
 ter ; was it not good fun 1 " 
 
 " I cannot say that I found it so, Herr Commerzienrath," 
 
5t8 Hammer atui Am'il. 
 
 "No? Why not? You must be hard to amuse." 
 
 " On the contrary, Herr Commerzienrath, no one loves a 
 bit of harmless fun more than 1 do ; but I cannot find it 
 harmless when the host — you must excuse my plain speak- 
 ing — makes fools of his guests, be they who they may." 
 
 " So, so ! This is something new ! " said my host, and 
 fixed an evil look upon me. 
 
 " Yet it is a very old doctrine, Herr Commerzienrath, 
 known and practiced in the earliest times, and, as I am told, 
 still sacredly observed at this day by even the rudest nations 
 — unless indeed thev are cannibals." 
 
 '' Cannibals is good ! Cannibals ! very good indeed ! " 
 cried the commerzienrath, throwing himself back in his easy- 
 chair and laughing obstreperously, as though he had not but 
 the moment before been on the point of quarrelling with me. 
 " Capital ! How do j-ou like the cigars ? I want your honest 
 opinion." 
 
 " By no means so superior, if you insist upon a candid ex- 
 pression of my opinion." 
 
 " Not — not superior ? Well, young man, you must be hard 
 to please. Such a cigar as this nothing superior ! When 
 and where did you ever smoke a better ? " 
 
 And the commerzienrath, with an appearance of intense 
 enjoyment, exhaled the smoke slowly through the nostrils. 
 
 " To tell you the candid truth, very often ; but I must 
 confess that I am a little dainty in this particular point. 
 Probably my old stay at Zehrendorf made me fastidious." 
 
 "1 dare sav." said my host, with a sneer. "He could 
 afford it : he did not have to pay duties as we do." 
 
 " I thought you said, Herr Commerzienrath, that these 
 cigars were duty free ?" 
 
 He looked at me again as if strongly moved to ring for a 
 servant to turn me out the house. He did not ring, however, 
 but said : 
 
 "So ! If you are such a judge of the weed, what do you 
 estimate these to be worth ?" 
 
 "Twenty thaiers I should consider a full price." 
 
 "They cost eighteen !" cried the commerzienrath, giving 
 the table a thump. " Why should a man set costly cigars 
 before his guests until he knows whether they can appreciate 
 them or not ? And now I will give you some that " 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 5^9 
 
 Are worth a hundred and twenty thalers, between broth- 
 
 ers 
 
 Exactly so ! exactly so ! you ironical fellow !" cried the 
 little old man as he sprang up and took from a cupboard a 
 box containing cigars, of which I am bound to say that I 
 never smoked better, even with the Wild Zehren. 
 
 My amiable host had been brought into so good a humor 
 by this bit of comedy that he insisted on having in a bottle 
 of Steinberg Cabinet, from which he replenished my glass 
 with great liberality while he only sipped at his own, making 
 pretence all the time of drinking glass for glass with me, 
 both from this and a second bottle which he had in, in the 
 course of the evening. I had seen the old gentleman behind 
 a bottle in my earlier days, and also when he was a visitor 
 at the superintendent's, and knew that he was what used 
 to be called a three-bottle-man ; so if he was so abstemious 
 now he had some especial reason for it. Nor was this rea- 
 son long concealed. It was soon evident to me that he 
 wanted to make me talk, and to get at my sincere opinions 
 upon a multitude of things, and the heavy wine of a noble 
 vintage was to assist my candor if it faltered. I have in 
 later years too often seen this man use the same stratagem, 
 in similar cases, to leave me any doubt of the accuracy of 
 the observation I made on this occasion. 
 
 There was also another manoeuvre, which I learned now 
 for the first time, in which this old man of business was a 
 master. It was this : leaning far back in his chair, his eyes 
 half shut, he talked in an apparently disconnected way of 
 this and that, rambling from one topic to another, until he 
 suddenly, like a flash, touched upon the point which he had 
 still been approaching in all his gjTations without his hearer 
 perceiving it He hid himself in a black cloud, so to speak, 
 as the cuttlefish eludes its pursuers — only with this difference, 
 that this cunning old pike, in the shape of a royal counsellor 
 of commerce, used this stratagem in order unexpectedly to 
 snap out of his cloud at an unsuspicious gudgeon. 
 
 It was past midnight when William Kluckhuhn showed me 
 to my room. He lighted the two wax candles on the table 
 before the divan, asked me if he should extinguish the hang- 
 ing lamp, to which I assented, and inquired at what hour I 
 wished to be called in the morning, to which I could only an- 
 
520 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 swer that I had the habit of awaking at the proper time, 
 and then left me with a most respectful bow, which stood in 
 ludicrous contrast to the extremely free and easy way in 
 which he had received me but U few hours before. 
 
 I had no thought of sleeping yet. My brain was swarm- 
 ing with thoughts which the long conversation with the 
 master of the house had excited in me ; my heart was full 
 of tumultuous emotions, awakened by the novel position in 
 which I found myself ; and, as well might happen in such an 
 hour, after a couple of bottles of heavy wine, and in an en- 
 tirely new situation, the events of the evening arranged 
 themselves in a sort of wild, fantastic dance, surrounding 
 me with figures now graceful and now grotesque — figures of 
 which I could now and then fix one for a moment : the 
 commerzienrath, with his half-shut eyes and his sharp pike- 
 like snap at that point in the conversation towards which 
 he had been manoeuvring all the while ; good Fraulein 
 Duff", with the sentimental quivering of her sallow eyelids ; 
 the steuerrath, with the white crafty face and the white slen- 
 der hand on which sparkled his immense signet-ring ; the 
 born Kippenreiter, with the false teeth and the false smile ; 
 and, lastly, her whom I had not seen, and yet in the eye of 
 my mind perpetually saw — her in whose room I was, who 
 certainly had often rested in this corner of the divan where 
 I now was reclining — the slight elastic form of the beauteous 
 young maiden, with the saucy twitch in the red lips, and the 
 sunny light in the cornflower-blue eyes. 
 
 And, stranger than all this — behind this foreground of 
 scenes and figures, changing like the forms of a kaleidoscope, 
 and shifting like wreaths of mist, there arose a background 
 of the circumstances with which I had to do for the moment, 
 and which I believed that I penetrated in their most secret 
 relations, as if an enchanter had given me that magic un- 
 guent with which if one anoint his eyes he can see all the 
 treasures that sleep in the depths of the earth. Once before 
 ill my life had I had a similar feeling : on that day after my 
 arrival at Zehrendorf when I strolled in the afternoon in the 
 park and under the softly-rustling trees, in the sight of the 
 venerable castle over which sunshine and shadow were chas- 
 ing each other, I knew on a sudden that the master of this 
 park and this castle was a desperate smuggler. And just so, 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 521 
 
 or nearly so, I just now felt an intuitive conviction that this 
 new house stood upon as treacherous a foundation, which 
 might at any moment cave in and bury the proud and envied 
 fortune of the man under the ruins of a gigantic bankruptcy. 
 And yet for such an inference I had apparently no ground 
 whatever. And even as before the thought seemed to me 
 just as extravagant, just as insane ; but I did not reproach 
 myself as before ; I rather sought in all earnestness to find 
 the points which had possibly given rise to a suspicion so 
 ridiculously at variance with the splendor of this room, the 
 magnificence of the house, with everything which from child- 
 hood I had heard of the wealth of our provincial Croesus. 
 What could it have been ? A peculiar quiver in his voice as 
 he spoke of the immense stock of corn in his warehouses from 
 the previous harvest, and of the unexampled fall in the price 
 of bread-stuffs owing to the altered position of affairs in 
 England; — this and the nervous excitability which he 
 showed when I pointed out to him the necessity of enlarg- 
 ing the machine-works in the city to double their present 
 extent, if he did not wish to be hopelessly distanced in the 
 competition with other establishments on the introduction of 
 the railway system into our country. A third point was his 
 urgent wish, to which he continually recurred, to sell Zehren- 
 dorf for as high a sum as possible — he spoke of five hun- 
 dred thousand thalers — to Prince Prora. 
 
 The strange thought had almost taken my breath, so I 
 went to the window and looked dreamingly out upon the 
 garden, whose gravelled walks and dark beds and shrubbery 
 were dimly defined in the pallid moonlight. 
 
 " Why should it not be so ? " I said to myself, holding with 
 a sort of pertinacity to my unreasonable fancv. " And if it 
 were so, would it not be a righteous Nemesis ? Those old 
 freebooter knights kept on their evil courses so long, and 
 despised the signs of the time so thoroughly, that at last the 
 time turned against them and flung them off, as a spirited 
 horse hurls from the saddle the rider who has lost his stir- 
 rups. And in our time the dead ride fast, and this man here, 
 the shop-keeper, who has mounted the knight's charger, I 
 reckon already among the dead. Shameless rapacity and 
 naked selfishness— have these not been the food of the one 
 as of the other.? Have they not both borne as motto on 
 
522 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 their shields : ' All for me — I for myself? ' Has any one of 
 them ever thought of the poor people, except to press hard 
 upon it, by way of feeling that it is there ? Ay, is it not 
 more than mere chance that that criminal traffic into which 
 the freebooter threw himself merely to gain his living, be- 
 came the means by which the shopkeeper amassed his riches ? 
 Has he not just told me, with a chuckle of satisfaction, how 
 adroitly his father and he availed themselves of the fabu- 
 lously advantageous opportunities afforded by Napoleon's 
 continental embargo, and how they had carried on the busi- 
 ness for years and years, and made thousands and thou- 
 sands, and how they slipped out of it at the very moment it 
 began to grow hazardous? Is it not just, then, that the 
 shopkeeper who turned freebooter should have his part in the 
 same fate that befell the freebooter turned shopkeeper ? — 
 only that the lordship of the former will not endure so long 
 as that of the latter, and rightly so, for * the dead ride 
 fast.'" 
 
 I looked up to the night sky, where a keen night wind 
 was driving great masses of black cloud from west to east 
 across the shining disc of the moon now near the full. 
 Strange fantastic figures ; long trailing dragons with ex- 
 panded jaws, colossal fishes with greedy ro\vs of teeth, hor- 
 rible crustacean shapes with long nippers and crooked 
 crawling legs, giants with heads towering high and bearing 
 masses of rock in their uplifted arms, cunning hunchbacked 
 dwarfs with protruding gluttonous paunches — monsters and 
 deformities of all sorts, and not a single bright fair figure. 
 In a strange freak of fancy I seemed to see in these fright- 
 ful clouds the races of men who had held dominion upon 
 earth, and borne the sceptre and the trenchant sword, who 
 had had no pity for the oppressed multitude whose life they 
 drained, until it was like that attenuated green-gray film tim- 
 idly floating under the giants, which no sooner came into the 
 bright neighborhood of the moon than it dispersed and dis- 
 solved away. Should it go on so in unbroken succession for- 
 ever? Must race of oppressors follow race of oppressors 
 without end : the knights of the hammer ever smite upon the 
 wretched anvil ? Would that time never come — that other 
 time, that better time — which the eye of my glorious teacher 
 had seen in vision, to hasten whose coming he had given his 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 523 
 
 life, and to which I had devoted myself with all the might 
 of my soul ? 
 
 " It will come, be assured this time will come," I said. 
 " Is it not come even now ? Is it not already within your- 
 self, since you have recognized that it will and must come ? 
 Is it not already in all those who think as you, and have the 
 power to give their thoughts form and color and flesh and 
 blood ? 
 
 " Ah, to have that power ! Were it not a glorious thing 
 to be master here, and yonder in the great works, and in 
 all his other factories and stores ? To be able to be a 
 helper — a benefactor to thousands and thousands — and not 
 to be it ! To be a monster with vast engulfing jaws, like 
 that hideous spectre up yonder in the clouds, because, as 
 Doctor Willibrod says, so soon as we attain power and wealth 
 Fate hangs a flintstone or a gold nugget in our breast 
 instead of a heart ! " 
 
 I closed the window, lowered the curtain, and went 
 towards my bed. But the train of thought I had been follow- 
 ing had escaped me, and I stopped and surveyed once more 
 all the magnificence of the luxurious room. 
 
 " And to all this she has been accustomed from her child- 
 hood," I said to myself. " Upon such soft carpets has her 
 dainty foot always trod ; her hand has always touched 
 fabrics of this voluptuous texture ; she has always breathed 
 this perfumed atmosphere. And if shameless selfishness 
 should meet with such a fate as brutal arrogance — this house 
 should fall as fell that older one — it would be hard, cruelly 
 hard for her. The other called me once her George, her 
 dragon-slayer. But she did not wish to be rescued, and I, 
 still half a boy, could not have rescued her. With this one 
 it might perhaps be otherwise ; perhaps she would rather be 
 rescued than perish — and in any event, I am no longer a 
 boy." 
 
 And here my eye fell upon the little mangy seal-skin port- 
 manteau which William Kluckhuhn had carefully placed at 
 the foot of the bed whose voluminous curtains he had looped 
 back, and I had to laugh aloud. For it was ridiculous, 
 when I possessed hardly more than was contained in this 
 little shabby wallet, a borrowed one at that, to talk of rescu- 
 ing a house like this — to worry my brains about the fate of 
 
524 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 men who lived in a house like this ! So I betook myself to 
 bed, and, as I was just falling asleep, awakened myself 
 again by laughing at something — I did not know what. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 BUT when I awoke the next morning at early dawn I 
 knew what it was. It was the embroidered ribbon 
 which I had discovered the evening before in the 
 bunch of flowers, and in which my fancy, half asleep, seemed 
 to catch a delightful solution of all the enigmas that sur- 
 rounded me here : but now, with senses wide awake, I saw 
 nothing in it but a bit of sentimental silliness on the part of 
 good-hearted Fraulein Duff. Still a feeling of disquiet 
 seized me that compelled me to get up and dress myself 
 hastily. A pair of sparrows that had their nest somewhere 
 close at hand under the eaves began an animated conversa- 
 tion, and then stopped suddenly, finding that it was earlier 
 than they had supposed. 
 
 So I found it myself : when I stepped to the window, with 
 the ribbon in my hand, I could not distinguish the gold let- 
 ters of the embroidery from the blue ground of the silk. I 
 was vexed at myself for my childish curiosity. Had I come 
 here to puzzle at riddles ? 
 
 But I held the ribbon still in my hand as the sky began to 
 grow brighter and the first rosy morning light tinged the 
 eastern clouds. Already I could distinguish the garden 
 beds from the gravelled walks beneath me, and in the beds 
 even the yellow crocuses from the blue hyacinths, and now 
 again I looked at the magic ribbon and could plainly read 
 the motto I so well knew. 
 
 "Anyhow," I said to myself, "whether it be meant in ear- 
 nest or in joke ; whether it be the silly sentimentality of the 
 duenna or a saucy jest of the maiden, it is a good word and 
 I will lay it to heart. I will seek faithfully : and as for what 
 I shall find, I will not puzzle my brains beforehand with 
 guessing." 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 525 
 
 I took the ribbon with me, that it might not meet the pry- 
 ing eyes of William Kluckhuhn, and left the room. Passing 
 through the roomy house, where darkness and silence still 
 reigned through all the carpeted corridors and stairs, I 
 sought and found a door leading from the lower hall into the 
 open air. 
 
 It was a small side-door, like that which in the old house 
 opened into the neglected back-yard. The back-yard had dis- 
 appeared, of course, and everything else was so changed that 
 I found myself in an entirely new and strange region. But 
 I soon discovered that it was not merely that all things were 
 here new and different, but that they were in perfect contrast 
 to the old. While the ruinous and obviously uninhabitable 
 old castle had towered aloft in great masses, bare of all orna- 
 ment, the new building presented itself of moderate size but 
 judiciously proportioned, evidently planned for comfort and 
 convenience, and in a neat if not altogether pure style of 
 architecture. The court-yard, with kitchen and other out- 
 buildings which formerly had adjoined the castle, was now 
 removed to the distance of a hundred yards or so, and the 
 house had handsome grounds all around it, adorned with 
 trees and shrubbery, evidently of recent planting. The 
 intention was to separate a small blooming oasis, the centre 
 of which was the house, from the rest of the ground devoted 
 to cultivation — a pretty device, which would only require 
 twenty years or so for its perfect realization. 
 
 A new time had come altogether. In what brilliant new- 
 ness glittered the tiled roofs between the young poplars 1 
 To the right, where formerly wide fallow lands had in vain 
 waited for cultivation, broad fields, green with young grain, 
 now shone in the sunlight; and further to the right — a 
 strange and almost incredible sight in this region — fiirther 
 still to the right was a cluster of red brick buildings, from 
 the midst of which sprang a gigantic chimney sending out a 
 black cloud of smoke against the bright morning sky. This 
 was the distillery, built about two years before, and for which 
 we had delivered some machinery in the course of the past 
 winter. As I judged, the park must formerly have extended 
 to that spot ; and now there was not a tree to be seen, not a 
 tree anywhere, as I satisfied myself by walking around the 
 house until I reached that part of the grounds which I had 
 
526 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 seen from my window. I convinced myself that this must 
 have been the place of the great lawn ; but in vain did my 
 eye seek for the circle of magnificent beeches surrounding 
 this expanse of waving grass. As far as the hills which one 
 crossed to reach the promontory all the woods had been 
 cleared away, and the stumps, which were everywhere left 
 standing, gave the ground the look of a vast neglected grave- 
 yard. Here and there were well-cleared spaces where they 
 had begun new plantations, but the young trees looked 
 poorly, and by no means promised to yield such trunks as 
 those which were still lying in some places among the 
 stumps, but already cut into lengths. 
 
 I went on along the well-kept road which ascended the 
 hills towards the promontory, following nearly the direction 
 of the old path which led through the forest to the tarn. 
 This, then, must have been its place ; this circular hollow, 
 at the bottom of which, nearly overgrown with grass, were 
 still some small pools of black water. The story used to 
 run that this gloomy tarn was of unfathomable depth, and 
 now behold at the deepest place it was not over thirty feet ! 
 They had simply cut the bank on the side towards the coast 
 and let the water off, in order to obtain the compost formed 
 by the leaves which for centuries had fallen into it and sunk 
 to the bottom. The manure was doubtless very serviceable 
 to the exhausted fields ; but they had made a frightfully ugly 
 place of what used to be, in its mysterious loneliness and 
 seclusion, the sweetest spot in all the forest. A single one 
 of the old giants had been left standing midway up the 
 slope. It was an immense beech, the growth of centuries, 
 which I believed I recognized again, though it looked 
 strangely standing there alone. And I was not mistaken : 
 upon its bark I found in letters nearly overgrown, but still 
 legible, my name and a date, the date of the day on which, 
 in that sunny autumn morning, I first saw Constance von 
 Zehren under this very tree. 
 
 It was a singular chance that of all the stately trees just 
 this one had been left standing. 
 
 A feeling of sadness begun to arise in my breast, but I 
 suppressed it, and looked up to the cheerful blue sky. That 
 morning was fair, but the leaves were already falling, and the 
 winter that was to sweep away all the beauty already stood 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 527 
 
 at the door ; while to-day the morning was as fair, and it 
 was spring, and the long sunny summer days were coming, 
 the days of work of which the harvest would not fail. 
 
 " Yes," I said to myself, as I strode actively up the hill 
 and along the crest of the promontory, " yes, that world had 
 to pass, with its rustling forests, its mysterious dark lakes 
 of ancient time, its crumbling castles, its ruinous courts, and 
 fields all lying fallow. Even you had to go, old ruin of a 
 tower, gray with antiquity, and make way for this little 
 pavilion, from whose windows there must be a lovely outlook 
 over the unchangeable sea." 
 
 Here it was the tower had stood. A gay butterfly had 
 alighted on the spot where the fierce eagle had so long had 
 its eyrie. I walked around the pretty little building, of 
 which the door was fastened and the silk curtains of the 
 windows lowered. On the south side the roof projected, 
 boldly, and under it were several tables and benches. 
 
 While I sat here, leaning my head on my hand and gazing 
 at the landscape, the sun rose — rose out of the sea in a 
 blaze of tremulous light ; but it was not this dazzling bril- 
 liancy that compelled me to close my eyes. From this spot 
 I had seen the sun rise once before, and here, where I was 
 sitting, sat a corpse with glazed eyes, on which lay the ever- 
 lasting night, staring sightless at all the splendor. 
 
 Once more I resisted the sadness that threatened to un- 
 man me. This was all past ; it should not return to darken 
 the day, the bright day, which I had long been in the habit 
 of meeting and welcoming as a precious boon from heaven. 
 
 I arose and went to the ravine which I had climbed with 
 the Wild Zehren that night by scarcely accessible paths, and 
 where now a long flight of stairs led easily down to the saw- 
 mill of which the commerzienrath had spoken to me the even- 
 ing before, and whose clatter I could now hear coming up 
 from the depths. It was a small but admirably planned 
 arrangement, and had done its duty so well that the whole 
 Zehrendorf forest, except a very trifling remainder, had been 
 cut up by its saws. 
 
 " I wish we had not gone ahead quite so fast," said the 
 foreman, whom I found in the mill ; " for in cutting down 
 the forest we cut off the water also, so that we can only work 
 one day out of three, and cannot begin to fill the orders that 
 
528 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 come in from all quarters. Now the commerzienrath has 
 set the example, all are following it, and are felling timber 
 at such a rate that soon there will not be a tree to be seen 
 on this part of the island. I have often told the commer- 
 zienrath what would be the result ; but he would not listen 
 to me, and now he must suffer for it." 
 
 " A small steam engine would help the difficulty, would it 
 not ?" I asked. 
 
 '• Yes ; but you see water is cheaper than steam. But the 
 profits never came in fast enough, so be killed the goose for 
 the sake of the golden ^.g^. All that understood the matter 
 advised him not to clear off all the wood at once, but to 
 leave enough to protect the undergrowth from the winds that 
 blow too strong up there on the height. Now nothing will 
 grow on the bare soil thoroughly dried by the wind, as you 
 probably noticed if you came over the ridge from the castle. 
 No, no ; you can't treat nature as you please : she is not so 
 patient as men." 
 
 The foreman was a small man with a shrewd thoughtful 
 face. He was born, as he told me, on another part of the 
 island, and knew the country and the people well, but had 
 not long been in this region. I introduced myself to him as 
 the person who was to set up the new machinery in the 
 chalk-quarry, and asked him his opinion of this undertaking. 
 
 " It will not turn out much better than this," he replied, 
 " though for another reason. The quarry has always been 
 a tolerably productive one, but the commerzienrath took the 
 notion that he had only to quarr}'- deeper and it would yield 
 more abundantly. It has yielded in great abundance — water, 
 which will ruin the whole quarry if your machinery cannot 
 get the upper hand of it." 
 
 " That is an ugly state of things," I said, seriously dis- 
 turbed by what he told me. 
 
 " It is indeed," he answered. 
 
 " And the kilns," I asked again, " can you give no better 
 report of them ? " 
 
 The man shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " There are several things to be said on that subject. 
 The arrangements are good enough, but immensely too ex- 
 pensive, and the transportation is too heavy in winter upon 
 our frightful roads. And even during the summer they 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 529 
 
 sometimes come to a stand-still, because all along the coast 
 here our communication with the sea is so bad ; although 
 the commerzienrath has had a great breakwater built with 
 the stones of the old tower. You can see it from here— 
 there where that line of surf is. But we might get along if 
 the commerzienrath knew how to make himself liked among 
 the people." 
 
 " How so ? " I asked. 
 
 The man looked at me with some hesitation from under 
 his bushy eyebrows. 
 
 " You may speak quite openly," I said. " But a few days 
 ago I was no more than an ordinary workman in the com- 
 merzienrath's machine-shops, and have not lost my sympathy 
 with my comrades in this short time." 
 
 " Well," said he, " to speak freely, my. notion of the mat- 
 ter is this : the people about here, the seafaring men as well 
 as the cotters, and those in the villages on the coast and up 
 the country, all look upon the commerzienrath as a man who 
 has pushed himself into a place where better men than him- 
 self have sat and should sit. As to their being better, there 
 may be two sides to that question ; but I am not speaking 
 my own thoughts, but those of the people. Then many of 
 them remember that the commerzienrath was not always the 
 rich man he is now ; and what is the worst, two or three 
 know very well how he got together such a monstrous heap 
 of money, for he worked for it himself, and risked his skin 
 in the year '10, and thereabouts, when there were queer 
 doings along this coast and up as high as Uselin and Wol- 
 dom. Why, not so many years ago there was a grand hunt 
 made here after smugglers, of which perhaps you may have 
 heard something. Well, all that might have been, and 
 nobody think anything the worse of the commerzienrath for 
 it, if he were a man to live and let live, and who tried to 
 make up for anything he had done amiss, and did not bear 
 too hard on the poor men. But he is just the opposite of 
 that. He grinds and drives them all he can, and only thinks 
 of how much work is to be got out of them, as they have 
 got to work. But he is mistaken. They work for him, it is 
 true ; but only such of them as can get nothing else to do ; 
 and what sort of workmen they are, and the kind of work 
 they do, you know as well as I could tell you." 
 
 23 
 
530 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 " I see," I said. 
 
 A workman came up. New logs were to be laid for saw- 
 ing, and the foreman must be there. I shook his hand. 
 He looked at me with his melancholy eyes, and said with a 
 smile : 
 
 " You have' me now in your power if you choose to tell 
 the commerzienrath what you have heard from me. But it 
 is no matter : in any event I shall not stay here much 
 longer.'' 
 
 " I am sorr}- to hear you say so," I answered. " I trust 
 on the contrar}- we shall have many a friendly talk together, 
 and hit upon more than one good plan between us. Don't 
 throw away your musket too soon ; there is a better time 
 coming I fancy.'' 
 
 The man looked at me in some surprise, but answered 
 nothing, and went into the mill, while I descended the stairs 
 all the way down to the strand. 
 
 Here lay my sea, my dearly loved sea, which I had always 
 greeted with tears of joy when a dream carried me to the 
 shore and it lay before me in all its grandeur and beauty. 
 Rolling in they came, the great glorious waves with white 
 breaking crests, flinging the foam of the surf to my feet ; 
 and when thej^ rolled back there was a fierce roar from the 
 millions of pebbles grinding together on the beach. Over 
 the chalk-clififs above me a pair of gylls wheeled in lazy flight, 
 and in the offing glittered the sails of two fishing-boats which 
 were bound home after heavy night-work. With what an- 
 ticipation I had looked forward to seeing once more what I 
 had not seen for so long, and I saw it almost with indifference. 
 
 But it was not my fault. My feelings were as strong as 
 ever, and my heart had not grown so much older in the eight 
 or nine years ; but I could not drive away the anxious 
 thoughts aroused by the words of the honest intelligent fore- 
 man of the mill. 
 
 How accurately his views tallied with the observation 
 which I had made during my morning walk ! With what a 
 sharp outline he had sketched the portrait of the commer- 
 zienrath, just as I had always known him, and as he appeared 
 last night. Then he was full of boasting and bragging in 
 how short a time he had trebled and quintupled the value of 
 the estate, and all that he was doing for the people around. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 53 t 
 
 He had meant to show Messieurs the noblemen, who in mat- 
 ters of farming were all some fifty years behind the time, 
 what a man of business like himself could make out of a 
 ruined estate. This was the only real interest he took in the 
 whole business, and if the young prince had a fancy to the 
 property he had better hasten his decision or he would come 
 too late. 
 
 Five hundred thousand thalers — half a million ! How was 
 such a sum to be got out of it "i The estate was of vast ex- 
 tent, it was true, and exhausted and ruined as it was at the 
 Wild Zehren's death, was still worth a hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand, and at this price the commerzienrath took it at the set- 
 tlement. Now when it was in a better state of cultivation, 
 when all the buildings were new, a handsome residence built, 
 and the various industrial arrangements, even if not doing 
 so well as was hoped, still enhanced the value of the prop- 
 erty, it might be worth twice the money ; but on the other 
 hand all the valuable timber was cut down and sold — I could 
 not raise it to that price, reckon as I might ; there was al- 
 ways more than the half that I could not account for. If 
 the commerzienrath's statements of his affairs were all as 
 loose as this — in just the same proportion he had over-esti- 
 mated the value of his machine-works in Berlin, in our talk 
 the previous night — if he only played the millionaire because 
 perhaps he had once been one ; if he — I paused, looking out 
 at the sea, and drew a long breath. Again, in this clear 
 morning, here in the fresh sea-air, the gloomy presentiment 
 came over me, that yesterday evening in the close room I 
 had held for the offspring of my excited fancy, heated with 
 the fiery wine ; and once more, as yesterday, my thoughts re 
 verted to the fair girl, the wayward, envied heiress of wealth, 
 which possibly had no existence but in her father's idle boast- 
 ing. 
 
 " But, after all, what does it concern me ? " I said to my- 
 self, as I waded with rapid strides through the deep sand of 
 the beach ; " it does not concern me at all ; not the least." 
 
 At my feet lay a large fish which the waves must just have 
 flung ashore. It seemed dead, but showed no marks of in- 
 jury ; its expanded gills were still brilliantly r^d ; probably 
 the surf had dashed it against a rock, or a bk»K from the 
 paddle of a seal stunned it. I carried it, not without wetting 
 
532 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 my feet, over the great stones, and threw it into deeper 
 water. It floated, turning up its white belly. " Poor creat- 
 ure," I said, " I would fain have helped you ; now the gulls 
 will eat you j your death furnishes them a feast." 
 
 " And how did the dead fish concern me .'' '' I went on 
 philosophizing, as after knocking the wet sand off my boots, 
 I pursued my way. " Not in the least, either. A man 
 should have in his breast the heart of one of these gulls, 
 with sharp talons, and a strong keen beak, and hack gaily 
 into every prey that a favoring wave casts up on the strand. 
 George, George, be ashamed of youVself ! But it all does 
 no good ; I cannot make myself other than I am. But 
 neither can I make others different from what they are. 
 The commerzienrath for instance : could I ever teach that 
 man the doctrines of my master .'' The doctrine of love — of 
 mutual help? Never. Or at least only if I could prove 
 that his profit went with it hand in hand : that he will work 
 his own ruin if he makes rapacity the ruling principle of his 
 life. Did not my teacher predict all this to me } The turn 
 of this man and those like him is now come : they are now 
 the knights of the hammer : it is the old game in a some- 
 what different form. And he added — and a bright light 
 glowed in his splendid eyes, — ' It will not be long before 
 our time comes, we who have comprehended that there is a 
 justice that cannot be mocked.' 
 
 " ' That time — our time — it will never come,' Doctor 
 Willibrod used to say, ' or only for him who can conquer it, 
 and hold it fast by the fluttering robe,' " 
 
 A gull gave a hoarse cry overhead : I looked up and saw 
 something white, like the skirt of a dress, fluttering above 
 the bushes fringing the cliff which here was steep and at 
 least fifty feet high. It was not a dress, it was a veil which 
 floated from the hat of a horsewoman, for presently I saw 
 the hat itself, then the head of the horse, and soon the rider 
 herself, or at least her head and shoulders for a moment, as 
 she leaned over to look down at the narrow strip of beach. 
 
 It gave me a beating of the heart — it looked so very dan- 
 gerous, although I knew that it was not quite so dangerous 
 as it seemed from below : and I called out to her to take 
 care ; but she hardly could have heard it. Her white veil 
 had disappeared, and my heart beat still more strongly — it 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 533 
 
 was Paula's fault if I could not look on calmly and see the 
 fair Hermine fall fifty feet down a precipice, even though it 
 were ihto my arms. 
 
 " Kow now," I cried, in scorn to myself, " is there any- 
 thing more to rescue or to protect ? Cunning old commer- 
 zienraths, stupid dead fishes, pretty capricious girls — it is 
 all the same to you, if you can only burn your fingers or wet 
 your feet for your trouble. How long has it been since you 
 hastened along this beach with the Wild Zehren at your side 
 and the coast-guard on your heels ? You might still see the 
 foot-prints if winds and waves had not effaced them ; but 
 stupid idiot that you are, you can find the old track without 
 that ! " 
 
 Thus I chided myself, and made up my mind to return at 
 once to the house and there to tell the commerzienrath that 
 I — no matter for what reason — had resolved to return, and 
 nothing could induce me to stay. And while I formed this 
 resolution, which, if carried into effect, would have changed 
 the whole course of my life, and therefore was not to be, I 
 was already looking with awakening interest at the arrange- 
 ments at the chalk-quarry, which lay before me, in a moder- 
 ately deep ravine, as I turned a sharp angle of the cliff. It 
 would have been worse than unbecoming if I had so 
 abruptly abandoned the work which I had been sent for and 
 had come expressly to carry out. 
 
 So I ascended the wooden staircase which ran up the 
 chalk-cliff until I reached a small platform, where behind 
 the watchman's hut was the opening to the galleries which 
 had been pushed horizontally into the chalk, and which 
 could not now be worked further because they had come 
 upon springs of water which they were in vain trying to mas- 
 ter with rude temporary pumping machinery. 
 
 " And it is very doubtful whether your machines will do 
 it," said the old weatherbeaten overseer, who showed it to 
 me. 
 
 " But how did it happen ? " I asked. 
 
 " How did it happen? " echoed he, shrugging his shoul- 
 ders — " Why you see, behind the chalk, which comes just to 
 here — " we were walking on the top of the cliff, and took 
 hold of a stake driven into the ground as a mark — " there is 
 a stratum of sand, old sea-sand and dune-sand, which runs 
 
534 Hammer and Anvil. . '--■ ! 
 
 alongside the chalk at about the same depth, and at the 
 other end reaches the great morass where it sucks up the 
 water like a sponge. We all knew that very well, but the 
 master would not beli«ve it, and thought we wanted to cheat 
 him out of his profits when we advised him to go no deeper 
 on that side, when the chalk happened just there to be espe- 
 cially fine. Now he has to suffer for it." 
 
 Just the same thing that the foreman in the saw-mill had 
 said, and both seemed to be intelligent honest men, who 
 took a siac«i« jatiSFest in the prosperity of the works and 
 were really grieved at their ill success. Why had he not 
 followed their advice while it was yet time ? Why ? For 
 the same reason that he had steadily opposed all Doctor 
 Sn^lM&'s proposition for the formation of beneficial and 
 burial societies j for the same reason that he had scornfully 
 rejected the suggestions of our manager to raise the wages 
 of the workmen in proportion to the "increased cost of living. 
 It was always the same reason : boundless selfishness, which 
 gazes on the one object of its desires with such greedy eyes that 
 it can see neither to the right nor to the left, and is at last 
 dazzled and blinded to its own real interests. 
 
 " Now he has to suffer for it," the old man repeated, as if 
 in confirmation of my thoughts, then turned slowly away 
 and descended the wooden stair which led from the edge of 
 the cliff down to the quarry. 
 
 I remained alone, in profound thought, as if the creation 
 of a new world had been entrusted to me. And was there 
 not a world to create here, of which as yet only the founda- 
 tion had been laid ? Sawmills, chalk-quarries, lime-kilns, the 
 draining of the great morass — what might not have been 
 made of all these undertakings ? Nay, what might not still 
 be made of them, if they were taken up in the right spirit 
 and with the right intention ? — the intention of providing for 
 the poor, perishing, wretched people here, new and permanent 
 sources of subsistence. One had only to win their confi- 
 dence by letting them see that while they seemed to be 
 working for their employer, they were really working for 
 themselves. 
 
 " If I were but master here !" • -.-,.- • 
 
 From the point where I stood, I could overlook a good 
 part of the country ; my view extending to the left up as far 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 535 
 
 as the heights of Zehrendorf, and on the right descending to 
 the great morass and along the line of coast as far as Zanowitz, 
 whose miserable huts were visible here and there between 
 the barren dunes. And I saw in fancy the waste land wav- 
 ing with golden harvests, the great moor drained and giv- 
 ing placebo rich meadows on which grazed great herds of 
 cattle, while handsome fishing-smacks sailed out from the 
 wretched village, now the port of a rich and fruitful territory. 
 
 Once before I had had a similar dream, and once before 
 my eyes had roved over this land and my fancy would have 
 created a paradise, if such p. power resided in fancies or in 
 wishes. Since then many a year had passed; I was 
 another man, richer in understanding and sagacity, stronger 
 in will ; must it still remain only a longing wish ? Must I 
 again, as so often before in my life, stand with empty hands 
 before the famishing who were crying for bread } 
 
 And as I walked backwards and forwards on the cliff, 
 thinking and thinking how I should get away, for go away I 
 must, suddenly the white veil that I had before seen flutter- 
 ing from the summit, now fluttered over the bushes that 
 edged the beach to my right. I heard the rapid tread of a 
 galloping horse on the sandy road behind the bushes, and 
 in the next moment the rider came round the corner upon a 
 handsome black horse, with an enormous yellow mastiff 
 galloping by his side with an almost equal length of stride. 
 The instant the lady saw me, \nth a quick firm hand she 
 swerved the well-trained horse to one side, but the dog 
 came bounding to me with evidently hostile intentions. As 
 I was ready for him the moment he sprang at me, I clutched 
 him by the throat and one fore-leg, and hurled him to the 
 ground. 
 
 " Leo ! Leo ! " cried Hermine, urging on her horse with 
 whip and rein. "Here, Leo ! Down, Sir ! " 
 
 But Leo had prudently decided to beat a retreat after the 
 failure of his attack. It seemed that in my haste I had 
 handled him rather roughly, for he limped slowly towards his 
 mistress, whining and holding up his right fore-paw. 
 
 " Served you right," said she, bending down to pat him. 
 " How could you be so stupid as to attack that gentleman ? 
 Don't you know he can conquer lions ? " 
 
 She said this in a tone through which there evidently 
 
53^ Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 enough pierced a certain scorn, and a trace of contempt, or 
 vexation, or pride, or all together, lay upon her beautiful 
 lips, as she now looked at me sharply with her large clear 
 blue eyes, as 1 bowed in salutation, and said : 
 
 " You need not be surprised, sir : the dog has been trained 
 to protect his mistress. I do not know for what he can have 
 taken you." 
 
 These unfriendly words were also spoken in a very far 
 from kindly tone, and I am not sure that an elegant young 
 gentleman who should be thus treated by a beautiful girl 
 would in all cases preserve the repose of manner that marks 
 his caste. 
 
 But I only saw in the f;iir Amazon who behaved so haugh- 
 tily, the pretty blue-eyed girl of nine or ten years before, 
 when we used to tease each other ; so I felt in nowise 
 wounded by her behavior, and I fear that I very calmly re- 
 marked that at the worst the dog could only have taken me 
 for a workman, and that I hardly supposed he had been 
 trained to attack a class of persons as useful as they were 
 numerous. 
 
 At this answer, which was probably not of the nature she 
 expected, she looked at me with an embarrassed indignant 
 glance, and said, with more temper than logic : 
 
 " I do not know why you should be taken for anything 
 else, since you are always occupied with such useful and im- 
 portant matters that of course you cannot care about your 
 external appearance, as do we small every-day people. The 
 last time I had this pleasure, you looked, if I remember 
 right, like a chimney-sweeper ; and now — for the sake of 
 contrast probably — you present yourself in the garb of a 
 miller." 
 
 I glanced down at myself, involuntarily, and perceived 
 that in creeping about in the narrow galleries of the chalk- 
 quarry, I had rubbed my broad shoulders and other project- 
 ing angles of my person against the walls, and that with great 
 white patches all over my clothes, I did really present a 
 singular and ludicrous appearance. I took off my hat, and 
 said with a profound bow, turning to the dog who was now 
 sitting on his haunches with an air of extreme despondency, 
 holding up his damaged fore-paw : 
 
 " I most heartily beg pardon, and I solemnly promise that 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 537 
 
 if I have the happy fortune to meet you again, I shall appear 
 as neat as it is po'ssible for soap and brush to make me, 
 when I trust you will have as little doubt of my friendly in- 
 tentions as I have of yours." 
 
 " Come, Leo '! Come along if you can ; or else stay where 
 
 you are." 
 
 She gave her horse, who had been impatiently tossing his 
 head and pawing the sand, so sharp a cut across the neck 
 that he bounded with surprise and went off at full gallop. 
 The dog galloped after, as fast as his available legs would 
 carry him. 
 
 I did not feel that in this odd rencontre, which almost 
 seemed a combat, I had come off second best. I believe I 
 even looked after her as she galloped off and her white veil 
 quickly disappeared behind the bushes, with a kind of 
 triumphant smile, and muttured to myself, " ' The first best 
 man ' — in truth the man were not to be pitied who should 
 be the first and best for you ! " 
 
 It was time that I had returned to the house, where the 
 commerzienrath was certainly awaiting me by this time. So 
 I walked rapidly back from the cliffs, along a road too well 
 known to me of old, which led between the morass on the 
 left and the heath on the right, in the direction of Tranto- 
 witz, where quite near the house a path branched off through 
 the fields to Zehrendorf. I do not know how it happened, 
 but my meeting with the pretty girl who exhibited so much 
 hostility to me, without bringing me really to believe in its 
 sincerity, had entirely restored my good humor. 
 
 All things that had seemed to me so gloomy and fraught 
 with evil, now appeared in a more cheerful light. Here 
 was certainly a possibility of doing good on a large scale ; 
 and I blessed my star that, as it seemed, it had fallen to my 
 lot to bring this possibility to a reality. The commerzien- 
 rath, if not a good, was at least a shrewd man, who would 
 not act against the interests of others when he was shown 
 " that these interests ran parallel with his own. And who was 
 better prepared to give him this proof than I — I, whose dis- 
 interestedness he must be convinced of, and who, heaven 
 knows why, rejoiced in his regard for me, so far as such a 
 feeling could be said to exist in his cold breast. It is possi- 
 ble that he only liked me because he needed me, or thought 
 23* 
 
53^ Hammer and Anvil. ^ 
 
 he did. Be it so : I must make myself necessary to him, 
 and I believed I could do this : and then let the fair Her- 
 mine treat me as superciliously as she pleased, I stood firmly 
 on my feet and could hold my head as high as nature had 
 placed it. 
 
 So I strode valiantly along the narrow path to the gap in 
 the alder thicket which here grew between the moor and the 
 heath ; the same gap through which I had fled with the Wild 
 Zehren on that night nine years before. Once more I bat- 
 tled with my sad recollections, for I had firmly resolved to 
 meet the present as it was, and let the past be past. How, 
 indeed, without this resolution, could I ever have brought 
 myself to return to this place ? And the sun was shining so 
 brightly in the blue sky, and the birds singing so merrily in 
 the branches whose buds were now beginning to open, and 
 in the bushes that were now in full leaf ; in the brown water 
 of the ditches and pools long-legged water-beetles were gaily 
 rowing about, and in the distance, in the Trantowitz woods 
 apparently, resounded the call of the cuckoo. No ; one 
 could not be melancholy on so bright a day ; and when I 
 thought of the pretty angry face of the charming girl, I could 
 not refrain from laughing so loud that a man, who had been 
 lying asleep in the young grass on the edge of a trench 
 under the overhanging boughs of an alder a few paces from 
 me, raised himself slowly on his elbow and stared at me, as 
 I came round the thicket, with great astonished blue eyes. 
 I only needed one look at these good-natured big blue eyes 
 — " Herr von Trantow !" I cried — " Hans, my dear Hans ! " 
 and I held out my hands to my old friend, who in the mean- 
 time had risen to his feet, and offered me his great brown 
 knightly hand with a friendly smile. 
 
 " How are you dear friend } " I said. | 
 
 " As usual," he answered. 
 
 It was the old tone, but it was no longer the old Hans. 
 His blue eyes were more expressionless, his brown cheeks 
 sunken, and his formerly well-shaped handsome nose was 
 red and swollen ; and when we seated ourselves side by side 
 on the edge of the trench, and he took off his cap, I saw 
 that his thick dark-blond hair was greatly thinned. 
 
 " I knew that you would come," he said, taking flint and 
 steel from his hunting pouch and lighting a cigar, after first 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 539 
 
 supplying me : "I was to go there to dinner to-day, but I 
 do not know whether I should have gone ; so I am all the 
 more glad that I have met you here. I had much rather 
 be here." 
 
 And he puffed great clouds of smoke from his cigar and 
 gazed at the water in the trench, where the lively long-leg- 
 ged water-beetles were busily rowing about 
 
 " Much rather," he repeated. 
 
 " And are you still living as lonely as ever ? " I asked. 
 
 " Naturally," said Hans. 
 
 " I do not find that so natural," I replied, with some an- 
 imation, for Hans's whole appearance and voice bespoke a 
 carelessness and desolation which cut me to the heart — " by 
 no means natural. What! k man like you, a dear, good, 
 brave fellow like you, go mooning and wasting his life in 
 solitude because a coquette has chosen to lead him in her 
 string for a year or so ? Yes, Herr von Trantow, a heartless 
 coquette, who never was worth the regards of an honest man 
 and now — no, she is hardly worth our compassion. I can 
 tell you, I have learned that truth to my cost" 
 
 " So have I," said Hans. 
 
 " I know it" 
 
 Hans shook his head as if to say, that is not what I mean. 
 I knew of old how to translate his gestures. 
 
 " Have you seen her since ? " I asked. 
 
 He nodded. 
 
 " Where and when ? " 
 
 " Eight or nine years ago, in — ^what do they call the hole ? 
 —Naples." 
 
 " That was the time that you disappeared from here, and 
 no one knew what had become of you." 
 
 "Yes," said Hans. 
 
 "In Naples?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 It quite taxed the imagination to fancy Hans von Trantow 
 in Naples, the northern bear among the southern jackals, 
 and a most urgent impulse must it have been which drove 
 him for the first and only time in his life from the Penates 
 of his ruined home, and his native heaths and moors, out 
 into the wide world. 
 
 It was in December nine years before — I had then been a 
 
540 Hatmner and Anvil. ■ j 
 
 month in detention under examination — that Hans had re- 
 ceived a letter which caused him to lay game-bag and gun 
 aside — he was just going out shooting — harness up his 
 sledge and drive ofif to Fahrdorf, where he crossed the ice to 
 Uselin, and from Uselin travelled day and night, until after 
 many hinderances — he at first thought he must look for Na- 
 ples in Turkey, and only found the right direction after ex- 
 treme difficulties and some lost time — at the end of about a 
 month he happily reached the city he was in search of. 
 Here, after some trouble — for the good Hans spoke and un- 
 derstood no language but his own honest German — he dis- 
 covered the hotel mentioned in the letter, and found her 
 whom he was looking for. But not as he expected to find 
 her ; not as the letter had represented her. She had spoken 
 of herself as " betrayed," " forsaken," one who looked to 
 him as her only refuge, her preserver frorri the direst misery 
 and a certain death. Hans had naturally taken all this lit- 
 erally, and was somewhat astounded to find her in one of 
 the grandest hotels on the Toledo, in luxuriously furnished 
 apartments, and splendidly dressed, looking more lovely 
 than ever, though not a little confused — indeed, even turning 
 pale — at sight of him. She had probably not supposed that 
 her appeal would receive so instantaneous a response, and 
 that she would have no notice beforehand, and in conse- 
 quence she was taken unprepared. So it had to be that a 
 German princess, who was really in Naples at the time, had 
 interested herself in her, and insisted that the daughter of so 
 ancient and distinguished a family should accept her assist- 
 ance. But the favor of the great is inconstant, and often 
 clogged with conditions hard to be complied with by a proud 
 spirit. The princess had demanded, as the price of her 
 favor, that Constance should marry off-hand a certain young 
 Baron, who, it was said, had stood a little too high in the ex- 
 alted favor of the princess herself; and she, Constance, was 
 one of those who may err, and err grievously, but will never 
 act against the voice of their heart. 
 
 This story the fair Circe had told the true-hearted Hanp, 
 with many tears and sighs, and blushes and smiles, and 
 convulsive sobbings, and he, who did not possess the 
 sceptical spirit of the much-enduring man, believed every 
 word, and had returned to his modest lodgings, pondering 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 541 
 
 and racking his brain to find out what he could do to help 
 
 her. 
 
 To marry her was out of the question. A Trantow could 
 take no woman to wife who was not as chaste as he himself 
 was brave ; not though she were a hundred times fairer and 
 he had loved her a hundred times more dearly. But to share 
 with her what he had, to protect her and care for her and do 
 for her what in a similar case a brother might do for an un- 
 fortunate but dearly loved sister — this Hans could do and 
 would do ; and the next morning he went to lay his plans 
 before her. But in the night Circe had taken other counsel, 
 and left her palace under the protection of the aforesaid 
 young Baron, who in reality stood in no connection whatever 
 with the high lady she had referred to, but in a v^xy intimate 
 one with young Piince Prora, and since the young prince 
 had left Naples a month before, by his father's orders, in 
 quite an intimate relation to Constance herself, who had been 
 transferred to him as an equivalent for a considerable sum 
 of money which the prince had lost to him at play. So at 
 least Hans was told — and much beside which he neither 
 asked nor wanted to know — by a German waiter at the hotel, 
 who seemed to have taken a very active, if not very credita- 
 ble part in the whole affair. As Hans had not come to 
 Naples to lounge along the Toledo, or visit Capri, or climb 
 Vesuvius, he shook the dust from his feet and set out on his 
 homeward journey. But the good faithful fellow did not get 
 far. The unusual exertion and excitement of so long a jour- 
 ney made in such furious haste, the change of climate and 
 mode of living, the fiery Italian wine, which from old habits 
 he had drunk in great quantity, and more than all else the 
 deep grief at this second atrocious treachery, which was far 
 worse than the first, were too much for even his strong con- 
 stitution, and one day a compassionate vettiirino brought to 
 the gate of a monastery near Rome a traveller who had fal- 
 len sick by the way, and who really seemed to have reached 
 the end of all his journeys. 
 
 But it was not fated that the good Hans should exhale his 
 free brave soul in the narrow cell of a Roman monastery ; 
 despite the extremely irrational treatment of Fra Antonio, 
 the celebrated physician to the convent, he recovered, and 
 in six weeks could walk about the garden. The garden was 
 
542 Hammer and Amtt'l. 
 
 a very fine one, with a magnificent view of the Eternal City, 
 and the monks, if not particularly clean, were very kind and 
 hospitable, and very urgently pressed the worthy Hans to 
 consider whether it would not be for the welfare of his soul 
 to return no more to his barbarian home, but come rather to 
 the bosom of the true Church, to die perhaps, if it were heaven's 
 will, some day in that very monastery in the odor of sanctity. 
 A singular proposal to the good Hans, who in his life had 
 never given a moment's thought to the present or future 
 welfare of his soul ; but it was quite clear to him that how- 
 ever salutary it might be for his immortal part, to follow the 
 counsel of the good fathers, he would have in doing so to 
 renounce all the comfort of his life. The convent wine was 
 right good of its kind, but it had a peculiar flavor to which 
 he could never get accustomed, any more than he could to 
 seeing the trees in blossom at the end of February, as if at this 
 time there were no keen gusty north-east wind in the world, and 
 no pine-woods whose boughs bent with their weight of pen- 
 dent icicles ; and when one night a comforting dream had 
 conveyed him to Trantowitz, and by the feeble light of the 
 northern stars and of the snow had let him shoot six hares 
 in his cabbages out of his bedroom window, there was no 
 holding him any longer after he awoke ; he shook the brown 
 dirty hands of his friendly hosts, one after the other, received 
 the Prior's benediction upon his heretical head, and returned 
 to his old home. 
 
 All this Hans told me in his monotonous way, while we 
 sat on the edge of the trench. And the long-legged beetles 
 shot back and forth in the brown water, and the birds twit- 
 tered in the branches, and the call of the cuckoo came from 
 the far-off" woods. 
 
 I felt very sad. I believe I should have been less affected 
 if Hans had exhibited the least emotion in the recital of the 
 most ev^entful and certainly most painful passage of his life ; 
 but of this there was not the slightest trace. He felt no 
 hatred towards Constance, no grudge against the young 
 prince, who was now living at Rossow in the immediate 
 neighborhood : in all that he said there lay a perfect resig- 
 nation, an utter hopelessness ; and this it was that made me 
 so sad. 
 
 There was a rustling in the coppice behind us, and an old 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 543 
 
 pointer trotting up greeted first Hans and then me with a 
 melancholy wag of his tail. 
 
 " God bless me ! that is not Caro, is it ?" I asked. 
 
 " Yes it is," said Hans. " I believe he knows you." 
 
 "Poor old fellow!" I said, patting the dog; " and does he 
 still do his duty.?" 
 
 " So, so," said Hans. " He has been of no use with 
 pheasants for a long time ; and with ducks, that used to be 
 his great point, he will not go into the water any more, so 
 that I usually have to get them myself. But that is only 
 natural : we are neither of us so young as we once were." 
 
 Caro had seated himself on the edge of the trench, staring 
 with pricked-up ears at the beetles in the water, and evidently 
 thinking of nothing at all ; Hans sat with his left elbow 
 propped on his knee, blowing thick clouds from his cigar, 
 also staring into the trench, and apparently thinking of noth- 
 ing also. I felt sadder and sadder. The contrast between 
 the active life I had just been picturing to myself, and the mel- 
 ancholy of this stagnant, purposeless existence, was too great. 
 
 " Suppose we go," I said, suddenly rising. 
 
 " Very well," said Hans, slowly following my example. 
 
 Not much was said between us as we crossed the heath, 
 until we reached the point where the path to Zehrendorf 
 branched off near Trantowitz whose buildings looked for- 
 lorner and more dilapidated than ever. 
 
 " So you are going to live here always," said Hans, as we 
 were about to separate. 
 
 " Always V I said. " How came you to think that ?" 
 
 " I .'" he said, in evident surprise that I should suspect him 
 of originating any idea^ — " I did not think it : Fraulein Duff 
 told me so." 
 
 " And did she tell you why I was to stay here always ?" 
 
 " Of course ; and \ wish you joy with all my heart." 
 
 " Wish me joy of what ? " I asked, taking with some hesi- 
 tation his offered hand. 
 
 Hans blushed and stammered, " Excuse me : I had no in- 
 tention of being indiscreet ; but I thought it was no secret, 
 or at least none between us." 
 
 " In the name of heaven, what are you talking about ? " I 
 asked, and I think I turned even redder than Hans, if that 
 were possible. 
 
S44 Hammer and Anvil. [ 
 
 "Why, are you not betrothed to Fraulein Hermine or 
 about to be ? " he stammered out. 
 
 I laughed loud ; louder than any one who laughs honestly, 
 and Hans, who took this for an indirect confession, again 
 seized my hand and said : 
 
 " I wish you joy with all my heart : I do not know any one 
 in the whole world whom I would so gladly see win her as 
 yourself. And the people here need a good master." 
 
 He pressed my hand again, and then went on, Caro trot- 
 ting after him with drooping head. I looked after them. 
 " Indeed," I said to myself, " it would be a better lot than 
 has fallen to your share, you good faithful fellow." 
 
 I turned. There lay before me the new mansion and 
 grounds of Zehrendorf, and lower down, nearer to me, there 
 crouched close to the earth the same little dilapidated, dirty 
 cottages that I remembered of old ; and in the fields, splen- 
 did in their vernal beauty, I saw working the same care- 
 worn, poverty-stricken men, and I thought of all I had seen 
 and heard this morning, and said to myself, " Yes, indeed, 
 you need a good master ! " 
 
 Then I walked slowly, almost hesitatingly, along the foot- 
 paths through the green corn-fields to Zehrendorf. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 I HAD now been more than a week at Zehrendorf. A let- 
 ter written in those days now lies before me, a letter 
 several pages long, upon which there are spots as if 
 tears had fallen upon the paper, and yet it is a cheerful, 
 even a merry letter, and these are the w^ords of it : 
 
 " Nobody knows better than you, dear Paula, that I did 
 not come here to amuse myself ; b^t were I to say that in 
 all these days I have done little else than amuse myself, or 
 at least seem to be doing it, I should tell the honest truth. 
 It really seems as if ^ were making up for lost time by per- 
 petrating all the follies I have left undone during the last 
 nine or ten years ; and as taking my earlier exploits in that 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 545 
 
 line as a standard, their amount and magnitude can by no 
 means be insignificant, so my incentives to achieve them are 
 proportionately strong. They still tell here of my perfor- 
 mances in choral singing in our old parties on the water ; 
 of the dancing parties where I had ever the most inventive 
 head for new figures in the cotillon, of the walks and drives 
 in the pine-wood, where I was the leader in every frolic, and 
 where in the evening the darkness of the forest would be 
 lighted up by the fireworks that my friend z.x\d protege, Fritz 
 Amsberg, the apothecary's hunchbacked apprentice, used to 
 make for me as his appointed tribute. Yes indeed, there are 
 persons who remember only too well my exploits in those 
 days ; and what is the worst, somfe of these live in my im- 
 mediate neighborhood, and are but too ready to say at all 
 times, fitting or unfitting, ' Don't you remember, George 
 —excuse me for calling you by the dear old name — don't 
 you remember what a glorious time we had at such a place, 
 where you had arranged so and so ? ' Not once in ten times 
 can I remember it, and then only vaguely ; and I marvel 
 at the extraordinary tenacity with which the female memory 
 retains certain things, which, with us men, the rougher waves 
 of life ruthlessly wash away. 
 
 " Poor Emilie ! What can have brought her here ? Quite 
 unexpectedly to me, I can assure you, and by no means 
 agreeably either ; but her father, my great enemy of old, is 
 yustitiarius to Prince Prora, and the commerzienrath's soli- 
 citor ; and as the prince and the commerzienrath are still in 
 treaty about Zehrendorf, nothing of course can be done 
 without the legal factotum of the two high contracting pow- 
 ers. Now wherever the legal factotum is, Fraulein Emilie is 
 not far off, especially when in addition to business, a little 
 innocent pleasure is to be had, as here with us in the country, 
 where business and pleasure, whenever possible, go hand in 
 hand. And now too, when the worthy lady, the Frau Jus- 
 tizrilthin, has acted so unmotherly as to leave Emilie ' a help- 
 less, unprotected orphan,' to use her own expression. And 
 wherever Emilie is, one has not to look far for our mayor's 
 lovely daughter, her bosom-friend, Elsie Kohl, Really I 
 ought to be ashamed of making fun of these poor girls, for 
 in truth it is not their fault that they have never been out- 
 side of the good town of Uselin and its three-mile circuit of 
 
546 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 estates and domains, so that their conceptions of the world 
 and men's doings in it are not very comprehensive, but 
 rather a little confused ; and especially is it not Friiulein 
 Emilie's fault that she did not find the person she was look- 
 ing for — no, I ought not to laugh at them ; and yet never 
 could I have believed that my risible faculties could be 
 brought into such play as happens when I look at the pair — 
 the two Eleonoras somebody here has christened them — clasp- 
 ing each other in a girlish embrace, as they swim into the 
 parlor through the door which William Kluckhuhn, with a 
 malicious grin on his impudent face, has obsequiously 
 thrown open for them. The attitude has, doubtless, been 
 most carefully studied before the glass, or it could not 
 always be so exact down to the very minutest detail. Here 
 you have the group, which I recommend to you for one of 
 your charming saloon-pieces : — Emilie, as the smaller and 
 bolder, is naturally the second Eleonora, and is the worldly 
 protector of the other who is a head taller and even in my 
 time had a little romance with a poetical young schoolmaster 
 who was a trifle out of his senses, so she has the superiority 
 over her friend which riper experience and early sorrows 
 bestow, especially as ten years ago she bewailed in elegiac 
 verses her hapless fate, to fade, in the bloom of her youth, 
 to the silent tomb. 
 
 " This sport of cruel destiny, the victim destined to an 
 early grave, clasps her right arm around the shoulders of her 
 friend, gazing down upon her with a loving look as if to say, 
 Happy, guileless child ! thou canst sing and sport in life's 
 bright morning! while the guileless child looks up at her 
 with two eyes, blue as two skies, at least, and with a provok- 
 ing smile on her saucy lips. It is a touching sight, I assure 
 you ; and more than ever when one thinks that the combined 
 jages of the two Eleonoras amount to some sixty-two or sixty- 
 three years ; for I remember quite distinctly that as a very 
 little boy I would not play with Elise any more because she 
 was too old for me, and as for Emilie I know certainly that 
 she is exactly one year older than I am, for our birthdays 
 fell on the same day, and used often to be celebrated to- 
 gether. 
 
 " Yes, the tenacity of Fraulein Emilie's memory is great, 
 but there is one hour of her life of which she affirms that it 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 547 
 
 is ever clouded in her recollections with a thick mist. And 
 this very hour is so clear to me, that I can almost venture to 
 name the exact number of curl-papers that quivered around 
 her head when she lifted both her hands to me and supplica- 
 ted me to spare her aged father, the same aged father who now 
 nods confidentially to me across the table, with his full glass 
 in his hand, and after dinner calls to me ' Prosit Mahlzeit, * 
 my young friend ! I would have liked to touch glasses with 
 you, but I sat too far off; but you must really let me take 
 your hand, you must indeed ! ' upon which follows a half 
 embrace, if not a whole one. I assure you I sometimes take 
 hold of my head to convince myself that this is not all an 
 extraordinary dream. For you must know, Paula, that if I 
 am not the fool of these festivities, I am not far from being 
 the king of them ; everything being done with reference to 
 me, every one flattering me, and every one competing for 
 my favor — with a single exception, of course. It is really 
 edifying. There is my old friend, the little Herr von Granow, 
 who has grown so much fatter with time that even in his 
 best moments he can no longer lift his head from between 
 his shoulders. Least of all can he when his spouse is by, 
 a stout buxom brewer's daughter from S., who brought him a 
 couple of hundred thousand thalers, which he takes care to 
 get the good of, and a pair of slippers under whose heavy 
 strokes they say the poor little fellow weeps many a hot 
 secret tear. But disagree as they may on other points, the 
 pair agree on this one of paying court to me in the most 
 ridiculous manner in the world. The little man recalls with 
 emotion ' The bright, the precious hours ' that he once spent 
 in my society, and sighing wishes those happy days back 
 again, and that too in the presence of his over-buxom wife, 
 who with a mock threat lifts a warning finger and says : ' O, 
 you bad, bad man ! But indeed I can understand how for 
 such a friend one could even sacrifice the peace of the 
 domestic hearth.' 
 
 " And then the steuerrath and the Bom ! I wrote you 
 how they received me. Well, since then a grand council 
 must have been held, and the decision come to to try other 
 plans. The result is that the steuerrath, so soon as he sees 
 
 * An old-fashioned table-compliment, meaning " may your dinner do you 
 good!"— T«. 
 
548 Hammer and Anvil. ' 
 
 me, holds out his hand to me, saying 'Glad to see you, 
 George! You do not mind my calling' the son of an old 
 and too early lost colleague and friend, by his first name ! ' 
 at which words the Born smiles benignant, and if the oppor- 
 tunity permits, takes my arm, draws me on one side and 
 holds a long consultation with me about the apple of her eye, 
 Arthur. Alas, the apple of her eye is giving her so much 
 pain again, and grieves her so that, if one believed her 
 assurances, she is often on the point of plucking it out of its 
 aristocratic socket. But one must'nt believe her assurances, 
 and I never do. It is just the old litany that I have known 
 since I was a child : how Arthur is the best, cleverest, hand- 
 somest, wittiest, charmingest youth in the world, and has but 
 one fault, that of hiding his thousand and one lights under 
 the bushel of his frivolity, where, as is natural, they cannot 
 produce their proper effect. Only that verse of the litany 
 that referred to me, has taken an altogether different form. 
 They used to be quite certain that I was at the bottom of all 
 the unlucky scrapes that Arthur got into : now they are per- 
 fectly assured that I and I alone can save this stray lamb 
 from the abyss. * One who like you has borne the inevitable 
 with dignity, one who like you has won the hardest victory, 
 
 that over yourself, one who ' well, I do not doubt that 
 
 she is really anxious about her son's future, and as far as I 
 can see, she has every reason to be ; but so much the more 
 do I doubt her good disposition towards me. I know too 
 well what she and the steuerrath want of me ! I know too 
 well what Arthur, who comes over for awhile every day from 
 Rossow, wants of me, when he sets all the fountains of his 
 amiability to playing, and sprinkles me with a heavy spray 
 of flatteries and protestations of friendship. And the 
 worst of all — or should I say the best ? — is that I know just 
 as well what all the rest want ; the little Herr von Granow, 
 for instance, who would like to have the great estate of 
 Zehrendorf, and wants me to speak a good word for him to 
 the commerzienrath : William Kluckhuhn, who has received 
 warning from his master, and wants me to ask that he may 
 keep his place ; and so they all have their special interests 
 in persuading poor George that, all things considered, he is a 
 young man of singular talents and remarkable influence, 
 whose favor is very well worth winning. 
 
Hatnmtr and Anvil. 549 
 
 " But seriously, dear Paula, it is a very curious position in 
 which I find myself here ; and I really do not know if they 
 would not turn my head altogether, were not — well, were not 
 a certain person here whose especial task it seems to be to 
 set it right for me again. Or that is possibly the wrong ex- 
 pression : it would be more correct to say — to turn it in the 
 other direction : — I am by no means an important personage 
 whom any one need to consider ; I am a quite obscure in- 
 significant person, whom her father, heaven knows by what 
 caprice, has invited to his house, and who therefore cannot 
 exactly be shown the door, but who must be given to under- 
 stand that people of his class really belong to very different 
 society. I must be given to understand this by any and 
 every means, some of the queerest in the world. 1 will tell 
 you more about this when I come back : I fear the faces that 
 they make here to me would look by far less handsome on 
 the paper than they are in reality, and the little extrava- 
 gances which they let themselves be drawn into, would, on 
 the contrary, seem almost insane. Or are they really out of 
 their senses ? Sometimes it seems so to me, and I often 
 cannot trust myself to pass a judgment on them, and wish 
 that I had Benno here, or were myself Benno with his nine- 
 teen years, and his bright illusions. For his brown, enthu- 
 siastic eyes, I fancy, the blue-eyed enigma would be easier 
 of solution than for an old lumpish fellow like me, with my 
 nearly thirty years, my rough hands, and sluggish brain. 
 Well, they will have to take the old fellow as they find him ; 
 and if they don't, they may worrj' and sulk and make pretty 
 faces or ugly ones as they choose, it does not matter to me, 
 does it, Paula ? " 
 
 So ran the letter, which I wanted to seem a right cheerful, 
 even merry one ; and how well I attained my object the 
 traces of the tears it drew from Paula's eyes may testify. 
 
 Well had she cause to weep over this letter ! Had she 
 deserved it at my hands that I should intentionally and art- 
 fully seek to conceal from her what really caused me so much 
 mward emotion ? And was not this letter from beginning to 
 end a clumsy unsuccessful attempt to mislead her as to the 
 real state of my feelings ? How much of all this letter was 
 the honest truth ? Scarcely anything. 
 
 The whirl of amusements into which I was drawn here, 
 
550 Hammer and Anvil. . I 
 
 had by no means left me so sober as I pretended. It was 
 as if with breathing the same air I had breathed as a youth 
 here ten years before I inhaled something of the buoyancy 
 and love of pleasure of those days. The handsome rich 
 house, the liberal easy life, the light joyous existence from 
 day to day, the life in the open air, the wanderings over the 
 heaths, on the cliffs, through the woods, and with all these 
 the glorious spring weather,. with warm gales, the forerunners 
 of summer, now and then sweeping through the blossoms — 
 all this charmed and intoxicated me. No, I was not the 
 sober, cheerful, untroubled fellow, that I represented myself 
 to Paula, and tried to make the company believe me. I was 
 not sober, and far less was I cheerful and careless — quite the 
 contrary. A restless, passionate humor, now depressed and 
 now over-excited, had taken possession of me, to such an 
 extent that sleep, my true comrade from childhood, now for- 
 sook me, just as it forsook me at the commencement of my 
 imprisonment ; and this perhaps was in part the cause of 
 another feeling of that old time often coming over me : the 
 feeling of one who knows that a decision involving his life 
 or death, is now hanging by a hair. 
 
 What of all this had I written to Paula ? But how could 
 I write to her ? Could I ^write to her that I believed that I 
 knew the reason why Hermine kept playing, in ever strange 
 and more fantastic form, the game which she had commenced 
 with me on my arrival at Zehrendorf ? And if something in 
 me continually recoiled from giving the right explanation to 
 Hermine's singular conduct, could I really altogether shut 
 my eyes when all took pains to show me and make clear to 
 me that they saw perfectly well what I was determined not 
 to see, or-at least gave myself the appearance of not seeing.? 
 Yes, it was a singular and unnatural position in which I 
 found myself, a position in which we write that kind of merry 
 letters to our friends over which our friends weep hot tears. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 55' 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. • 
 
 I CAME back from the chalk-quarry, where I had been 
 busy all the morning with setting up the new machine. 
 The work under my direction, owing to good luck and 
 the good will of the men, had succeeded so well, and the 
 phlegmatic old master miner had said at last, with a kind of 
 inspiration : ".I believe we shall manage it yet ! " I was in 
 a very cheerful frame pf mind. The old delight in accom- 
 plishing anything had possessed me once more, and while I 
 strode rapidly through the fields, revolving in my thoughts 
 various plans and the means for their accomplishment, I 
 had again come to the conclusion that all might end well yet 
 if but the right will were here, and again I said to myself, 
 " what a chance for the master here ! " 
 
 But I did not say it as I had said it a week before. Then 
 it was a wish to which nothing personal was attached, and 
 the goal appeared to me utterly unattainable. Now my 
 heart was as much excited, but it no longer beat as freely as 
 then, and the goal no longer seemed at an inaccessible dis- 
 tance — indeed it sometimes seemed so near that I might 
 touch it with my hand. And when this thought came into 
 my mind, and I suddenly saw in fancy the fair young face 
 with the angry cloud on the white firm brow surrounded 
 with its mass of clear-brown curls, and the full, red, saucily- 
 defiant lips, I stood gazing blankly at the green wheat whose 
 spears were nodding in the morning breeze, or at the distant 
 sea-horizon glittering beyond the edge of the cliffs, while I 
 saw all the time nothing but the sweet defiant face ; and 
 then I breathed deeply, and bethought myself that the com- 
 merzienrath had sent for me, and was probably expecting 
 me with impatience. 
 
 I found him in his room in such animated conversation 
 with the justizrath, that I could hear the voices of both talk- 
 ing together, before William Kluckhuhn opened the door. 
 They were both sitting at the round table that was covered 
 with ground plans, designs of buildings, and specifications. 
 
 " Are you here at last ? " cried the commerzienrath to me 
 in such a tone, that I felt justified in looking over my shoul- 
 
552 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 der at the door, and remarking to him that William was no 
 longer in the room. 
 
 The commerzienrath cast at me one of those evil glances 
 which one sees in the eyes of an old tiger when he is unde- 
 cided whether or not to respect the steel rod in the hand of 
 his keeper, and then cried in the most pleasant tone : 
 
 " Yes, yes, the rascal ; I sent him for you an hour ago and 
 now he brings you at last. We cannot get along without you 
 at all ; at least I cannot, though this gentleman can do bet- 
 ter without you than with you." 
 
 " Allow me, Herr Commerzienrath " began the other. 
 
 " No, I allow nothing," he replied ; " and least of all that 
 you shall consider yourself my friend in this affair." 
 
 " I am also the friend of the other party, so to speak," re- 
 plied the justizrath, pushing up with great dignity the stiff 
 grizzled hair from both sides of his head towards the crown, 
 where it stood up in a comb, something like that of a clown 
 in a circus. 
 
 " Then you should at least be impartial ! " cried the com- 
 merzienrath. 
 
 " Ask our friend here if he has ever known me otherwise," 
 said the justizrath, with a dignified look at me. 
 
 " Oh, ay," cried the commerzienrath, " but fine words but- 
 ter no parsnips, and my parsnips get poorer the longer you 
 keep them at the fire. A week ago, that is before you came, 
 the prince was willing to give four hundred thousand thalers ; 
 after you have had three conferences with him, he abated 
 fifty thousand of his offer, making sixteen thousand six hun- 
 dred and sixty-six and two-thirds thalers per conference. I 
 am much obliged to you ! You have always been a dear 
 guest to me, but I never would have believed that you would 
 be so dear as that ! " 
 
 Emilie's father made a movement as if he would fain wrap 
 himself up from the sharp arrows of his antagonist, in the 
 old flowered dressing-gown he used to wear at home ; but 
 bethinking himself that he was in a black dress-coat, he 
 pulled up his collar, felt to see if the comb on the top of his 
 head was in good condition, and looked at me with a sly 
 smile, as if to say : " Whoever expects to get the better of 
 Justizrath Heckepfennig, has got to get up early: you have 
 found that out, young man, eh ? " 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 553 
 
 "Yes, my dear friend, this is the way I am treated here," 
 continued the commerzienrath, turning to me, and, for a 
 change, falling to a lachrymose tone : " it is enough to drive 
 a man out of his senses ; and none know it better than you, 
 George, for you understand the whole thing — which is more 
 than I can say of some people — ^you know well that the prop- 
 erty is worth five hundred thousand thalers between brothers, 
 now especially, when we have the certainty of draining the 
 chalk quarries." 
 
 The commerzienrath accompanied these words with an ex- 
 pressive look at me, meaning, " Now George, keep up the 
 ball ! " 
 
 " And indeed that is a very reasonable price," he went on, 
 " when we consider that in this way we have found a plan 
 for draining the great morass, by carrying the pipes to the 
 sand-bed which came so near ruining the chalk-quarry, and 
 which is a drain-trench provided by nature itself for the 
 water of the swamp." 
 
 Here the commerzienrath gave me a furious look, because 
 I had not yet come to his assistance. 
 
 Now this last plan he had mentioned, was one I had sug- 
 gested myself, and I considered it therefore my duty to 
 remark here that it was true I had the strongest hopes of the 
 success of the scheme referred to, but that it could only be 
 demonstrated by trial, and even were it perfectly successful, 
 the land thus gained would at furthest only comp>ensate for 
 the forest, which was apparently lost beyond recovery, and 
 thus the original value of 2^hrendorf would in this respect 
 remain unaltered. 
 
 " What in the devil do you mean, sir ! " cried the commer- 
 zienrath, springing up and storming about the room. " Did 
 you come here for this ? What do you mean ? " 
 
 " I came, Herr Commerzienrath, at your own request," I 
 replied calmly, while in violent excitement he paced the room 
 with quick short steps, still darting venomous looks at me, 
 until suddenly he threw himself back in his easy chair, crying : 
 
 " What a fellow this George Hartwig is ! O what a fellow ! 
 What answers the man has ! Came here at my request ! 
 What a fellow, what a fellow ! " 
 
 And the old gentleman slapped me on the knee, and said, 
 resuming a serious tone : 
 24 
 
554 Ha7iimcr and Anvil. 
 
 "But to come back to our business, the fact is that I can 
 have five hundred thousand from Von Granow any day. Is 
 that not so, George ? Did he not say so to you yesterday 
 evening ? " 
 
 Herr von Granow had said nothing of the sort to me, but 
 on the contrary that he was ready to negotiate on any rea- 
 sonable terms, but that the commerzienrath's demands were 
 simply unreasonable, not to say ridiculous. 
 
 As I could not do the commerzienrath the favor to tell a 
 falsehood, and would not afford the justizrath, who seemed 
 to be waiting for it, the pleasure an admission of the truth 
 would afford him, I arose from my chair, saying that if I 
 could be of no other service to them, I would, with their per- 
 mission, go to my own room where I had a little work to do. 
 
 " No, no ; stay here, stay here ! " cried the cornmerzien- 
 rath eagerly ; " I must speak with you on matters of impor- 
 tance. And as for us, my dear old friend, go now and tell 
 his highness whatever you choose ; but if you tell him that 
 we cannot succeed in draining the chalk-quarry, I shall send 
 him George here, who will open his eyes on that point. 
 And now farewell, my old friend, and come back at noon 
 punctually. I have found a couple more bottles of '22 Hock, 
 that you will like I know, gourmand that you are ! " 
 
 And the commerzienrath poked the corpulent justizrath in 
 the ribs with his thumb, in a jocular fashion, and in this way 
 poked him, so to speak, out at the door, then turned shortly 
 on his heel, came with quick steps and stood before me, 
 and cried in a rage that sent the blood to his bald temples : 
 
 " Now will you tell me, — are you going to help me in this 
 business, or are you not 1 " 
 
 " First tell me, Herr Commerzienrath, — will you take an- 
 other tone with me, or will you not ? " I answered. 
 
 " Bah ! leave your fooleries ! We are alone now. I have 
 no notion of playing blindman's-buff with you, do you under- 
 stand me, sir } " 
 
 " Not in the least," I answered ; " or only so far that I 
 have no notion of being a minute longer the guest of a man 
 who knows so little — or rather, who is so entirely ignorant 
 of what is due to a guest." 
 
 I said this in a very calm tone, but I was far from feeling 
 the calmness that I assumed. On the contrary, the thouglit 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 555 
 
 that in this moment the grand plans I had been cherishing, 
 were probably dissolving in smoke ; that this angry, foolish, 
 selfish old man was trampling into the earth the young green 
 crop of my fairest hopes, — this thought made my heart beat, 
 and gave my last words a bitterness unusual to me. 
 
 The commerzienrath's sharp ears must have heard that 
 he had driven me to the limit of my pat4ence, for as I laid 
 my hand on the knob of the door I felt myself held fast by 
 my coat-tails, and turning round, saw the face of the queer 
 old man lifted to me with such an extraordinary grimace, 
 that, sad as I felt,I had to burst out laughing. 
 
 " Ay, that is right, laugh away, bad man, and sit down 
 again. Yes ; that was all that was wanting, that )'OU should 
 run away from me. A nice mess I should have had at din- 
 ner-time after that ! No, no, sit down. It is necessary that 
 I should talk with you, and I will speak as if you were my 
 own son. Heaven has not thought fit to grant me one, so I 
 must look to others, who, naturally enough, cannot pardon 
 an old man's little infirmities of temper." 
 
 I had soon returned to a placable mood, and the commer- 
 zienrath need not have adopted quite so lamentable a tone. 
 But he kept it up, while he went into a long explanation how 
 he had taken Zehrendorf originally in the hope of selling it 
 to advantage ; that the proper time had now arrived, and he 
 needed the money, imperatively needed it, and that it was 
 absolutely necessary that I should help him to close the bar- 
 gain with the prince. I understood the matter better than 
 either he, the justizrath, or the young prince, and the last 
 had written to him repeatedly, and even this morning again, 
 that he would rather treat through me than the justizrath, who 
 was an old ass — " and heaven help him ! " the commerzien- 
 rath here cried, " an old ass he most truly is : he is indeed ! " 
 
 "What has put it into the prince's head to mix me up in 
 the matter ? " I asked, in amazement. 
 
 " Because he takes an interest in you, as everybody else 
 does, you confounded fellow ! Now will you ? say, will you?" 
 
 " Herr Commerzienrath," I said, after a short pause in 
 which I had striven to concentrate upon one point the 
 thoughts that were whirling in my brain, " I will own to you 
 that it grieves me to think that Zehrendorf should pass into 
 other hands, into the hands of a master of whom I know not 
 
556 Hammer and Ahvil. 
 
 but that he may let all that has been called into existence 
 here with so much labor and cost, fall to neglect and ruin, so 
 that the poor people about here may sink into a worse con- 
 dition than that in which you found them. For in spite of 
 ever^'thing, your new undertakings have drawn many here 
 who cannot get away again so easily, but must remain here 
 to suffer and to increase the sufferings of the rest. Now I 
 have frankly told you, more than once, Herr Commerzien- 
 rath, that I by no means consider you the good master that 
 I wish for Zehrendorf ; and if, despite this, I had rather see 
 you here than another, it is simply because for your own in- 
 terest you will have to try to complete what has been begun, 
 and I have not yet given up the hope of making you a con- 
 vert to my views. Still, since you say that you are compelled 
 to sell the property, and your resolution seems fixed, I will 
 help you in the matter, but only under two conditions. The 
 first is, that you authorize me, as your friend, but also as a 
 man of honor, to take the negotiation into my own hands, 
 that is to say, to aim at a good, or we will say the best price, 
 but not to make demands which the prince can only consent 
 to if he is a fool, and which, if he is not a fool, he will reject 
 with contempt. One moment's patience, Herr Commerzien- 
 rath ! — I said I had two conditions. The second is, that so 
 soon as I have effected the sale of Zehrendorf, you will agree 
 to the plan for extending our works in the city, and will place 
 at my disposal the sums which I have calculated as necessary 
 for that purpose." 
 
 " Are you clear out of your senses, sir ! " cried the com- 
 merzienrath, smiting with his fist the arm of his chair, " to 
 say such things to me here, in my own house, in my own 
 room, as if you were a Pacha of three tails, or I don't know 
 what, instead of being " 
 
 " Your most obedient servant," I said, rising, and making 
 him a polite bow. 
 
 " Eh ! what .-* " he exclaimed, " Do you want to frighten 
 me ? You are not going, I know ; why all these fooleries ? " 
 
 " And you will agree with me at last, so why all this noise ? " 
 I replied laughing. 
 
 '• But I tell you for the hundredth time that if I sell Zeh- 
 rendorf ever so well, I need the money for other things 
 than your cursed factory ! " shouted the commerzienrath. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 557 
 
 I looked him steadily in the eye, and said, " Do you know 
 what I have lately dreamed, Herr Commerzienrath ? It is 
 that you are really very far from being the rich man you are 
 generally believed to be." 
 
 " You confounded fellow ! you humorous dog ! you funny 
 rascal ! " cried the commerzienrath. " I suppose you will 
 tell me next that I have stolen the boots I am wearing. 
 Couldn't you lend me five thalers for a day or two > you " 
 
 And he poked me in the ribs with his thumb, and held 
 his sides with laughter at his capital joke. 
 
 " If you are a rich man, then," I continued very seriously, 
 and it cost me no effort to be serious now — " then say yes, 
 and the thing is settled." 
 
 I held out my hand, and he struck his own into it, laugh- 
 ing still like mad. 
 
 •' The thing is settled then," I said, drawing a deep breath. 
 
 " Settled," he said. 
 
 " And I shall hold you to your word, Herr Commerzien- 
 rath," I said : " You may count surely upon that" 
 
 " And I count upon you," he answered, still holding my 
 hand fast in one of his own, while with the other he gave me 
 little raps upon the knuckles. " If you were not a man to 
 be relied upon, would I have taken so much pains about you, 
 do you suppose ? you — Oh ! murder ! " 
 
 In my excitement I must have pressed the old man's hand 
 a little too hard, for he gave a loud outcry and made a hor- 
 rible grimace : I begged his pardon, and he laughed and 
 shook his hand, and again cried " Murder ! you man of iron ! 
 you confounded fellow ! " and poked me out at the door, 
 with his thumb, just as he had poked out the justizrath. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 I HAD spent the rest of the forenoon in my room, in 
 order to finish a calculation necessary to the proper ad- 
 justment of the machine at the quarry. But I had not 
 got beyond the statement of the problem. The new, almost 
 certain prospect of being able to carry out my great wish to 
 
558 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 enlarge our works, almost made me dizzy. In fancy I saw 
 the space of ground where my lodging was, covered with 
 buildings ; I saw the flames springing from the great fur- 
 naces and smoke pouring from the tall chimneys ; I heard 
 the clang of hammer on anvil, and saw the crowd of dingy 
 workmen thronging the wide yards in the evening, and scat- 
 tering in the streets of a new quarter where in cleanly 
 houses cheerful homes awaited them, where they could rest 
 from the toils of the day. And a change had passed over 
 the desolate house in which I lived ; fresh green sward sur- 
 rounded it, a Triton spouted a jet of water high into the air 
 from the old basin of sandstone into which it fell plashing 
 back, where a host of goldfish played merrily, or darted back 
 from the margin at the approach of a pair who came up hand 
 in hand and bent over the water to see their own faces re- 
 flected. But the reflection quivered and broke, so that only 
 now and then could be seen two bright blue eyes and two 
 full red lips, nor was it clear whether the eyes flashed with 
 anger or with love, or whether the lips were pouted to a 
 scornful word or to a kiss. 
 
 " Dinner will soon be served, Herr Engineer," said Wil- 
 liam Kluckhuhn, entering. " Can I assist the Herr Engi- 
 neer to dress ? " 
 
 William regularly came with this polite offer of his servi- 
 ces, although I just as regularly declined them. But to-day 
 he would not take any dismissal, and helped me on with my 
 best coat so actively, and brushed and touched me up with 
 such zealous pertinacity, that I had to ask him if he had any 
 request to make of me. 
 
 " Oh, no," he answered ; " but )'ou were so kind as to get 
 me back into favor with the master, who was in the wrong 
 altogether, for even if I drank champagne " 
 
 " Very well, William," I said. 
 
 " So I only wanted to tell you," he went on in a confiden- 
 tial tone, " that they have had a terrible quarrel, and I very 
 plainly heard " 
 
 " But I do not wish to hear it, William." 
 
 " But you need not mind my telling you, for if I listened 
 at the door a little bit, that was not your doing, and it was 
 not my doing that the door was ajar, and I plainly heard our 
 lady say that she would never forgive it you " 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 559 
 
 " Well," I muttered. 
 
 " And when she said it, she looked " 
 
 " So you could see too ? " 
 
 " O, the door was pretty wide open," William answered, 
 shrugging his shoulders, " and I made a rattling with the 
 plates on purpose, but the Fraulein was in such a rage " 
 
 And William here made a face, apparently intended to rep- 
 resent the one he had seen through the crack of the door, 
 but so absurdly incredible that I burst out laughing. 
 
 " Very good," he said ; " I wanted to give you the hint ; for 
 when she is angry but you can laugh." 
 
 And William sighed deeply and looked at me in a suppli- 
 cating manner. " Well ? " I said. 
 
 " And I wanted to beg you," he went on, " that if— ahem ! 
 you know what I mean — you would be so good as to help 
 me and my Louise too, for we have been waiting now six 
 years, and it is easy for you, Herr Engineer. Is it not, now, 
 Herr Engineer ? " 
 
 " William, I firmly believe you have taken leave of your 
 senses," I answered, and strode past him out of the room 
 with a look intended to express majestic indignation. 
 
 But William's ears had served him faithfully, as I presently 
 learned at table. The company was small ; no one besides 
 the inmates, except Arthur, who had come over in the justiz- 
 rath's carriage from Rossow, and greeted me as usual with 
 excessive friendliness. The two Eleonoras, owing to the i 
 warmth of the day, appeared in virgin white, and as a group, 
 of course. Hermine kept us waiting awhile. The commer- 
 zienrath drew me aside and whispered to me that the prince 
 had sent him word that he must be quite satisfied about the 
 chalk-quarry before the negotiation went any further, and 
 that he would send over his carriage this afternoon to bring 
 me to Rossow. 
 
 I had no time to answer this communication, which for 
 more than one reason was unacceptable to me, for at this 
 moment Hermine entered and I saw plainly that she had 
 been weeping, although she tried hard to appear as gay and 
 careless as possible. The day was so charming — so deli- 
 cious ! and to-morrow it would be finer still, and the party 
 to the Schlachtensee would be too delightful ! The company 
 was to be the very nicest that could be ; all young people. 
 
560 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 not an old one among them. After dinner they would go 
 over to Trantow to pick up Hans, who could not be dis- 
 pensed with, then to Sulitz, where Herr von Zarrentin and 
 his charming wife would join them ; then arrive between five 
 and six at the coast-village Sassitz; a stroll through the 
 dunes and the beech forest as far as the Schlachtensee ; 
 supper, with pine-apple-punch, and moonrise there \ return 
 til rough the wood to the cross-roads at the Rossow pines, 
 where their carriage and horses would be ready for them ; 
 return of the whole company without exception to Zehren- 
 dorf ; and wind up all with tea and punch, and, if possible, 
 a dance for such as were very nice. 
 
 " Bravo ! bravo ! That is a plan ! " cried Arthur, enthu- 
 siastically clapping his hands. 
 
 "I knew it would have your approval, dear Arthur," said 
 the fair designer, stretching her hand to him over the table, 
 with her sweetest smile ; " you understand these things, and I 
 count upon you especially." 
 
 " I did not count upon you,'^ she added, turning suddenly 
 to me. 
 
 " I neither said, nor supposed anything of the kind, Frau- 
 lein Hermine," I replied. 
 
 " That is the very reason why one cannot count upon you 
 in such things. You don't think about them. Of course ! 
 How can any one whose mind is occupied with matters of 
 so much more importance ? " 
 
 Hermine was never particularly amiable in her behavior 
 to me, but her conduct to-day was so pointedly unkind, and 
 her vehemence too void of any visible cause, not to strike 
 the most indifferent spectator, not to mention the steuerrath 
 and the Born, who were very far from indifferent, and now 
 cast meaning looks at Arthur, as if urging him to strike 
 while the iron was hot. Arthur was evidently quite disposed 
 to follow their counsel, but did not precisely know how to go 
 about it ; so he contented himself with giving Hermine a 
 languishing look, and curling his little black beard. The 
 others seemed to gather from Hermine's last words, and still 
 more from the excited tone in which she had spoken, that 
 there was something unusual in the air. Friiulein Duff, who 
 had been all the time looking remarkably pale and agitated, 
 raised her eyes, as if in despair, to the ceiling, while the jus- 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 561 
 
 tizrath riveted his gaze on a dish of salad, and drummed 
 lightly on the table ; Emilie looked at her friend Elise, and 
 Elise at Emilie, Emilie's look inquiring " Does an innocent 
 child like me need to understand these things ? " and Elise's 
 replying " Sport peacefully, sweet cherub ! Leave this to us 
 experienced ones ! " Even William Kluckhuhn, who stood 
 waiter in hand at the sideboard, pulled a long face, as if the 
 turn things had taken was not altogether to his satisfaction, 
 and the commerzienrath alone was so busy with the other 
 waiter, who was uncorking under his eyes a bottle of the 
 famous hock, that he had not the least idea as to the cause 
 of the sudden silence that had fallen upon the company. 
 He looked up in the most unconscious manner in the world, 
 and asked innocently — " I beg your pardon, but what were 
 you speaking about ? " 
 
 The peculiar expression which I had noticed in so many 
 different shades on the faces of the guests, grew several tints 
 deeper. The silence was more profound ; the second waiter 
 John, who was in the act of uncorking the '22 hock, stopped 
 with the cork half-drawn, and the plates which William was 
 handling rattled nervously, as the steuerrath pouring out 
 with unsteady hand a glass of wine, replied : 
 
 " Our dear Hermine was remarking that in the innocent 
 amusements which youth loves, one could not count upon 
 our excellent George — you will excuse me, George, for call- 
 ing you by the old familiar name — ^because our young friend 
 has so many other, and, we will admit, more important 
 things on his mind." 
 
 The commerzienrath poured out with his own hands the 
 precious wine into the large hock-glasses — only a thxmib's 
 breadth deep, as otherwise one lost the perfect bouquet — 
 and probably took advantage of this pause to collect him- 
 self, so that he was able to reply in a peculiar drawling tone : 
 
 " More important things ? Is not that a wine ! More 
 important things — the very flower of the Rhine ! — on his 
 mind ? I should think so : we made a bargain this morning ; 
 he is to sell Ziehrendorf for me and I am to buy for him that 
 piece of ground adjoining the works in Berlin. I should 
 think it likely that such a thing as that would be on any 
 one's mind." 
 
 I was astonished beyond measure to hear the commerzien- 
 . 24* 
 
562 Hammer attd Anvil. 
 
 rath, whom I knew to be a very cautious man, mention an 
 affair which we had only agreed upon a few hours before, 
 and which I considered a strict business secret, thus openly 
 before all his guests, and especially in the presence of the 
 justizrath, to whom my intervention in the matter was any- 
 thing but flattering — I was so amazed, I say, at this unbusi- 
 nesslike, incomprehensible proceeding of the usually so 
 shrewd old man, that I felt a flush of confusion rising hot in 
 my face. 
 
 Again silence fell upon the room ; the peculiar expres- 
 sion in the countenances of the guests deepened another 
 tone, and now it was Hermine's voice that broke the silence : 
 
 " Have I not told you, Emilie, that Herr Hartwig is a 
 frightful aristocrat ? He cannot bear to see so old an estate 
 in any other than noble hands. That sort of thing is not 
 for us plebeians. What does it matter that we have to leave 
 a place that we have grown fond of in these seven years ? 
 We must take what we can get and be thankful that we are 
 anywhere at all." 
 
 There was a quiver in the tone of her voice, and her eye- 
 lids reddened as if she restrained her tears with difficulty ; 
 the silence grew more oppressive, and there was no need for 
 the commerzienrath's raising his voice so high as he said : 
 
 " So it is : God's service goes before lord's service, and our 
 George has the notion that he serves God with every addi- 
 tional farthing that he can make those poor devils of work- 
 men earn ; and if he has but few good words for lord's ser- 
 vice, woman's service is his downright abominatioti." 
 
 " That is not your device, Arthur ! " said the steuerrath, 
 in an encouraging tone. 
 
 " Noblesse oblige," said the Born, with emphasis. 
 
 "Mon cceur aux dames I" said Arthur, laying his delicate 
 hand on his heart and bowing to his cousin. 
 
 The justizrath and his ladies said nothing, contenting 
 themselves with exchanging significant looks to the effect 
 that this was a family affair, and they have better avoid 
 meddling in it. 
 
 Again ensued an embarrassing pause, which was broken, 
 just as the situation seemed to have reached a climax, by 
 William Kluckhuhn using his pocket-handkerchief with an 
 energy altogether unbecoming in a decorous serving-man, 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 563 
 
 even in moments of the most lively concern. Fraulein DufF, 
 who had held her thin hands spasmodically clasped over 
 her breast during the last words of the Commerzienrath 
 with the pale resignation of one whose only remaining hope 
 is in a better hereafter, broke out into a hysterical weeping, 
 and Hermine suddenly rising and pressing her handkerchief 
 to her cheeks and forehead, begged that the company would 
 excuse her if her ill-humor had annoyed them, but that her 
 headache was so violent that she must retire to her room. 
 
 I do not believe that any one of those present believed in 
 this headache, but this of course did not hinder the two Eleo- 
 noras from springing from their chairs, and approaching 
 the fair sufferer on either side, in the intent to compose a 
 touching group. But Hermine had already seized the arm 
 of her sobbing governess, and left the room with a painful 
 smile upon her lips, which seemed intended for all the com- 
 pany except myself 
 
 Except myself, over whom her look had passed as if my 
 chair were empty, and the rest of the company seemed to 
 entertain the same opinion. No one had a word or look for 
 me, and I have never forgotten it of William Kluckhuhn 
 that at this fateful moment he had the hardihood to step be- 
 hind my chair, and in a suppressed tone to ask : 
 
 " Will the Herr Engineer take another glass of hock ?" 
 
 I took the glass, and sipped it slowly with the air of a con- 
 noisseur, but I cannot say that I was able to do justice to 
 the noble vintage. With all. the trouble I took to appear 
 quite at my ease, I was greatly pained and disconcerted. It 
 is an extremely disagreeable thing to be singled out in this 
 way by a young lady before an entire company. 
 
 Happily my strength was not tasked too hardly. The 
 company rose from table and hastily separated ; I went out 
 into the grounds to think it all over in the soothing compan- 
 ionship of a cigar. 
 
 One thing was at once perfectly intelligible : the behavior 
 of the company at this incident. They had let me drop at 
 the instant they thought they saw that my game was lost I 
 knew well that Arthur's parents had never given up the hope 
 that he would one day marry his cousin, and that their ful- 
 some flatteries and Arthur's deceitful show of friendship were 
 only meant to cloak their real aim, and perhaps to obtain 
 
564 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 some influence over me, as they probably feared that open 
 enmity would only make their chance worse. 
 
 As for the justizrath and the two Eleonoras, they merely 
 swam with the stream. They and the others — the conduct 
 of all was explicable enough ; but the commerzienrath ? 
 Did it not look as if he had intentionally provoked this 
 scene at table, or at least offered the opportunity ? He was 
 usually adroit enough in giving another turn to the conver- 
 sation when it did not please him. And if he really needed 
 my assistance in effecting the sale, why did he mention the 
 matter to Hermine now when all was still unsettled ? Why, 
 when he knew how averse she was from the project, mention 
 me to her as its originator or at all events its chief promoter ? 
 Did he simply use me to screen himself? Such a manoeuvre 
 was exactly consistent with his character ; he had a way of 
 shifting burdens that were uncomfortable for him, to the 
 shoulders of others. Or was this not all ? Had the cun- 
 ning old man tried his cuttle-fish stratagem again, and hid- 
 den himself in a cloud of assumed carelessness ? He had 
 noticed nothing, not he, of ail that was going on around him, 
 and in which he was so much concerned, and thus quite in- 
 nocently, accidentally indeed, he placed " his young friend " 
 in a quite untenable p>osition towards his pretty passionate 
 daughter. 
 
 The blood rose hot to my brow as I came to this conclu- 
 sion, and a new feeling rose within me and obtained a com- 
 plete mastery of me. It had always been an easy thing for 
 me to forgive heartily those who had injured me ; so easy 
 indeed that I often called myself a weakling, a man with 
 neither heart nor gall ; why then was that which I usually 
 found so easy, so difficult for me now ? Why did every ob- 
 lique glance that had been directed at me across the table, 
 the neglect, the indifference which had been suddenly exhib- 
 ited, now all recur even in their minutest details to my mem- 
 ory ? And why did I feel as if I should suffocate at that 
 which I had hitherto borne with such apparent equanimity ? 
 I had suddenly struck a new vein in my own nature, a vein 
 from which a bitter, black, poisonous stream flowed into th^ 
 current of my healthy blood. I felt as an actual physical 
 change what was really only a change in my disposition ; the 
 first violent emotion of ambition ; the hot desire for personal 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 565 
 
 revenge ; the humiliation, the disgrace, if this were baffled ; 
 the desperate final resolution to emerge from the contest as 
 victor, to attain my aim in spite of all and everything. 
 
 My aim ! What was it then ? The same which I had in 
 view when I came here, or another ? Or this and that both 
 at once? Well might I at this moment have heard the warn- 
 ing voice of that stern wisdom which says that we cannot 
 serve God and Mammon. 
 
 I had taken my seat upon a bench which stood in a thick 
 copse of bushes. It was a quiet secret nook. The birds 
 twittered pleasantly, a gentle breeze blowing over the garden 
 brought sweet odors on its soft pinions, and a warm reviving 
 sun beamed from the clear blue sky. The spot was so sweet 
 and the hour so lovely that I had to yield to its soft solicita- 
 tions, resist them as I might. My blood began to flow more 
 calmly : I commenced to take an interest in a pair of finches 
 that had just set up housekeeping in a knot-hole of a tree, 
 recently transplanted here from the Rossow park, and were 
 incessantly hurrying in and out of their little door. It was 
 a peaceful pretty picture ; the little creatures were in such a 
 hurry, and were so unwearyingly busy, and evidently out of 
 mere love — the world after all was not so wretched a place 
 as it had just seemed to me. 
 
 With these thoughts flitting through my mind, I must have 
 closed my eyes and fallen asleep ; for I saw the bushes in 
 front of me, and behind which ran a walk, bend apart, and a 
 face appear between them ; a lovely girlish face upon which 
 the sunbeams and shadows of the leaves were playing, and 
 partly from this, and partly because I was dreaming, I could 
 not see clearly enough to decide if the light in the eye was 
 anger or love. When at last I opened my eyes fairly, I 
 could see the place in the bushes, but the sweet face was no 
 longer there, but at the same moment I heard ringing laugh- 
 ter with shouts and the cracking of a whip, and mingled with 
 the rest, piteous cries as of some one entreating, then sud- 
 denly a loud shriek of terror, which caused me to spring from 
 the bench and hurry to the spot. 
 
 It was a circular space surrounded with shrubbery, which 
 was used as a race-course and which I had myself used as a 
 riding-school several times during my stay here as I endeav- 
 ored to improve my imperfect horsemanship under the guid- 
 
566 Ifamtner and Anvil. 
 
 ance of the coachman, Anthony, an old cavalryman. My 
 lessons had been taken secretly in the very early morning, 
 because I knew that Hermine, who was passionately fond of 
 riding, was in the habit of practising here for an hour or 
 two in the forenoon. Recently Anthony had told me that 
 Friiulein Duff was also taking lessons, at the request of her 
 young lady, who had suddenly taken into her head to have 
 in her expeditions and visits in the neighborhood, another 
 escort beside her groom, whom she frequently dispensed with 
 anyhow. The thing appeared to me absolutely incredible, 
 although old Anthony, who had nothing of the quiz about 
 him, assured me with the most serious face that it was a lit- 
 eral fact ; now I was to have my doubts removed by the evi- 
 dence of my own eyesight.* 
 
 In the middle of the track stood Arthur, who kept crack- 
 ing a long whip incessantly, Hermine, who was laughing in 
 great amusement, the two Eleonoras, in virginal white, cling- 
 ing to each other as usual, and Anthony, who plainly hesi- 
 tated whether to obey Arthur's repeated orders to keep 
 away, or yield to the piteous supplications of Fraulein Duff, 
 and help that unhappy lady off the horse. It seemed that 
 for the first time they had let go the halter-rein, and the un- 
 skilful and excessively timid rider had been seized with sud- 
 den panic. In her desperation she had clasped both arms 
 around the neck of the horse, a small shaggy-maned animal 
 not much larger than a pony, who on his part plunged, kicked, 
 and did his best to throw her entirely out of the saddle, as 
 she was already half out of it. The spectacle was certainly 
 indescribably ludicrous, but I could not bear to see for an 
 instant my good friend in this predicament without coming 
 to her assistance, and in a moment I had sprung to her side, 
 caught the horse's head, and, as she held out her arms to me, 
 lifted her from the saddle. I wished to place her gently on 
 the ground, but in vain did I whisper to her to control her- 
 self and not make a scene. As she had previously clung to 
 the horse's neck, so she now clung to mine, and seemed to 
 find the greatest pleasure in swooning in my arms and upon 
 my breast. If a situation of this sort under some circum- 
 stances is not destitute of charms for the cavalier, it assumes 
 another character when his fair burden has fully reached 
 those years when she can stand alone, and becomes perfectly 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 567 
 
 intolerable when the spectators instead of commiserating 
 him and hastening to his relief, only move their hands to ap- 
 plaud like mad, and break into inextinguishable laughter. 
 
 At least this was what Hermine and Arthur did, while of 
 the two Eleonoras the second only looked at the first to see 
 if she might laugh. 
 
 " Duffy, Duffy," cried Hermine, " I have always told you 
 to beware of him ! " 
 
 " Fraulein Duff," exclaimed Arthur, " do you want to 
 tighten the curb-chain ? " 
 
 " May I ? " signalled the second Eleonora more urgently, 
 and the first replied in the same way, " Laugh, thou innocent 
 cherub ! " and herself set the example. 
 
 " Come, let us leave them alone ; they must have a great 
 deal to say to each other," said Hermine, and hurried off 
 amid peals of laughter, and the rest followed, all laughing 
 like mad, even to the stolid old Anthony, who led away the 
 horse, joyously whinnying, which was probably his way of 
 joining in the general hilarity. The next instant I was 
 standing alone with my fair burthen in my arms, mortified, 
 offended, furious, as I had never been before, so that if a 
 river had chanced to be at hand, I believe I would have 
 pitched the poor Fraulein into it without a moment's hesita- 
 tion. Happily the temptation was not presented to me, and 
 as the laughter of the departing company grew fainter in the 
 distance, Fraulein Duff recovered consciousness, and un- 
 clasping her arms from my neck, murmured : " Richard, 
 you are my preserver ! " 
 
 Richard was very far from being in the mood to fall in 
 with the sentimentalities of the poor governess, and indeed 
 had at this moment nothing like a lion-heart in his breast, 
 but rather a little, spiteful, vindictive heart ; so he let his poor 
 charge sUde very unceremoniously to the ground, and stood 
 before her with gloomy brows and probably wrathful looks, 
 for she clasped her hands as if frightened and whispered : 
 
 " Richard, for heaven's sake grow not desperate : however 
 clouds obscure the sky, the sun still beams above ! " 
 
 " Fraulein Duff," I said, " I must confess that at this mo- 
 ment I am in no temper for jesting, far less becoming the 
 jest of others. You will therefore excuse me if I bid you 
 good day." 
 
568 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 I sought to extricate my hand from hers, in which I suc- 
 ceeded with some difficulty. But I had scarcely taken three 
 steps when 1 heard such a lamentable crying and sobbing 
 behind me that I could not help turning round. And there 
 she stood in her green riding-habit, the skirt of which was 
 wound round her feet like a serpent, and upon her pale yellow 
 dishevelled locks a tall hat crushed out of shape, with a 
 green veil, the strings of which were hanging over her face 
 instead of behind. 
 
 " Dear, good Fraulein Duff! " I said remorsefully. " Come ! 
 I know you meant nothing but kindness." And I drew her 
 arm in mine, and led her, still softly weeping, away from the 
 place of terror, trying with friendly words to comfort her, 
 until we reached the bench upon which I had been sitting, 
 and where I compelled her to sit down, as she was com- 
 pletely overcome. Thus we sat awhile side by side, I star- 
 ing gloomily at the sand, and she sobbing more and more 
 faintly, until at last she lifted her tearful eyes to me and 
 said : 
 
 " How can I requite your kindness, faithful noble friend ? " 
 
 "By never alluding to it," I answered; "by never by a 
 single word reminding me of this ridiculous scene ; which, 
 however, I swear, shall be the last in the wretched comedy 
 which I have let them play with me here so long." 
 
 " Comedy ? " said Fraulein Duff, pressing her handker- 
 chief to her eyes with one hand, while with the other she 
 held me fast, as I had risen to my feet — " You need calm, 
 dear Carl — ^your blood is in a tumult — sit here by me — 
 away with these black fever-phantasies ! " 
 
 I had to laugh, angry as I was, and took my seat again 
 by her side. 
 
 " O ! " cried Fraulein Duff, " you are joyous and good, 
 and still you understand human nature ; and can you really 
 be deceived in this maiden soul which lies before me as 
 clear and transparent as yonder heaven; — yes as yonder 
 heaven," she repeated, raising her arms poetically aloft 
 where in all the sunny clearness of a spring afternoon, the 
 bluest of skies peeped through the thick blossoming branches 
 to our secluded nook. 
 
 " How can any one know that which under the best cir- 
 cumstances does not know itself? " I returned. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 569 
 
 " You err, my friend," replied the governess. " You take 
 the timid flutterings of this chaste virgin soul for attempts 
 at flight ; and yet it would only fly to you, the coy birdling, 
 to vou and you alone ! " 
 
 " In the name of heaven and all the blessed saints, Frau- 
 lein Duff", hush ! You drive me out of my senses, talking in. 
 that way ! " I cried, now effectually springing up, and pacing 
 up and down as if demented, which indeed I was ; " I will 
 hear nothing more of it and believe nothing more of it, not 
 even if I hear it from her own lips ! " 
 
 " You will so hear it," said Fraulein Duff". 
 
 I broke into derisive laughter. 
 
 " You will," she repeated ; " only patience, Richard ; 
 only patience ! " 
 
 " To the devil with patience ! " I exclaimed. 
 
 " What shall be the wager, prince ? " said the governess 
 with a sly smile, lifting the thin forefinger of her transparent 
 hand. " I summon old stories back to your heart ; old sto- 
 ries. Dont I remember as if it were but yesterday, how she 
 cried when she was but an eight-year-old child, and would 
 not be comforted, when she heard that they had put in prison 
 the handsome tall youth who always swung her so high "i how 
 she named all her dolls (Jeorge, and used to put them in the 
 parrot's cage and say that was her lover who was now in 
 prison, and Poll was the jailor and wanted to snap off" her 
 lover's head with his crooked beak ? And when I — ^for, my 
 friend, a faithful educator of youth must be like the good 
 gardener who grafts roses upon the thorny stock — ^when I 
 tried to substitute for this fantastic form of childish g^ief, a 
 more poetical one ; when I told her of Richard, the Lion- 
 hearted, the renowned in song and legend, and of Blondel 
 the faithful singer, then she saw her ideal in this form alone, 
 and wandered about, her cithern in her hand, until she 
 found him she sought. Chance, or rather I must say the 
 god of love so ordained it that she really saw him in prison, 
 paler than of yore, it is true, but ever fair and stately, and 
 thus has she carried his image in her heart for six, seven 
 years, without being for one moment unfaithful to her Rich- 
 ard. You laugh incredulously, O my friend ! You know 
 not how adamantine is the soul of a true woman. Seven 
 years ! that seems to you an eternity. My friend, I know 
 
570 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 hearts that have loved — ^loved without hope — for five-and- 
 thirty years ! " 
 
 And the good Fraulein pressed her handkerchief to her 
 eyes and sobbed aloud, but mastered her emotion presently 
 and went on : 
 
 " But that is nought to the purpose now ; I will not 
 burthen your good heart, at this moment when its own des- 
 tiny is pressing so heavily upon it, with the tragedy of another 
 life which has been darkened with perpetual gloom by such 
 a misunderstanding as now drifts over the horizon of yours 
 like a passing cloud ; nor is * misunderstanding ' the right 
 word in your case : you understand each other as do the two 
 birds there " — and Frftulein Duff pointed to the bush where 
 the pair of finches were carrying on their courtship—" only 
 you are human creatures with human sensitiveness and 
 human pride. Alas, and she is not at all what she seems to 
 be ! How has she humbled herself to her love in her hours 
 of solitude ! How often has she kneeled before me, her face 
 buried in my lap, and said that her beloved was high above 
 her like a star, and that she could never hope to be worthy 
 of one so strong, so brave, so noble. O my friend, 
 she is proud of you ! With what enthusiasm was she not 
 filled when dear Fraulein Paula wrote her how you had acted 
 in that night of the storm, and again " there is no one like 
 him, no one ! " she exclaimed, when you were our preserver 
 on the steamer last autumn. Yes, my friend, you are her 
 religion; and she confesses you before all men, only not 
 before you. Was she not fixed upon having her Richard in 
 a picture at least, whatever her heartless father might say t 
 Has she not adored this picture as if it were the image of a 
 saint, and even fitted up her room in oriental style, that its 
 surroundings might harmonize with it? The same room 
 you now occupy : no other was good enough for her Rich- 
 ard ; and her Richard must have it, let people shake their 
 heads as they might, or her tyrannical father bawl in his 
 hateful way, and I myself — I confess it — mildly remonstrate. 
 My friend, to this — to such a step which would be ludicrous 
 were it not sublime — belong courage, inspiration, all the in- 
 tensest conviction of a great ideal love. The world delights 
 to darken all that's bright — if that be a poet's word it is an 
 eternal truth, and believe me, she herself has had her martyr- 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 57^ 
 
 dom to bear ; it is no pigmy's task to maintain one's self 
 against such a father. I will say no evil of him ; I will say 
 nothing of him, for where should I begin and where end ? 
 And yet she has achieved the impossible : the tiger fawns at 
 the feet of the lamb." 
 
 " I learned that to-day," I replied. 
 
 " Remind me not," cried Fraulein Duff, " of that terrible 
 hour, which was yet only a further proof of her love. O 
 smile not so sardonically ! Has it not been long her cher- 
 ished hope, here, at this place which is so dear to her, some 
 day to realize with her Richard her dream of love ? And 
 now to hear that she shall be driven from this paradise, and 
 that the angel with the sword is none other than the lord of 
 the paradise himself ! " 
 
 " But," I cried, " am I the one who drives her from it ? How 
 can she make me responsible for a thing that she knows to 
 be the cherished scheme and urgent wish of her father, who 
 probably intentionally provoked the scene at the table to-day ?" 
 
 " Very possibly," replied Fraulein Duff. "Who can fathom 
 the wiles of this labyrinthine old man ? Yes, if I rightly re- 
 member, she hinted at something of the sort when we were 
 alone in her room, and she relieved her o'erburthened heart 
 in a flood of tears." 
 
 " From what we have just seen, the relief appears to have 
 been pretty effectual," I said. 
 
 " My friend," replied the governess, " he jests at scars who 
 never felt a wound. Will you be less patient than I, who for 
 all the wayward humors of the lovesick child have only a tear 
 of pity in a smiling eye ? " 
 
 " It is not given to every one to submit so cheerfully to 
 tyranny as you do, dear Fraulein." 
 
 " I am exhausted," said Fraulein Duff, pressing her palm 
 against her brow. " All my evidences glide off from this 
 serpent-smooth eccentric." 
 
 " Then let us break off this conversation ; besides, it is full 
 time I had started for Rosso w." 
 
 I had arisen, and the governess also arose, swuiig the long 
 train of her riding-habit boldly over her left arm, and said, 
 leaning on my right : 
 
 "Richard, do not go to Rossow: evil will come of it: 
 trust me ; I have Cassandra's foreboding spirit." 
 
572 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 " I am, though from other motives, little inclined to go," 
 I replied ; " but 1 am resolved to do my duty and keep the 
 promise I made to the commerzienrath, whether he asked it 
 with a good or an evil intention, and be the consequences 
 what they may." 
 
 "*I like the Spaniard proud,'" replied Fraulein Duff with 
 an enthusiastic look, "but it is not always the haughty one 
 who brings home the bride ; the crafty one often reaches the 
 goal. ' The monarch's pampered minion seeks her hand — ' 
 do you not fear Arthur ?" 
 
 " To fear, in such cases, one must either hope or wish : I 
 am not aware that I have indulged in either feeling." 
 
 Fraulein Duff in sudden terror drew her arm from mine, 
 stopped and exclaimed : 
 
 " Great heavens, what do I hear ! How am I to under- 
 stand you ? O Roderick, by all our hopes of bliss hereafler 
 I adjure you — do you not love her then ? Do you really love 
 Paula, as that insidious Arthur is ever whispering in her ear?" 
 
 I was spared the necessity of answering this very ticklish 
 question, for at this moment William appeared, calling me, 
 and saying that the Rossow carriage had been waiting for 
 me half an hour, and that he had been looking for me every- 
 where. 
 
 " Good-by, Fraulein Duff," I said. 
 
 " And no answer ? None .'''' cried the governess with a 
 look of agonized expectation. 
 
 "This is my answer," I said, p>ointing to the carriage. 
 
 Cassandra possibly found that oracular speeches are some- 
 times too hard even for seeresses to unriddle, for as the car- 
 riage rolled out at the gate I looked back and saw her stand- 
 ing where I had left her, her eyes and hands raised to 
 heaven, in the attitude of the Praying Child. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 BUT the deliverers of ambiguous oracles do not always 
 find their avocation an exhilarating one, as I at once 
 discovered while the light, elegant vehicle, drawn by 
 two magnificent blood-horses, rolled over the excellent new 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 573 
 
 road which led from Zehrendorf past Trantowitz to Rossow, 
 It was a glorious afternoon ; here and there in the clear blue 
 sky stood great white clouds, whose shadows agreeably 
 diversified the otherwise rather monotonous landscape; 
 larks were singing gaily over the broad fields of young grain 
 waving in the soft west-wind, plovers flew over the great 
 heath, trenched in various parts by turf-cuttings between the 
 beech-woods of Trantow and the pine-forest of Rossow; 
 and from the distance came unceasingly the call of the 
 cuckoo. The whole landscape to its minutest details has 
 remained imprinted on my memory, perhaps because the 
 bright laughing picture was in so marked a contrast with my 
 own gloomy and undecided feelings. The indiscreet ques- 
 tion of the governess had lifted the veil from a secret of my 
 heart, which I had hitherto carefully passed with averted 
 face. Only lifted a little, not removed. I had not the cour- 
 age nor the strength to complete what I had begun, and as 
 in such moments of confusion one usually catches at the first 
 object that presents itself, in order to escape mere distrac- 
 tion, I now clutched the determination not to let my heart, 
 though it should break in the effort, interpose a word in the 
 affair I had undertaken. 
 
 In this mood I looked forward to the approaching interview 
 with a calm that would have astonished myself had I reflected 
 where and how I last met the prince, and under what singu- 
 lar circumstances our previous meetings had occurred. But 
 I scarcely thought of this at all, or, if at all, only to shake 
 off the thought and say to myself : I have wandered here 
 into such- a labyrinth, that one strange meeting more or less 
 makes no difference. Only forward ! have done with it ! 
 for it is no longer possible to turn back. 
 
 The pines of Rossow — a beautiful piece of woods of fine 
 stately trees — had now closed around us ; the road growing 
 sandy, compelled the driver to go at a slower pace, and I 
 sprang from the carriage and walked beside it with long 
 strides, so that I soon left it behind. The trees grew ever 
 larger, the silence ever deeper, the mysterious forest-twilight 
 dimmer, until suddenly I stepped from imder the last trees and 
 saw before me a well-proportioned small castle, gray with 
 antiquity, with tall spires on the turrets, numerous balconies 
 and other projections of various kinds, here and there thickly 
 
574 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 overgrown with ivy, standing in a clear space surrounded by 
 magnificent trees. This was the hunting-lodge Rossow, the 
 temporar}' residence of the young banished prince. 
 
 An old domestic with snow-white hair, who was sitting in 
 the Gothic portal, now approached me, and after respectfully 
 inquiring the object of my coming, and telling me that the 
 prince had been expecting me some time, led me through a 
 small dark hall, singularly decorated with old armor and 
 weapons of all kinds, up several stairs to a Gothic door, 
 artistically ornamented with iron-work, which he threw open 
 with a bow and the whispered words, " His Highness has 
 given orders to admit you unannounced." I stepped into 
 the room and stood before the young prince. 
 
 He was rising from a wide sofa upon which he had prob- 
 ably fallen asleep while waiting for me ; at least the expres- 
 sion of his handsome, pale, refined face indicated confusion, 
 and it was some moments before he appeared quite to com- 
 prehend the situation. 
 
 " Ah, yes," he said, at last ; " Herr — excuse me, my mem- 
 ory for names is so very bad — Hartig ? Oh, excuse me — 
 Hartwig— so it is ! Now this is very kind of you to come ; 
 very kind indeed. I beg you will be seated. Do you smoke ? 
 There are cigars ; help yourself Very kind of you indeed !" 
 
 He had thrown himself back again in the corner of the 
 sofa, and half closed his eyes as if he wished to go to sleep 
 again. I took advantage of the opportunity to cast a hasty 
 glance around the apartment. 
 
 It was a large antique room, not very high, panelled in 
 dark oak, with a ceiling of oak, divided into compartments. 
 Portraits, brown with age, hung around the whole wall, to 
 the solitary wide Gothic window, through the small stained 
 panes of which fell a dim and colored light. The furniture, 
 which was very numerous, was in a correspondingly antique 
 and venerable style : wide-backed chairs, cabinets and 
 tables richly inlaid with mother-of-pearl and ivory ; and on 
 the mantelpiece, between elegant pitchers of beaten silver 
 and goblets of cut-crystal, stood a large clock, artistically 
 inlaid, and covered with elaborate and fantastic scroll-work, 
 a master-piece of rococo. 
 
 Upon a great bear-skin rug before the fire-place lay a 
 handsome long-haired wolf-hound, who at my entrance had 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 575 
 
 raised his head a little and then laid it between his fore-paws 
 again. The clock on the mantel ticked softly in the silence, 
 a thrush twittered outside of the window, the footsteps of 
 the old domestic resounded on the stone hall, and presently 
 the young prince in the sofa corner opened his large weary 
 eyes and said : " What were we speaking of just now ? " 
 
 " We ? " I asked, in some surprise. 
 
 " Ah, to be sure," said the prince, "we have not yet spoken 
 of anything. You must excuse me ; but really it would be 
 no marvel if I forgot how to speak altogether ; for I have 
 been sitting now two months already in this frightful den, 
 like an owl that dreads the daylight. I sometimes look at 
 my nails to see if they are not turning to talons. How 
 wearisome it all is ! But now we will proceed to business. 
 Will you have the goodness to push the cigar-box over this 
 way ; and, if it is not too much trouble, touch the bell there 
 to your left .? " 
 
 I did as he requested, and the old servant entered with a 
 bottle and two glasses. 
 
 " You need not wait," said the prince. 
 
 The old man placed the waiter between us on the table, 
 and left the room. 
 
 "Will you fill your glass ?" said the prince ; " and mine 
 too, if you will be so good — thank you. We shall need it in 
 this dry business." 
 
 But despite this thorough preparation, he seemed to be in 
 no hurry. He examined his nails as attentively as if he now 
 really detected the first sproutings of the owl's talons, then 
 suppressed a slight yawn and seemed to have the question as 
 to what we had been talking about, once more on his lips, 
 but luckily bethought himself, and said, while playing with 
 a large signet on his finger : 
 
 " I have always wished to see you sometime at my house ; 
 you must know that I take an extraordinary interest in you." 
 
 " Indeed ? " I said. 
 
 " Yes indeed, an extraordinary interest," the prince re- 
 peated. " I have retained you in my memory from the time 
 of our first meeting, which, to tell you the truth, is but rarely 
 the case with me. But you seemed to me, and still seem, to 
 be an original, and I take a peculiar interest in originals." 
 
 I bowed slightly, and took advantage of the pause to re- 
 
576 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 mark, " If it is agreeable to you to hear from me what I 
 think, from careful examination of the chalk-quarry " 
 
 " You see, originals are very scarce," went on the young 
 prince, as if I had not spoken, — " incredibly scarce. No 
 one knows that better than one of our class, who are chased 
 up and down through the world from our youth up. Ever- 
 lasting sameness : the same stereotyped faces, the same ster- 
 eotyped manners, the same stereotyped phrases. I could 
 scarcely name more than two or three persons who have 
 produced upon me the impression that I was talking with 
 real human beings and not with puppets. One of these is, 
 as I said, yourself; another is an old decrepit dervish whom 
 I lighted on, if my memory serves me, in Jerusalem, and 
 who told me that after a search of a hundred and four years 
 he had found the philosopher's stone, and that the thing was 
 not worth finding ; and the other was perhaps poor Con- 
 stance von Zehren." 
 
 I moved uneasily in my chair, and began again — " The 
 chalk-quarry, about which your Highness " 
 
 " She it was that brought about our acquaintance," went 
 on the prince, who again could not have heard me ; " so it 
 is but natural that my memory reverts to her at this moment 
 when I have the pleasure of conversing with you so agree- 
 ably. She was a peculiar, a strangely organized being, 
 whose nature has been to me, up to this moment, a perfect 
 riddle, and probably will ever remain so. A mixture of ap- 
 parently absolute contradictions : proud, without self-respect ; 
 bold, even foolhardy, and yet, if I may so express myself, of 
 a catlike timidity ; romantic, yet calculating — in a word, I 
 have never been able to comprehend how such character- 
 istics could exist together in one and the same soul. You, 
 as you have yourself known her, will admit the correctness 
 of my judgment ; and perhaps will also agree with me in the 
 opinion that one should reflect long before one holds a man 
 who has had the fortune — or misfortune — to be drawn into 
 too close an intimacy with a person of so strange a nature — 
 an intimacy which I may well call perilous — one should re- 
 flect long, I say, before holding that man responsible for all 
 the consequences which this perilous intimacy may entail." 
 
 The young man was still leaning back in the sofa-corner, 
 playing with his ring, a picture of ennui and indifference. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 577 
 
 I was in the most painful position imaginable, and inly cursed 
 the chance which had brought the indolent man to speak 
 upon this theme of all others. Or was it then a chance ? I 
 fancied that I perceived in the tone with which he spoke the 
 last words, some signs of internal emotion ; but I could not 
 be sure of it, and I was about to make a third and decisive 
 attempt to bring the conversation to business matters, when 
 the prince began again in a more animated tone : 
 
 " It is not my fault that all happened as it did. I have, 
 it may be, one or two things upon my conscience which I 
 had rather not have there when I sit here all alone, and for 
 very weariness cannot even sleep ; but in that affair I am 
 really not the most culpable party. I was very young when 
 I first saw her ; she was far the older of the two, if not in 
 years, at least in experience and worldly prudence. How 
 she came by it I know not — with women anyhow we rarely 
 know how they come by it — and she had it all, as I said, in 
 a high degree. It was no slight achievement to blind me to 
 the ruin which lay plainly enough before my eyes ; the anger 
 of the prince, my father, upon whom I am altogether de- 
 pendent, the certainty that I was throwing away the hand of 
 a noble and amiable lady who had been chosen for me : it 
 was no trifling achievement, I sa}', and yet she succeeded in 
 bringing me to it. And yet, upon my word as a nobleman, 
 I would never have abandoned her, if I had not heard a cir- 
 cumstance connected with Fraulein von Zehren — or at least 
 having reference to her — something of which she was alto- 
 gether innocent — absolutely and entirely innocent — which I 
 cannot further explain because it is not my secret, but which 
 was of such a nature that from the moment I learned it all 
 thoughts, whether of a lawful or illicit connection between us, 
 became for me at once and forever impossible. Strange 
 things come to pass in life : things which at first appall us 
 like hideous spectres, but which one gradually becomes ac- 
 customed to and learns to endure. Do you not think so ? " 
 
 The prince seemed to be half in slumber again as he put 
 this question ; but somehow I could not entirely believe in 
 this half-sleep ; on the contrary the impression grew stronger 
 upon my mind that my distinguished host was playing with 
 very laudable skill, a well concerted part. So his confiden- 
 tial communications only made me distrustful, and with a 
 
 25 
 
578 Hammer and Anvit. ' 
 
 reserve that was otherwise foreign to my nature, I deter- 
 mined to wait and see whither this singular discourse was 
 really tending. The prince probably expected to produce a 
 different effect upon me, for he presently added, with eyelids 
 half closed. 
 
 " You once felt an interest in the lady of whom we are 
 speaking, did you not .'' " ,| 
 
 " Yes," I answered. 
 
 " Your answer soimds as if j-ou no longer felt that interest." 
 
 " Not to my knowledge," I replied. , 
 
 " Indeed t " said the prince, opening his handsome wearied 
 eyes wide for a moment, and looking me full in the face ; 
 " Indeed ? that is precisely the opposite of what Zehren has 
 informed me." 
 
 " I do not think that Arthur — that Herr von Zehren — can 
 give any information concerning me, that has even the 
 shadow of credibility," I answered. 
 
 " Very possible," replied the prince, " very possible : his 
 veracity is by no means beyond the possibility of doubt : 
 indeed I frequently permit myself to assume the exact oppo- 
 site of what he pleases to tell me. For example, I am per- 
 fectly convinced that he was decidedly in error when he as- 
 sured me that the charming young artist at whose house I 
 had the pleasure of meeting you, would be gratified by my 
 attentions. The reverse seems to have been the case." 
 
 The prince looked at me as if he expected an answer, but 
 I replied only by an ambiguous gesture. 
 
 " Nor am I any more sure of the final disposal of a certain 
 insignificant sum of money which I entrusted to him on the 
 same day, if I remember rightly, for a special purpose. I 
 beg you ! You need not say anything — I am now satisfied. 
 My friend Zehren is very little troubled with over-scrupu- 
 lousness " — the prince made a slight gesture of contempt — 
 " very little indeed. It is really high time that he had set- 
 tled himself : such men as he, in a desperate position, are 
 hopelessly ruined. Well, he has at present a capital oppor- 
 tunity for settling himself: I congratulate him upon it ! " 
 
 I felt how at these words of the prince, which could only 
 be interpreted in one way, the blood rushed to my cheeks 
 and brow ; but I controlled myself as well as I could, and 
 only replied ; 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 579 
 
 " I think your highness just remarked that you were dis- 
 posed in certain cases to take for granted the precise oppo- 
 site of what Arthur thinks fit to inform you." 
 
 " Indeed ! " said the prince. " I should be sorry for that 
 in this case. I mean on his account ; though I could not 
 exactly congratulate the young lady, whom I have not the 
 honor to know, upon the match. But this time I do believe 
 the statement, because all the circumstances seem to confirm 
 it. I have had several interviews with the old man : he is a 
 horrible — what shall I say ? — roturier, and like all the rest 
 of his class, greedy after respectable connections, and dis- 
 tinctions of every kind. This very morning he intimated to 
 me through the justizrath that he would make more favor- 
 able propositions in the matter of the sale of Zehrendorf, 
 provided I would obtain for him from my father the title of 
 privy-councillor, or the order of the third class ; he has con- 
 trived in some way already to get the fourth. For such peo- 
 ple it is the height of happiness if they can marry a daugh- 
 ter, and especially an only daughter, into an old family ; and 
 the Zehrens are an old family — there is no disputing that 
 fact. How the young lady views the matter, I do not know ; 
 probably not differently from other young women in her rank 
 of life. Indeed, it would be a very serious matter if Zehren 
 had deceived me in this affair, and I should not readily for- 
 give him. On this representation I have paid his debts for 
 him ; and what is just now more important for me, he has 
 promised to use all his influence with his prospective father- 
 in-law to bring about the sale of Zehrendorf. And on your 
 account also, Herr Hartwig, I shpuld regret it, for I devised 
 a plan which I think it would interest you to hear, and to 
 communicate which to you was the main reason for my re- 
 questing the honor ot an interview this afternoon. I had 
 the idea, namely, that it would be agreeable for you, and per- 
 haps open you a future career, if I asked you, after the pur- 
 chase of Zehrendorf has been consummated, to help me in 
 its management, and in that of some other estates here. 
 The prince, my father, insists upon my undertaking the ad- 
 ministration of these estates, before he re-admits rae to his 
 favor. Now for more than one cause I am very anxious for 
 this reconciliation ; but the condition he attaches to it is less 
 easy of accomplishment, and the acquisition of a man of 
 
580 Hammer and Anvil. 1 
 
 whom I have heard so much that was to his honor, who has 
 borne himself so well in many a trying situation, and — what 
 I consider of most importance — whom I have myself learned 
 to know as a perfect gentleman — the acquisition of such a 
 man I should value highly, yes, inexpressibly." 
 
 For the first time during our conversation the prince had 
 spoken with a warmth which was not without an effect upon 
 my susceptible nature, and at his last words he bowed grace- 
 fully to me, and a kind and friendly smile brightened his 
 pale refined face. It was a noble and most inviting offer 
 that he made me ; I felt that, and I also felt that under 
 other circumstances I would have accepted it without hesi- 
 tation ; but as it was 
 
 " You are a cautious man," said the prince, after politely 
 waiting a little while for my answer. " You are thinking, 
 * Will Prince Prora keep the promise he makes me ? and will 
 he be able to keep it 1 ' On this point I think I can satisfy 
 you. The prince, my father, must be no less desirous of this 
 reconciliation than I am myself ; he would eagerly welcome 
 the first advances from my side, and reward me with princely 
 magnanimity for the first results that I was able to produce. 
 I believe even that he would at once place all our estates in 
 this part of the country under my charge. This at the be- 
 ginning would be a field of action which I should think would 
 be satisfactory to your ambition — ^you are a little ambitious 
 are you not ? As for myself, you would have every reason 
 to be content with me. I am by nature rather indolent, and 
 my training has not done much to eradicate that natural 
 fault ; I should give you uncontrolled authority, or, at least 
 you would always find me inclined to agree with whatever 
 was reasonable. Under no circumstances would I be a hard 
 landlord ; and as you are unfortunately not in the position 
 to — how shall I express it ? you understand what I mean — 
 why should you not give me your service as freely — more 
 freely, I flatter myself— than to that horrible plebeian over 
 yonder .-• whose affairs, moreover, as I learn on good author- 
 ity, are by no means in the most prosperous condition." 
 
 While the prince was speaking, I had been putting to my- 
 self the question with which he concluded, and answered 
 myself that in reality I could see no reason why my activity 
 could not work as effectively for good in this new field as in 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 581 
 
 the old. And yet I could not bring myself to accept the 
 offer. It is so hard for one to renounce a favorite dream. 
 
 " I see my proposition appears somewhat to embarrass you," 
 said the prince, a little piqued, as I fancied, by my hesitation. 
 "Well, I will not urge you: think the matter over; you have 
 my word, and I will let it stand for a few days. I am here 
 for the purpose of practising patience, as it seems. Then in 
 a few days I promise myself this pleasure again." 
 
 He bowed to me from his sofa-corner as if to intimate that 
 the conversation was at an end, when the rapid tramp of a 
 horse was heard under the window, 
 
 " Who can that be ? " said the prince, and touched the silver 
 bell on the table. But in the same instant the old servant 
 entered followed by an equerry with a sealed letter in his 
 hand. The old man was very pale and the equerry very red, 
 but both had such agitated faces that the prince exclaimed 
 hastily, " What upon earth is the matter ? " 
 
 " A letter from his high — I should say from Herr Chan- 
 cellor Henzel," said the old man, taking the letter from the 
 courier's hand and handing it to the prince without thinking 
 to place it upon the salver which he was holding in his other 
 hand for this purpose. He must have been informed of the 
 contents of the letter by the messenger. 
 
 The prince broke open the large seal, and I remarked 
 that while he hastily ran over the contents of the letter, his 
 hands began to tremble violently. Then he looked up and 
 said with a voice which he evidently tried to keep as steady 
 as possible ; 
 
 " His highness has had an attack of apoplexy. Saddle 
 Lady, or better, Brownlock, he is faster. Albert can take 
 Essex and come with me. Be quick about it ! " and he 
 stamped impatiently. 
 
 The equerry hurried out of the door, and the old servant 
 ran through another door which I had not observed, into an 
 adjoining room, probably to pack up such things as were 
 necessary for his master to take. 
 
 As the prince, who was pacing the room with unsteady 
 steps, did not seem to notice that I was still there, I was 
 about trying to slip away unperceived, when he suddenly 
 stopped before me, and looking at me with an attempt to 
 smile, said: 
 
S82 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 " Now see how hard it is for one in my position to become 
 an orderly man. I am just about making the attempt, and 
 I am called away in another direction. Now, farewell, and 
 let me soon hear from you. Remember, you have my word, 
 and I shall now probably need you more than ever. Fare- 
 well !" 
 
 He gave me his hand, which I pressed warmly. 
 
 Five minutes later, as I was going back on foot through ' 
 the pine woods — I had declined the carriage which had been 
 kept harnessed for me — I heard horses behind me. It was 
 the young prince, with a groom following him. As he flew 
 by me at full gallop, he waved his hand in friendly salutation, 
 and in the next instant both riders had disappeared among 
 the thick trunks and the trampling of their horses g^rew 
 fainter and ceased to sound in the dim forest. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE following day was unusually hot and close for the 
 time of year. At sunrise gray storm-clouds had ap- 
 peared in the east, and hung threatening in the hor- 
 izon, while the sun in all his splendor was ascending the 
 bright sky. I, who from childhood had always been pecul- 
 iarly sensitive to atmospheric changes, felt uneasily the elec- 
 tric tension of the air. On my brow I had a sense of con- 
 stant pressure, a singular disquiet agitated my nerves, and 
 my blood seemed to course laboriously through my veins. 
 To be sure these feelings of mine were not due to the 
 weather alone. 
 
 Something else was in the air ; something that gave me 
 more uneasiness than the threatened storm, something that 
 I could not define ; the obscure feeling of the intolerable po- 
 sition in which I found myself here, and that in some way it 
 must be brought to an end — if it had not come to an end 
 already. 
 
 However that might be, I had time enough to-day to think 
 it all over. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 5^3 
 
 No one was here to disturb my reflections : Zehrendorf 
 seemed uninhabited. The excursion to the Schlachtensee 
 which had been arranged the day before, had been carried 
 out at about ten o'clock, not without some trifling variations 
 of the original programme. Whether it was because the last 
 attempt to make a horsewoman of Friiulein Duff" had failed 
 so lamentably, or from some other reason, Hermine had 
 given up her intention of going on horseback with her gov- 
 erness and Arthur, and the whole company had gone in 
 three carriages. The steuerrath and the Born had also 
 joined the party; which was another variation from the pro- 
 gramme, introduced on account of the two Eleonoras, who 
 had unanimously protested — they were always unanimous — 
 that they could not possibly share in an excursion to last the 
 whole day, that was composed of young people only. The 
 two dignitaries had vehemently resisted the honor proposed 
 to them, but yielded at last, of course. How could they do 
 otherwise ? Not easily again would they find such another 
 opportunity to forward their favorite scheme. 
 
 A third variation had also taken place, which, if I could 
 credit Friiulein Duff", I had brought about. True, appear- 
 ances seemed to confirm her statement, but only appear- 
 ances. 
 
 When I returned to Zehrendorf from my visit to Rossow, 
 as I went to my own room I had to pass through the parlor 
 where the whole company were assembled. Hermine was 
 sitting at the piano playing a noisy piece, which she suddenly 
 stopped as, after silently bowing to the company, I had my 
 hand on the knob of the door to pass out. Involuntarily I 
 turned at the sound of the discord with which she closed, 
 and in the next moment I saw her standing before me, with 
 pale features and a strange light in her large blue eyes, and 
 with quivering lips saying something which she had to repeat 
 before I could understand it. They hoped I had taken the 
 jest of to-day as it was meant, and not deprive their little 
 party to-morrow of the pleasure of my company, on which 
 they had certainly counted. 
 
 The company who had been hitherto conversing with 
 especial animation, and had scarcely appeared to notice my 
 presence, were suddenly silent, and this was probably the 
 reason that I heard my own answer with startling distinct- 
 
584 Hammer and Anvil. j 
 
 ness, almost as if it was not I but another who had spoken 
 with an altogether strange voice : 
 
 " I thank you, Fraulein : but you were perfectly right ; I 
 cannot be counted upon on these occasions. " 
 
 Next I found myself outside in the hall, trembling in every 
 limb of my strong body, with sharp pain in my heart and a 
 burning desire to cry out aloud, and then I pressed both 
 hands upon my breast, and said to myself, with deeply-drawn 
 breath and trembling lips, " Thank heaven, it is all over." 
 
 To this thought I held fast all the long night while I paced 
 sleepless up and down my carpeted room, or stood at the 
 open window cooling my burning brow in the night air, or 
 throwing myself upon the divan to sink into painful thought. 
 
 All over; all over ! despite the note that Fraulein Duff 
 sent about midnight to my room by the hands of my now 
 devoted William, and in which in her queer fantastic way 
 she assured me that Hermine had been looking forward for 
 two weeks to this excursion only because she was to make it 
 with me, and indeed had planned it with no other view; and 
 she asked whether the good should give place to the evil, 
 and whether love did not believe all things and endure all 
 things, especially when it might be convinced that what oc- 
 casioned Its severest sufferings were themselves but love- 
 torments ? 
 
 Love ? Was this, could this be love ? Love, she said, en- 
 dured all things and believed all things. True : but it also 
 is not puffed up, does not behave unseemly, and thinks no 
 evil. Is this love .'' Is it not rather selfishness, vanity, ca- 
 price, the caprice of a spoiled child which now kisses its doll 
 and the next moment flings it on the ground, for which the 
 whole world is only a bright soap-bubble that for its especial 
 pleasure glitters in the sunshine of its fortune ? Well, this 
 may be love — one kind of love ; but I do not fancy this kind 
 and will not have it, and it is all over. 
 
 Had I not known another kind of love ? A firm, deeply- 
 rooted, beneficent love that brought blessings wherever it 
 was given. If this love had never been bestowed on me, 
 did I any the less know that it existed ? And if she had 
 never loved me as she was capable of loving, and would 
 some day love another, had I not tasted a drop at least of 
 this pure fountain of living water, and drunk from this single 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 58s 
 
 drop courage and refreshment, far more than from all this 
 torrent which rushes so exuberantly to-day, and to-morrow 
 will have vanished without a trace into the sand — the sand 
 of her selfishness and caprice ? No ! it must all be over, 
 and it was all over. 
 
 Thus all night long thoughts whirled and burned in my 
 head and heart, until day broke — a bright day, but heavy 
 with brooding storm — and found me feverish and exhausted; 
 but I aroused myself with a strong resolution and said to 
 myself : 
 
 " So be it ! Let all be over and past ! Perhaps it is well 
 that all has happened thus, and that I am given back to my- 
 self and to my duties." 
 
 And I remained in my room until it was time to go to the 
 chalk-quarry, where the machine was to be operated to-day 
 for the first time. At about ten o'clock I returned to report 
 to the commerzienrath, as he had requested, that all had suc- 
 ceeded beyond our expectations, and that our prospect of 
 mastering the water had now become a certainty. 
 
 In the meantime the excursionists had started, as William, 
 who remained behind to wait upon me, informed me, to- 
 gether with a multitude of details, which the rascal's hawk-^ 
 eyes were quick to catch, and his indiscreet mouth eager to 
 blab. The young lady had seemed in the very gayest humor, 
 until Leo, her mastiff, could not be induced, either by ca- 
 resses or threats, to go along with them. " He has been 
 treated too badly of late," said William, " and we notice — I 
 mean an animal notices anything like that." And at the 
 last moment Herr and Frau von Granow drove up, though 
 they had not been invited, and they could not avoid asking 
 them to go along. 
 
 " I tell you, Herr Engineer, the whole thing looked more 
 like a funeral than a pic-nic party. But the two young 
 ladies — " here William Kluckhuhn grinned — " you ought to 
 have seen them, Herr Engineer ! All in white with green 
 ribbons — real snow-drops, I tell you ! " 
 
 I was little in the mood to hear William's report to the 
 end, and interrupted it by asking for the commerzienrath. 
 
 " Gone to Uselin with the old justizrath to keep some ap- 
 pointment, and will hardly be back before evening." 
 
 This news somewhat surprised me. The commerzienrath 
 
 25* 
 
586 Hammer and Anvil. \ 
 
 had known nothing the previous evening of this appoint- 
 ment which would keep him all day, for he had appointed 
 this very morning for an interview with me in which very 
 important business was to be discussed. For the report 
 which I had brought him of the precarious condition of the 
 old prince had thrown our prospects of selling Zehrendorf 
 into the dim distance, and indeed rendered them very im- 
 probable. What would the young prince, if he succeeded 
 his father and came into full possession of all the property, 
 care for one estate more or less .'' 
 
 " In reality, the old man cares very little about it," the 
 commerzienrath always said ; " but the young one is to win 
 his spurs by the purchase, and show that he can manage 
 business of the sort. The young man knows this very well, 
 and for that reason he will take down the hook, however un- 
 inviting the bait may be ; you may rely upon that." 
 
 Thus the commerzienrath had reckoned : very falsely as 
 affairs now stood. My yesterday's intelligence had visibly 
 caused him great alarm. It was extremely odd that he had 
 to go to the city just to-day. 
 
 Or did he merely wish to get out of my way, now that he 
 had so perfectly gained his point of bringing me into dis- 
 favor with Hermine ? Did he need me no more, now that 
 the machine was set up and the negotiation with the prince 
 virtually fallen through .'' 
 
 Very possible ; very possible ; but perhaps I needed him 
 still less ; perhaps I was in a position to bid him farewell 
 before he gave me a dismissal. This absence of the man, 
 which seemed like a flight from me, came at this moment as 
 a warning to accept the tempting offer of the young prince. 
 What had I thus far attained from the commerzienrath in 
 furtherance of my own aims ? Abundance of promises, a 
 flood of compliments — and that was all, and so it would evi- 
 dently remain, especially if he did not sell Zehrendorf, and 
 was thus released from his promise to me about the factory : 
 yes, and very probably even though the sale were still ef- 
 fected. 
 
 For there were but few things that the commerzienrath 
 held sacred, and I had good reason to believe that his word 
 was not one of them. Thus he had promised me not to dis- 
 miss the foreman of the saw-mill, to whom he had already 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 587 
 
 given notice ; and as I passed the mill this morning it was 
 not running, and a workman told me that the master had 
 been there the previous evening while I was at Rossovv, and 
 after a short conversation dismissed the foreman on the spot. 
 
 There was an instance ; but it was merely the most re- 
 cent; I had caught him more than once in these breaches 
 of his word. No, indeed, the man did not seem a likely 
 proselyte to my religion of humanity ! 
 
 And the prince >. The more distinctly I recalled to mem- 
 ory the particulars of our yesterday's conversation, the more 
 vividly his face arose before me, so much the more did I be- 
 lieve that I discovered the stamp of an honorable and kindly 
 nature in his features, and felt confident that it would well 
 repay me to attach myself to him. It is a hard matter to 
 remain entirely unmoved when any one approaches us with 
 marked good will, especially when our well-wisher is a per- 
 son of high rank and great influence. Now I cannot say 
 that either then or at any time I should have considered a 
 prince's favor the height of earthly felicity ; but neither can 
 I deny that, at that time at least, the reverence for dignities 
 in which I had been brought up, helped to place this behav- 
 ior of the young prince in its most favorable light I 
 thought that I had now found the key to the conduct which 
 yesterday had seemed so enigmatical ; and I highly prized 
 the delicacy with which he had cleared out of the way what 
 he knew lay as a stumbling-block between us, before he dis- 
 closed his real object. He had made no allusion to the 
 scene in Zehrendorf forest nine years before ; but he had 
 never forgotten that I had then spared him, and why I had 
 done so, and had attempted in this way to cancel the obli- 
 gation. 
 
 I had to admit to myself that, all things considered, the 
 procedure was noble and chivalrous on his part. So he had 
 explained to me the reason of his visit to Paula's studio, and 
 to a certain extent apologized for his conduct there ; and if 
 his attempt on the same day to clear scores with me was 
 premature and unbecoming, he had more than compensated 
 for it in my eyes by his present magnanimous and important 
 proposal. 
 
 For it was both. Magnanimous, when I considered the 
 open loyal way in which he made it, with no manoeuvrings, 
 
588 Hammer and Anvil. j 
 
 no bargaining nor chaffering ; important, when I admitted 
 to myself, as I had to do, that if it was really his wish to 
 provide me with a wider field of operations, he was fully in 
 a position to realize his promises. Granting that the com- 
 merzienrath was what he pretended to be — though on this 
 point my doubts had rather increased than diminished — but 
 granting that he was the wealthy and influential man he was 
 generally thought, what was his wealth and influence com- 
 pared with those of a Prince of Prora-Wiek ? As a school- 
 boy I had known, like every one else in the town, and I be- 
 lieve every inhabitant of our province, that upon the island 
 alone the prince owned a hundred and twenty estates ; then 
 the small town of Prora, the residence — in which there was 
 now probably agitation enough in conse(5[uence of its lord's 
 sudden illness — which stood entirely upon the prince's land ; 
 then the hunting-castle Wiek with its leagues of forest ; the 
 Grafschaft of Ralow on the mainland near Uselin, where the 
 townsfolk used to make excursions to the park in the sum- 
 mer ; the magnificent palace at the residence, which I had 
 often passed with strange emotions ; the domains in Silesia 
 with the celebrated iron-works, the value of which alone was 
 estimated at several millions — what was the Croesus of 
 Uselin in comparison with this real Croesus, whose reve- 
 nues for two years probably amounted to as much as the 
 commerzienrath's whole capital ? I ,,, .- 
 
 True, I had looked forward to a far different career. My 
 passion for mathematical science, my advances in the ma- 
 chine-builder's art, my hope some day to be actively helpful 
 in promoting the development of railroad industry, the plans I 
 had so often devised with worthy Doctor Snellius for the good 
 of the working classes — it was no pleasant thought to have 
 to give up all this. But had I then to give it up ? Was it 
 not in reality the same thing whether I worked here or there, 
 in this manner or in that, so that I only worked and strove 
 in the noble spirit of my unforgotten teacher and of my true- 
 hearted friend ? Assuredly I might in that spirit accept the 
 prince's offer, and Paula would not be dissatisfied with me, 
 for her thoughts and wishes, like those of her noble-hearted 
 father, were only bent upon goodness in every form. I felt 
 that it would not be difficult for me to show her how in this 
 sphere I would have full opportunity to become more worthy 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 5^9 
 
 of her than I had ever been. And then— I had always en- 
 deavored to hide it from myself, because it too rudely touched 
 a painful spot in my heart ; but now in this sleepless night 
 it and many another thing stood in sharp conviction before 
 my mind— she had not only let me go because a wider field 
 of usefulness opened before me ; she had even sent me away, 
 because she had compassion with me, because she knew that 
 my deep, devoted, reverential love found no echo in her 
 heart ; and as a kindly nature never takes away anything 
 without offering, if possible, some indemnity, she had offered 
 my loving heart, that yearned for a return of affection, the 
 fulfilment of all my wishes in a lovely fascinating form, in 
 the form of the beautiful wayward Bacchante who had played 
 with me as she had played with tigers, leopards, and other 
 forest-creatures which she was accustomed to yoke to her 
 chariot. What did Paula's innocent heart know of this dan- 
 gerous sport ? What did she know of the arts of caressing 
 with one hand while the other plies the lash ? — of delighting 
 at one moment in the free gambols of the favorite, and the 
 next moment barring it into a narrow cage ? What did Paula 
 know of all this ? 
 
 Had she known it, would she not be the first to called me 
 back and say : 
 
 " You may and must sacrifice yourself, if nothing less will 
 avail ; but you may not throw yourself away ; and as for my 
 wishes and yours, they are all past and gone." 
 
 Thus it fermented and worked in my heated brain and my 
 swelling heart all day long, while the sun rolled on his glow- 
 ing path through the sky, and behind him clomb the gray 
 vaporous clouds which had lowered on the horizon at his 
 rise. I had looked up instinctively at the sky from time to 
 time, as I wandered restlessly through the fields and the 
 heath, tormented by my thoughts, and oppressed by the threat- 
 ening storm, and so possessed by the emotions within me 
 and the ominous preparations without, that I had lost my 
 consciousness of place and time, found myself now in the 
 evening twilight on the road to Trantowitz, the same road 
 along which I had driven to Rosso w, and which was also the 
 road by which the excursionists would return, without know- 
 ing how I had got there or why I had come. Certainly not 
 to visit Hans, who was with the party. Still I pushed on, until 
 
5 go Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 I reached the ill-kept broken hedge which divided Hans's 
 famous garden, with its stunted fruit-trees, its neglected grass, 
 and its waste potato and cabbage patches, from the road. 
 Looking over the hedge, I thought that at the further end 
 of this melancholy croft I saw a tall figure which could be no 
 other than the good Hans himself I pushed through the 
 hedge — an operation attended with no difficulty — and went 
 towards the figure. It was Hans, as I thought. 
 
 "I thought you were with them," I said. 
 
 " Not I," he answered, returning my grasp. 
 
 " But you were invited ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes ! " 
 
 " And how then are vou here ? " 
 
 " Well, when I saw them coming this morning, I got out 
 of that window " — he pointed to the window of his bed-room 
 — " and stayed in the woods until the coast was clear. And 
 you?" 
 
 " I did not care to go, either." ' 
 
 "Indeed!" exclaimed Hans. 
 
 We strolled for a long time silently, side by side, up and 
 down the grass-grown paths. The twilight had now grown 
 so dim that color could no longer be distinguished. The 
 air was inexpressibly sultry and oppressive, heat-lightnings 
 flickered every now and then in the east, and from the Tran- 
 towitz woods, an angle of which reached down near us, came 
 the song of the nightingale in long-drawn wailing tones. 
 
 " It is suffocating ! " I said, turning into a sort of ruinous 
 arbor that we had reached in our walk, and throwing myself 
 upon one of the mouldering benches in it, I pulled off my 
 coat and waistcoat. 
 
 Hans made no reply, but silently proceeded to his bed- 
 room window, through which I saw his gigantic figure disap- 
 pear, and re-appear after the lapse of a few minutes. He 
 rejoined me with a couple of glasses in his hand and two 
 bottles of wine under his arm, which he set down on the old 
 table, drew two more bottles out of his coat pockets and laid 
 them on the sand, pulled out his hunting-knife and uncorked 
 the first pair, and then pushing one over to me, remarked : 
 
 " Drink off the half or the whole of that and you will feel 
 better." 
 
 That was just the old Hans exactly, with his universal 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 591 
 
 specific against all slings and arrows of outrageous fortune ! 
 Alas, it had proved but a poor panacea to the good fellow, 
 and would probably be of little service to me, but I could 
 not help feeling how kindly he meant it, and my hand trem- 
 bled as I poured the wine for both, and my voice was un- 
 steady as I clinked glasses with him, saying : 
 
 " To your health, dear Hans, and a better future to both 
 of us." 
 
 " Don't know where it is to come from for me," said 
 
 Hans, draining his glass at a draught, and filling both again. 
 
 " Hans, my dear good fellow," I said, " please don't 
 
 speak in that dismal tone : I cannot stand it this evening : 
 
 I feel every moment as if my heart was about to break." 
 
 Hans was about to push the bottle to me again, but re- 
 membered that I had already declined his universal specific, 
 so he handed his cigar-case to me across the table. 
 
 In a minute two bright points were glowing in the dark 
 arbor, throwing a faint glimmer upon the rickety table with 
 the bottles, and upon the faces of two men that leaned over 
 it in a long confidential conversation. 
 
 " It is so," said one at last. 
 
 " You will find yourself mistaken, as I was," replied the 
 other. 
 
 " I think not. How long ago was it — ^yesterday, I believe 
 — or it might have been the day before ; I don't keep any 
 reckoning of the days — I met her on the road to Rossow, 
 and we rode together two or three miles, and the whole time 
 she was talking of nothing but you." 
 
 " She must have been sadly in want of a topic of conver- 
 sation." 
 
 " And she cried, too, poor thing ! I was sorry for her, 
 and have ever since had it on my mind to tell you that you 
 must really bring the matter to a close." 
 
 A long silence followed. The third bottle was uncorked, 
 the bright points still glowed, while the darkness sank ever 
 deeper, and the noiseless sheet-lightning flickered from mo- 
 ment to moment. 
 
 " But you are not drinking," said Hans. 
 
 I did not answer : in fact I had scarcely heard him. I 
 was hardly conscious that he was there or where we were. 
 In the darkness that surrounded us I saw her eyes beaming ; 
 
592 Hanwier and Anvil. 
 
 in the rustling of the wind in the leaves I heard her voice. 
 And the large blue eyes gazed reproachfully upon me, and 
 the voice seemed to tremble, and the sweet lips quivered as 
 they had done yesterday when she asked me to accompany 
 them. 
 
 " Where are you going ?" asked Hans. ' 
 
 I had arisen and stood at the entrance of the arbor, gaz- 
 ing with burning eyes into the darkness. On the western 
 horizon there was still a thin pale streak, but elsewhere the 
 sky seemed to cover the earth like a black opaque pall. 
 There was a deep silence ; only from time to time strange 
 moans and whispers seemed to pass through the air, and at 
 intervals the nightingales in the woods sent forth a plaintive 
 sobbing sound, as if bewailing the overthrow of a beautiful 
 world full of light and love. Now and then an electrical flame 
 clove the darkness, and flickered strangely along the edges 
 of the low heavy clouds ; but no thunder followed to break 
 the oppressive stillness, and no refreshing rain came down 
 to revive the exhausted earth. 
 
 " Where are you going 1" asked Hans again. 
 
 " Where do you suppose they are now ?" 
 
 " Who can tell ? Certainly they have not got back, for 
 they must pass this way." 
 
 " On the heath, between your beechwoods and the Rossow 
 pines, the way must be hard to find in this darkness." 
 
 " It is indeed," said Hans. " I once rode around there 
 for two hours without getting out of one place, and the night 
 was not as dark as this. To be sure, we had been drinking 
 pretty freely at Fritz Zarrentin's. Hallo ! what are you 
 about ?" 
 
 I was on the point of rushing out ; and when Hans spoke 
 I grasped at my head, which felt as if it would burst. 
 
 " They may be at that very place now," I muttered. 
 
 " Don't go without me ! " cried Hans, as I set off" on a run. 
 
 I stopped : he came behind me and patted me two or 
 three times gently on the shoulder with his great broad 
 hand, saying: " So then, so !" as if he were quieting an ex- 
 cited horse. I caught his hand and said, " come along, 
 Hans." 
 
 " Of course," he said ; " but we must have two or three 
 fellows with lanterns, or we can do nothing." 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 593 
 
 " That will keep us too long ! " 
 
 " Not five minutes." 
 
 Hans strode by my side across the cabbage patch, and to 
 avoid all detours went directly to, and through, his bed-room 
 window and through his sitting-room, and I followed close 
 at his heels, for I knew the way of old. Once in the yard, 
 Hans began to pull with all his might at the cracked alarm- 
 bell which hung there in a sort of ruinous belfry, and whose 
 unmelodious clank used to summon the men to or from 
 work. They came fast enough at the well-known signal 
 from their quarters and from the stables, and before five 
 minutes were over we had left the yard and taken the path 
 to the Trantow beeches, followed by a squad of men with 
 stable-lanterns. 
 
 The last bright streak had faded from the western horizon, 
 and the darkness was so intense that in the woods it seemed 
 no darker than it had been in the open field. The oppres- 
 sive sultriness of the atmosphere had increased, if possible, 
 and now the thunder began to mutter, and the tops of the 
 trees to toss about in the rising wind. The nightingales 
 had hushed in expectation of the impending storm. Leav- 
 ing the men with the lanterns far behind, I hurried through 
 the wood, followed closely at first by Hans, who presently 
 stopped, however, calling to me that there was no use for 
 such frantic haste, as we could do nothing without the 
 lanterns. I knew that very well, but I was urged on by an 
 impulse that I could not withstand. What I meant to do, I 
 could not precisely have told, nor did I pause to consider ; 
 I only hurried forward wildly as if life and death were at 
 stake. How I got through the woods, by a wretched path, 
 in the pitchy darkness, without breaking arm or leg, or 
 dashing my skull against a tree, is more than I can explain 
 at this hour. 
 
 Whether it was the blue gleam of the lightnings which 
 flashed at intervals through the clear spaces in the wood, or 
 the peculiarity of my eyes which could always distinguish 
 objects a little, even in the deepest darkness, or the excite- 
 ment, which in certain moments seems to awaken dormant 
 faculties within us, I cannot say ; I only know that in an 
 incredibly short time I had traversed the woods, and by the 
 cessation of the rustling, by the stronger blast of the wind 
 
594 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 in my face, by the altered sound of the thunder, and by the 
 brighter glare of the lightning, I perceived that I was on the 
 heath. This heath was about a mile wide, bounded on three 
 sides by the Rossow pine woods and the Trantowitz beeches, 
 and on the fourth side, to my left, joining the great moors on 
 the coast, which ran up into it in various places in narrower 
 or wider strips. No tree grew over this whole broad ex- 
 panse ; the single mark which arrested the eye was a hillock, 
 overgrown with bushes and surrounded by large stones — 
 doubtless an ancient barrow — which stood about midway of 
 the distance, and served as a boundary to mark the com- 
 mencement of the moor. One could hardly speak of a road 
 here, for the way changed with every season of the year, 
 even with every change of the weather \ travellers rode, 
 drove, or walked, wherever they found it most practicable. 
 More than one accident had happened here ; and even in 
 my time a man who tried to cross the heath by night with an 
 emptv wagon had driven into one of the broad deep turf- 
 pits and been drowned with his team. 
 
 While I ran rather than walked across the heath, the de- 
 tails of this accident, which I had long forgotten, came all 
 back to my recollection. I remembered the man's name, and 
 that he was betrothed to a young woman in Trantowitz, a 
 pretty fair-haired creature, who could not be comforted for 
 the loss of her lover, and had been seen weeks afterwards 
 sitting on the mound with eyes fixed on the spot where he 
 had perished. It struck me that the poor pretty creature 
 had had a sliiiht likeness to Hermine. 
 
 A wild terror seized me, and I suddenly stood still, listen- 
 ing into the night with a wildly-beating heart. I thought I had 
 heard a faint cry at no great distance. But from what direc- 
 tion ? Before me ? to the right ? or to the left ? Or was I 
 mistaken altogether, and had my excitement deceived me 
 and changed the wailing sounds of the wind to human calls 
 for help .'' There it was again ! This time I was not mis- 
 taken, and I caught the direction from which the cry came. 
 It was exactly before me — no, it was on my right — no, on 
 my left. Certainly now it was to the right. Then I heard 
 it again nearer, and again from another direction, as if the 
 ghosts of those who had perished all over the desolate heath 
 had all arisen from their marshy graves and were calling to 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 595 
 
 each other. Nor could I see a single step before me : even 
 the H'^htning had ceased for some minutes : it seemed as if 
 I could touch the darkness with my hand. I cast a desper- 
 ate glance around, and saw to my unspeakable joy the lights 
 of the lanterns approaching, though still at some distance. 
 I called with all the the power of my lungs for them to make 
 haste ; then hurried blindly forward, and started terrified 
 back, as suddenly, in the glare of a vivid flash of lightning, I 
 saw just before me the gigantic spectrally white figure of a 
 rearing horse. I had come upon one of the carriages, which 
 had been abandoned by its occupants, leaving the coachman 
 who had bravely stood to his post, and strove in vain to un- 
 harness the horses. 
 
 " Where are the others 1 " I cried, hastening to help the 
 man without rightly knowing what I was doing. 
 
 " God knows," he answered. " I have had my hands full 
 here." 
 
 " Here come men with lanterns." 
 
 " It is high time. Stand still, you devil's imp ! " 
 
 Now Hans came up with several of the lantern-bearers. 
 The horses stood still, shivering with terror, and snorting 
 from their distended nostrils great clouds of steam in the 
 lantern-light. 
 
 On the back seat of the carriage lay a figure stretched at 
 full length. The light of the lantern fell on a pale haggard 
 face — it was Arthur. 
 
 " What has happened to him ? " I asked. 
 
 Hans asked no question : he knew what had happened 
 when a young man, who has never learned to control himself; 
 lies stretched upon the back seat of a carriage in his return 
 from a picnic, and not all the turmoil of the unchained ele- 
 ments can awaken him from his stupid sleep. 
 
 " Never mind about him," said the driver ; " he is safe 
 enough." 
 
 " One of you must stay here," I said to the men with lan- 
 terns. " Forward, the rest ! " 
 
 We went on, the men, of whom there were five or six, 
 holding up their lanterns, and shouting all together at inter- 
 vals, calling all who might hear to try to get to us. 
 
 We were answered from different points ; it was now plain 
 that the whole company was widelv scattered. The car- 
 
59^ 
 
 Hammer atid Anvil. 
 
 riages alone had kept somewhat together ; and a minute 
 hiter I came upon another which had been overturned and 
 dashed to pieces by the maddened horses, so that we had no 
 difficulty in getting them clear of what remained of the har- 
 ness. Then we found the third, which had turned a little to 
 one side and stalled, sunk up to the axle in a marshy place, 
 and the driver had released the horses by cutting the traces. 
 
 It was a strange and weird-looking scene. The lightning 
 flashed so incessantly that we seemed enveloped in its awful 
 glare. Then the shouts and cries of the frightened excur- 
 sionists who came hurrying up from all sides, the swearing of 
 the coachmen and grooms, the snorting and struggling of the 
 scared horses, and amid all, the mutterings and long roll of 
 thunder, the whistling and shrieking of the gusts of wind 
 that every now and then swept with frightful fury over the 
 heath, and seemed to hold up the rain, of which only occa- 
 sional heavy drops smote me in the face ; the whole com- 
 pany, so far as they were now collected, resembling a party 
 about to be led to execution, the men with agitated features, 
 and the women pale as death, and all bearing abundant traces 
 of their wanderings about the heath and the miry ground. 
 
 But if it had been difficult to get them together, I now 
 found that it was impossible to keep them so. All were for 
 pushing on at once, Why waste a moment here ? All were 
 together. In an instant the rain would pour down in tor- 
 rents, the lanterns be put out, and what would become of 
 them then ? 
 
 " Forward, my friends, forward ! " screamed the steuerrath, 
 and Herr von Granow also shouted " Forward ! forward ! " 
 and in the next moment all had started. 
 
 Amid the indescribable confusion, the calling, shouting, 
 hurrying up and down of so many persons, I had found it 
 impossible to make sure whether really all, as they said, 
 were together ; but I knew that I had not seen her whom 
 alone I was looking for, nor had I seen Friiulein DufF. I 
 had imagined for some reason — perhaps I had heard some 
 one say it — that both ladies were in the fourth carriage, 
 which was behind the others, and reported to be safe ; but 
 as the company set out, with the lanterns in front, this fourth 
 carriage came up. 
 
 It was the commerzienrath's great family carriage. I 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 597 
 
 sprang to it and looked in. There was a pile of cloaks and 
 shawls which had been left behind in the hurry, and Frau- 
 lein Duff, leaning back in the corner, and looking at me, who 
 was half wild with anxiety, with eyes from which extreme 
 terror had banished all expression. In vain did I try to get 
 from her where she had left Hermine. She only muttered, 
 as if delirious, " Seek faithfully and thou shalt find," and 
 then broke into hysterical weeping. 
 
 Now Anthony, who had in the meantime been adjusting 
 the traces, told me that the young lady had sprung from the 
 carriage not ten minutes before, just as the lanterns came 
 near. He did not know why, for the young lady had not 
 been nearly so much frightened as the rest, and had a little 
 before said to Fraulein Duff that she might be sure she 
 would not forsake her. He thought she went over towards 
 the left, but he was not sure, for he had had hard work to 
 manage the horses, that had been quiet enough all along, 
 but now could not be kept still. 
 
 With this he mounted his seat and started to follow the 
 others. I called to him and ordered him to stop ; but either 
 he did not or would not hear me, or else he could not hold 
 the horses any longer — be that as it might, the next minute 
 I was alone, while the company with the lanterns, under 
 Hans's guidance, kept their way across the heath towards the 
 woods. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 I WAS about to hurry after them, and compel them to give 
 me some assistance, when a flash of lightning of unusual 
 vividness showed me the hillock or " giant's barrow " 
 which lay about a hundred paces from where I stood, and 
 which I had not perceived before. Whether I expected to 
 get a wider range of vision from its top, or whether it was an 
 mstinctive impulse, or both, I do not know, but in the next 
 moment I was at the foot of the hillock among the great 
 stones. Another dazzling flash, and a shudder seized me, 
 and my hair began to rise on my head. There, on the top, 
 
598 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 by the hazel-bushes that were bent and lashfed by the storm, 
 surrounded by a spectral light, stood with loose-flying hair 
 the unhappy girl looking out for her lover who was drowned 
 in the morass. In an instant the pitchy darkness closed 
 again, and a crash of thunder drowned my sudden cry. 
 Had I lost my senses ? And instantly, while yet the thun- 
 der crashed and the thick darkness surrounded me, it flashed 
 upon me like a heavenly revelation, and my heart gave a 
 great throb, and I gave a shout of joy, and in a moment I 
 was at the top and had found her and lifted her in my arms 
 and shouted again, and she wound her arms around me and 
 clung to my breast, so close ! so close ! and 1 kneeled before 
 her and she leaned over me and said : 
 
 " Quick, quick, here in the dark where I do not see you ; 
 I love you ! I love you ! " 
 
 " And I love you ! " 
 
 " None but me ? " 
 
 " None but you ! " 
 
 " None but me ! none but me ! And if the earth should 
 open now and swallow us both — none but me ? " 
 
 " None, none ! " 
 
 Again came a flash illuminating everything for a moment 
 with the brightness of day, and she laughed and rejoiced 
 aloud and threw herself into my arms crying : 
 
 " Now I see you : now I can look at you ! Oh how lovely 
 this is ! How beautiful you are ! Now carry me down the 
 hill as far as the stones. Now let me go, my strong one, my 
 hero, everything to me !" 
 
 " Let me carry you further ; I can do it easily." 
 
 " I know you can : else would I love you so much ? But 
 now let me go ; you must not think me a weakling." 
 
 I let her glide from my arms upon one of the great stones : 
 she laid her hands upon my shoulders, and I saw for a mo- 
 ment her sweet defiant face and her eyes that flashed as if 
 with indignation, as she said in a firm voice : 
 
 " Never forget that I am not weak like other women ; and 
 if you had not come to look for me here — yes, if you had 
 not found me, I would have drowned myself here in the mo- 
 rass ; and I will drown myself the moment you cease to love 
 me. And now come !" 
 
 She threw herself on my breast and glided from my arras 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 599 
 
 to the ground, and we went hand in hand over the heath, 
 the incessant lightnings showing us the pathless way, while 
 the thunder rolled, and the rain which had been delaying so 
 long came down first in heavy warm drops, and then in tor- 
 rents. What cared we for the storm and the rain? What 
 cared we that we were alone upon the heath ? 
 
 This was, indeed, our crowning joy : for me, to know that 
 I had both the right and power to protect her, and that I had 
 in truth the strength, had there been need, to carry my be- 
 loved to Trantowitz and to Zehrendorf ; for her, to be thus 
 protected by him she had loved so long, who now was all her 
 own, and all had happened just as her wayward heart and 
 romantic fancy desired. And now all came from her lips, in 
 broken confused phrases, in thoughts and fancies that gleamed 
 and vanished like the lightnings around us, now awakening 
 one memory and now another, just as the objects around us 
 momently flashed out the darkness and vanished into it 
 again ; the brown heath, the glimmering moor-water, and in 
 the forest the bushes to the right and left and the gigantic 
 trunks of the trees whose great boughs were wildly tossed 
 hither and thither by the blast, with a crashing and groaning 
 and roaring as if the world were coming to an end. But the 
 wilder the uproar about us, the more she exulted, and laughed 
 with delight when in the noise we could no longer understand 
 each other's words. She even grew angry when after we 
 had nearly traversed the woods, two lanterns appeared mov- 
 ing rapidly in our direction. 
 
 " Let us run off," she said, seriously, and then clapped her 
 hands, and we now heard " Hallo ! Hallo ! " in the good 
 Hans's powerful voice. 
 
 " It is he ! " she cried ; " my good Hans, my dear Hans, 
 my best Hans ! He shall hear it first No one has a better 
 right." 
 
 And now came up Hans, who had hurried on ahead of the 
 two grooms, holding his lantern high to let the light fall on 
 our faces, and again shouting " Hallo ! " with all the strength 
 of his lungs, but this time for joy that he had found us so 
 happily — so happily that he set his lantern on the ground 
 and shook both Hermine's hands and then mine, and then 
 hers again and then mine again, all the time saying " So, so ! 
 that is right ! so, so ! " as if we were a pair of young head- 
 
6oo Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 strong horses, with which he had had great trouble, but had 
 brought to reason at last. 
 
 The two grooms had now come up. " Poor fellows," said 
 Hermine, "they must have pleased faces too. Give me 
 quick what you have ; and you too Hans, giye me all you* 
 have, both of you ! " 
 
 I emptied my purse — there was not much in it — into her 
 hands, and Hans rummaged his pockets and found some 
 crumpled notes which she took and gave the two men who 
 stood open-mouthed, not knowing what to think. A couple 
 of thalers fell on the ground, and the men said " It would be 
 a sin to leave the good money lying there," so commenced 
 to look for it, while we three hastened on, and Hans 
 informed us that the whole company was at his house, and 
 that he had harnessed up his farm-wagons — the only vehicles 
 he had — to take them to Zehrendorf, whither he had sent 
 already a messenger on horseback to have preparation made. 
 
 " We will both go, will we not, George ? " said Hermine. 
 " Everybody will open their eyes, of course. It will be a 
 droll sight, and I am just in the humor for it. O, I am so 
 happy, so happy ! " 
 
 It was indeed a droll sight that presented itself to us as 
 we entered the ruinous old mansion of Trantowitz. In the 
 wide bare hall, in Hans's narrow sitting-room, even in the 
 sanctuary of his bed-room, in the kitchen, which was entered 
 from the hall, the unlucky excursionists were rambling and 
 pushing about, calling, scolding, crying, laughing, according 
 as they were more or less able to accommodate themselves 
 to the situation. To the more able belonged without ques- 
 tion Fritz von Zarrentin and his little wife, who were alto- 
 gether the joUiest, most comfortable, and at the same time 
 most good-natured people in the world, though in the storm 
 they had not distinguished themselves by their courage any 
 more than the rest. But now Fritz, who was in the kitchen 
 brewing a bowl of punch with the assistance of the cook, 
 boasted of the heroic deeds he had performed in the course 
 of the evening, and his brisk little merry wife busied herself 
 about the ladies, who were all in the very worst of humors, 
 and to say the truth, in pitiable plight. 
 
 The Born Kippenreiter sat in Hans's high-backed chair, 
 like a queen who had been hurled from her throne by a 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 60 1 
 
 storm of revolution, her false hair plucked off, and the rouge 
 all washed from her cheeks. Upon the sofa sat the two Ele- 
 onoras, locked in each other's arms and weeping freely on 
 each other's bosom, without any one, themselves probably 
 included, having the least idea of what it was about ; unless 
 it was for their soaked straw hats and drenched clothing, 
 which had changed the virginal whiteness of *the morning, 
 for a color to which no name could be assigned. The stout 
 Frau von Granow was standing before Fraulein Duff, who 
 was crouching half insensible upon Hans's boot-box, proving 
 to her that on such occasions it was the first duty of every 
 one to look out for himself; and that if Fraulein Hermine 
 was really drowned in the morass, nobody of any sense would 
 lay the slightest blame upon her, the governess. 
 
 '" No, Duffy, not the slightest blame ! " cried Hermine, 
 who, coming in with us at this moment through the door 
 which was standing open, had caught the last word. *' Duffy ! 
 dear, darling Duffy ! " 
 
 And the excited girl fell on the neck of her faithful old 
 governess, and embraced and kissed her with a flood of pas- 
 sionate tears. 
 
 If a sensitive nature like Fraulein Duff's had needed any 
 further explanation of the meaning of these caresses and 
 these tears, she found it now in the appearance of a tall form 
 that stood in the doorway and looked at the group with flash- 
 ing eyes. She reached out both arms to him, and cried out, 
 oblivious of by-gone troubles : 
 
 " Richard, did I not tell you, * Seek faithfully and you 
 will find ? ' " 
 
 This speech, which the worthy lady had delivered in the 
 tone of a herald announcing the result of a tournament, fell 
 like a bombshell among the company. The two Eleonoras 
 unclasped each other and looked in each other's face, and 
 the second let her head fall upon the shoulder of the first, 
 murmuring something of which I only caught the words — 
 " the traitor ! " 
 
 This was perhaps, all things considered, a moving picture, 
 but a frightful one was offered us by the Born. The fore- 
 boding of imminent misfortune had been lying upon her low 
 wrinkled brow, her hollow rouged cheeks, in her glassy 
 snake-like eyes ; she had seen it coming on all day. In vain 
 26 
 
6o2 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 had she tried with her maternal arms to protect her dear son 
 against the shafts of ill-temper which the proud angry girl 
 launched against him ; in vain had Arthur tried to quaff 
 from the bowl of pine-apple punch fresh courage in so sore 
 a strait, and new fortitude to sustain him under his trials — 
 the bolt had fjiUen, and the wreck was here before her eyes, 
 before the eyes of the Born Baroness Kippenreiter, the 
 mother of the most charming of sons, the aunt of this un- 
 grateful creature. It was too much I The dethroned queen 
 sprang to her feet, trembling in every limb, hurled — she was 
 speechless with indignation — a crushing look at Hermine, 
 who threw herself, laughing, into my arms, and tottered to 
 the room where the bowed-down father was watching by the 
 bed of his hopeful heir, whose wretched soul was not in a 
 condition to comprehend what he and his house had irrevoc- 
 ably lost. 
 
 Away sad visions, and disturb not the bright memory of 
 that happy evening. I will not banish you altogether — nay, 
 I know that I cannot if I would ; but crowd not upon me 
 thus ! Strive not to make me believe that it is for you that 
 we live. You must be it is true, and well for him that com- 
 prehends it, and keeps in his firm breast a fearless laugh to 
 mock you away when you will not be thrust aside. You 
 must be ; but it is not for the sake of the black earth that 
 clings to its tender roots that we take up the rose of love, 
 bear it home in our bosom, plant it in a calm sunny place, 
 and watch and tend and treasure it as best we can. Who 
 knows how long we can ! 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 WHO knows how long we can ! Perhaps not long ; 
 perhaps but a short, far too short a time. It is a 
 melancholy word, but unhappily the right word to 
 open the record of this part of my life which I begin with a 
 hesitating hand. It was not my intention, when I deter- 
 mined to write this narrative, to cast any further gloom upon 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 603 
 
 the spirits of my readers, who have in all likelihood them- 
 selves borne their own share of life's sorrows. It was not 
 my aim to dampen their courage in life's battles, when I re- 
 lated how the youth had erred by his folly, and how he suf- 
 fered the penalty; I rather hoped to infuse into them the 
 spirit of delight in active life, the faculty of enduring and 
 forbearing ; and thus we may together live over in memory 
 the hard fortune which was yet to be the lot of the man. 
 The reader, who has by this time perhaps grown to be my 
 friend, may follow me without fear on my path of life. 
 
 And first into the room of the commerzienrath, which I 
 entered the following morning at ten o'clock with a heart 
 possibly not perfectly at ease, but not at all fearful. But I 
 would not have advised any timid person to cross this man's 
 path this morning, as he ran up and down his room like a 
 madman, then stopped before me and surveyed me with in- 
 furiated looks, again raged about the room, and then stopped 
 and cried : 
 
 " So ! You want to marry my daughter, do you ? " 
 
 " It is a wish which had nothing alarming about it ten 
 years ago, Herr Commerzienrath. Do you not remember, 
 on the deck of the Penguin, the day we went out to the 
 ovster-beds ? " 
 
 " Do not try any impertinence with me ! I ask you once 
 more ; you — ^you have the audacity to aim at being: mv son- 
 in-law ? " 
 
 " Excuse me, Herr Commerzienrath ; your first question 
 was whether I wanted to marry your daughter." 
 
 " That is the same thing." 
 
 " You are quite right ; and therefore you would perhaps 
 do better Herr Commerzienrath, to consider me now your 
 son-in-law— or we will say, son-in-law that is to be — ^and 
 treat me accordingly." 
 
 I said this in a very grave firm tone, which I knew from 
 experience seldom failed of its effect upon the really pusil- 
 lanimous nature of the man. Instinctively he stepped back 
 a couple of paces out of my reach, seated himself in his 
 chair, adopted a sneering tone instead of his air of contempt- 
 uous indignation, and said in his driest business voice : 
 
 " I understand thertf Herr George Hartwig, that you do me 
 the honor to ask the hand of my daughter Hermine. The 
 
6o4 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 first points then to be considered, are the nature of your 
 pretensions, the position you occupy in the world, and, in a 
 word, your personal relations generally. You are, as far as 
 I know, the son of a subaltern official, a young man who in 
 his youth did no good, and for a horrible crime was punished 
 
 with eight years " 
 
 " Seven years, Herr Commerzienrath " 
 
 " Counting the preliminary detention, and disciplinary 
 
 punishment, eight years in the penitentiary " 
 
 " Imprisonment, Herr Commerzienrath " 
 
 " Who, thanks to the remissness or connivance of the au- 
 thorities " 
 
 My papers are all in order, Herr Conunerzienrath- 
 
 " Learned the rudiments of blacksmithing for a few months 
 in my factory, and now with the respectable capital of " 
 
 " Fifty thalers cash, and a hundred and sixty thalers out- 
 standing debts which I shall never collect " 
 
 " And, I may add with future prospects corresponding ; 
 for as to what you told me day before yesterday of his high- 
 ness's proposition to you, I do not attach any weight to them 
 at all — ^you then, such a man as this, with such a past, such 
 a position, such means, and such prospects, desire to marry 
 the daughter of Commerzienrath Streber." 
 
 " To have your permission to address her, Herr Commer- 
 zienrath." 
 
 " My future father-in-law shot from under his bushy brows 
 a searching look at my face, which probably assured him 
 that his attempt to humiliate me availed as little as his for- 
 mer attempt to intimidate. He had to open another register. 
 He rested his bald forehead in his hand, enveloped himself 
 in a thick black cloud of silence, from which he suddenly 
 snapped at me with the sharply spoken question : 
 
 " But if I were really not the millionaire, not the wealthy 
 man you and every one have hitherto considered me — how 
 then, sir ; how then "i " 
 
 The commerzienrath had sprung to his feet, and was 
 standing before me, as I had taken my seat fronting him, 
 with his hands on his back, bending forward, and his keen 
 eyes piercing into mine. 
 
 " The circumstances would then bi^ as far as I am con- 
 cerned, precisely what they were before ; especially as your 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 605 
 
 vaunted wealth has long been a matter of serious doubt with 
 me, Herr Commerzienrath." 
 
 His piercing glances plunged into watery and uncertain 
 mist, as he threw himself back in his chair, smote the arms 
 of it with his hands, broke out into a crowing laugh ending 
 in a coughing-fit, and between laughing and coughing cried : 
 
 " That is too good ! — ^this young fellow — matter of serious 
 doubt with him — long been so — ^it is too good ! really too 
 good ! " 
 
 The coughing fit became so alarming that I sprang up and 
 began to pat the old man's back. Suddenly he seized my 
 hands and said in a lamentable lachrymose tone : 
 
 " George, my dear boy, it is my only, child ! You do not 
 know what that is ; the comfort, the joy of a feeble old man 
 who may die to-morrow ! And you will not even wait those 
 few hours ? Oh, it is cruel, cruel ! Have I lived to see 
 this ! " 
 
 Cassandra hit the mark indeed when she said that " it was 
 hard to fathom the wiles of this lab)rrinthine old man." He 
 had kept his grand stroke for the last If I could not be 
 intimidated or humiliated, I might perhaps be melted ; and 
 I was really touched, and said, while I pressed the stumpy 
 withered hands I was holding in my own — " I will not rob 
 you of your child." 
 
 " You really will not ? God bless you !" cried the com- 
 merzienrath, springing from his chair as if touched by a gal- 
 vanic battery. " You are a man of your word : I have 
 always known you such. I hold you to your word." 
 
 " When you have heard the whole of it, Herr Commerz- 
 ienrath. I say, I will not rob you of your child, because 
 Hermine, though my wife, will not cease to love and to honor 
 her father as she now does, and because you will gain a good 
 son in me, whom you will have great need of if you are no 
 longer wealthy, and in the other case perhaps still more. I 
 think that I have already proven to you that I know other 
 things besides the rudiments of blacksmithing, and perhaps 
 enough to make up for my deficiency of fortune." 
 
 The "labyrinthine old man" gave me a look in which I 
 plainly read that he had reached the end of his windings. 
 It is very likely that at no time had he a serious intention 
 flatly to reject my proposal, for 1 think I can safely say that 
 
6o6 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 as he had always lacked courage to offer any determined re- 
 sistance to his proud wilful daughter assuredly he would not 
 have had it now, when she confronted him with the trium- 
 phant knowledge that she was beloved with a love equal to 
 her own. But it was not in the nature of the man to grant 
 anything, be it what it might, as a man of an honorable 
 spirit would do, frankly and squarely, without chaffering and 
 higgling. So he had chaffered and higgled, and continued 
 doing so, and hiding his real thoughts and wishes from me, 
 until, when I parted from him after an hour's conversation, 
 I was more in the dark as to all that I wished to know, and 
 as to the state of his affairs, than I had been before. But 
 one point I had attained and made clear beyond any possi- 
 bility of a doubt, that Hermine was to be my wife ; and as 
 this, as every one will admit, was the main point, I thought 
 I was not acting very inconsiderately if I took all the other 
 contingencies very lightly indeed. 
 
 It had never been difficult for me to do this, even in the 
 gloomiest passages of my life, and how could it be so now 
 when I was so happy ? How could the envious, hypocriti- 
 cally-friendly glances of others embitter my happiness when 
 I saw the light of love and joy in Hermine's wonderful blue 
 eyes ? And yet such glances were not wanting, nor the 
 phrases with which they are usually accompanied. 
 
 " I always knew it, and have often enough said to your 
 late excellent father, my dear friend and colleague, that you 
 would win distinction some day. Yes, yes, dear George — . 
 I may still call you by that old familiar name, may I not ? 
 — ^my prophecy has come to pass, though otherwise than I 
 had expected. Well, well, so it had to be ; and probably, 
 all things considered, it is well that it is as it is. You have 
 always been a good man whose hand was ever open to the 
 distressed. You will not withdraw this generous hand from 
 an old man who looks to you as his last hope ? " And the 
 steuerrath applied the finger on which glittered the immense 
 signet to the inner corner of his left eye, and passed his 
 cambric handkerchief over his pale aristocratic face. 
 
 " I have always held you up as a pattern to my Arthur," 
 said the Born : " Do you not remember the times when you 
 both went to school together and the teachers were always 
 full of your praises ? Ah ! I can see you now, two wild high- 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 607 
 
 spirited boys, always clinging faithfully together, and each 
 ready to go through anything for the other. ' That it might 
 always be so ! ' I often sighed from the depths of a mother's 
 heart, for I felt how greatly my good easy-natured Arthur 
 would need his strong thoughtful friend. My presentiment 
 has become a reality. May heaven have h^ard my prayer ; 
 may you, dear George, never forget what he has once been 
 to you ; may you never forget the companion of your happy 
 youth ! " 
 
 And the Born pressed convulsively both my hands, and 
 raised her face as near as possible to mine, as if she wished 
 to afford me an opportunity once for all to gain a thorough 
 knowledge of her whole apparatus of false hair, teeth, colors, 
 expression and looks. 
 
 " I heard yesterday what a lucky fellow you are, as you 
 have always been," said Arthur. " Lucky in everything, but 
 luckiest of all with women. You could always turn them 
 round your finger, you scamp. Don't you remember the 
 dancing-lessons, and Annie Lachmund, Elise Kohl, and 
 Emilie ? Ha ! ha ! ha ! Emilie ! Don't you remember the 
 quarrel we had about her on the Penguin ? Poor girl ! 
 There she goes, arm in arm with Elise, bewailing the ship- 
 wreck of her hopes. I shall have to take up with the poor 
 thing myself : an ex-lieutenant, ex-secretary of legation, who 
 is also ex in pretty much everything else, must naturally be 
 content with anything." 
 
 And Arthur laughed bitterly, smote his brow with his fist, 
 and added that though he might not be worth much, he 
 supposed he was worth as much powder as would end his 
 miseries. 
 
 Emilie Heckepfennig had been for departing the next 
 morning and fleeing the sight of the traitor, but remained 
 notwithstanding, either because the scene of her ill-fortune 
 had more attractions for her than she was disposed to admit, 
 or else because the justizrath,. who had not yet returned 
 from Uselin, had written to her that she must on no account 
 leave until he returned. So in the meantime the lorn maiden 
 went about as if she was to serve the most sentimental of 
 artists as a model for a resignation, leaning perpetually upon 
 the arm of her friend, so that one could not enough admire 
 the physical strength of the latter lady, who, as well known, 
 
6o8 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 • had been pining into the grave for twenty years. At times 
 she looked at me with the eyes of a dying gazelle, and at 
 others cast me a look in which was plainly written " You 
 will repent it some day." 
 
 That I did not misinterpret the meaning of this glance, I 
 was convinced by a conversation to which the justizrath in 
 a mysteriously confidential way invited me a few days aftei 
 his return. The worthy man shook my hand again and 
 again, assured me that m}' great coup, as he phrased it, would 
 make no alteration in his friendship, then rubbed up the 
 crest of hair which stood erect upon his head like a cock's- 
 comb, assumed an important air — I knew this air well from 
 the time of my old examination — and said : 
 
 " Young man ! Excuse me — I mean, my dear young 
 friend ! Young as you are, life has already taught you that 
 everything has two sides ; and that all is by no means gold 
 that glitters. If you will allow an old and true friend of 
 your family to give you a counsel which it is my most sin- 
 cere belief you will do well to follow, and which in any event 
 is honestly meant, accept the proposal that his highness has 
 made you, under any condition ! under any condition ! " 
 
 He wished to leave me after saying this, but I held him 
 back and said : " You must feel, Herr Justizrath, that I am 
 compelled to ask you for a more definite explanation of 
 advice which strikes me as rather singular, coming from you." 
 
 " Ask me nothing more," said the justizrath, with a dep- 
 recatory gesture. 
 
 " You have asked me in your time so many things, and so 
 much more than was agreeable to me, that a little retaliation 
 may be allowed me, I think," I answered smiling. 
 
 " Would you ask an old lawyer to reveal business secrets 
 intrusted to him professionally ?" said the justizrath, and the 
 cock's-comb trembled with the conflict of his feelings. 
 
 I was resolved not to be put off in this way, and I said : 
 
 " I will meet you half-way, Herr Justizrath. I have rea- 
 sons for believing that the commerzienrath's affairs are far 
 from being so prosperous as is commonly believed ; and if 
 you are so discreet as to withhold the grounds of advice 
 which can only have one interpretation, the prince did not 
 exercise the same reticence when he made me the offer you 
 allude to." 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 609 
 
 The justizrath looked as if he was himself a sacrifice to 
 his own inquisitorial genius, and saw no escape but in mak- 
 ing a full and free confession. 
 
 "I will tell you but a single fact," he said. " Last Friday 
 the commerzienrath went with me into the city to raise 
 money on his paper to the extent of about a hundred 
 thousand thalers, and I ran with these from post to pillar, 
 until at last Moses in the Water street took them at a very 
 short date for a very high discount Sapimti sat, as we 
 Latinists say 1" 
 
 And the justizrath brushed his comb with both hands to 
 its most imposing height, and moved toward the door, but 
 stopped when he had reached it, came back a few steps, and 
 said with the air of a man who can not tear himself from the 
 grave where all his hopes lie buried : 
 
 " Do not think the worse of me that I have allowed myself 
 to be seduced into a breach of confidence which is equally 
 foreign to my position, my ^e, and I may add, my character. 
 I have only told you what you will probably soon learn from 
 other sources, and in any event must know before long ; and 
 George" — here the justizrath sighed, and then painfully 
 smiled — " George, what you may not forgive to the hard- 
 pressed man of business, you will perhaps forgive the father. 
 I also have but one daughter, and am, heaven be thanked, a 
 wealthy man." 
 
 The wealthy man who also had an only daughter, went out 
 of the door at the moment that William entered it with a let- 
 ter which the postman had just brought, the seal of which I 
 broke with trembling hands. 
 
 " My dear George, my brother : Then it has at last come 
 to pass what I have so long desired and hoped ; and, since 
 your happiness would hardly be perfect without it, let me add 
 my wreath to the rest I have entwined in it all the kind 
 and loving wishes that one human soul can cherish for an- 
 other, all the blessings that spring firom the depths of my 
 heart for you, for you, my friend, my brother, our brother, for 
 the young ones too now come to their eldest and bow before 
 him, now that he is crowned as he deserves. Wear it proudly, 
 your beauteous crown, and may never a hand touch it less 
 holy than that of her who now lays her hand on my shoul- 
 ders and bends her face over the paper that her eyes can no 
 26* 
 
6io . Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 longer see, and says softly to me — ' He still remains to us 
 what he always was.' " 
 
 This letter also bears traces of tears, but they were my 
 eyes that wept them, and they were tears of joy. And when 
 I raised my grateful looks towards heaven, the cloud had van- 
 ished, the one cloud that had darkened my sky, and all was 
 as bright as the vernal heavens that stretched in splendor 
 over land and sea. 
 
 Happy, radiant days were these, which now seem to me as 
 if there had been no night at all and no darkness, but ever 
 day and light and bliss. There were not too many of these 
 days, and it was perhaps well that it was so. Which of us 
 mortals, however great his powers, can long feast with im- 
 punity at the table of the gods ? 
 
 But many or few, ye shall be held sacred in memory, ye 
 happy hours, and sacred shall be held whatever was associ- 
 ated with you and enhanced your sweetness. The bright 
 sun, the rustling woods through which I walked at the side 
 of the beloved one, the twilight fields through which we 
 strolled, the sky larks that singing soared into the blue ether 
 until they were lost to sight, and the sweet nightingales that 
 tried to persuade me that they were happier than we. 
 
 Yes, all shall be sacred and precious in memory, for the 
 memory is all that is left to me of those happy days. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 UPON these happy days, whose number I cannot even 
 give — for who counts days like these ?-^followed 
 others that were as full of unrest and intervals of 
 gloom, as those were of calm and sunlight. 
 
 We were all in Berlin : the commerzienrath, my betrothed, 
 Fraulein Duff, and myself ; the commerzienrath staying at a 
 hotel with the ladies, I in my old den once more' in the ruin- 
 ous court, where my presence was now more necessary than 
 ever. To be sure, it was not so in the eyes of Hermine, 
 who laughingly maintained that as the rubbish had lain there 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 6ii 
 
 so long already, it might well lie awhile longer ; but I thought 
 differently. There was really no time to be lost. I had 
 partly persuaded and partly forced the commerzienrath, by 
 long and urgent conversations, to agree to undertake my 
 favorite scheme. The plan of the building had been long 
 complete in my head, and now, with the help of a skilful arch- 
 itect, was complete upon paper. There was both less and 
 more to do than I had thought ; but we had arrived at the 
 conclusion that we could get through with the main part of 
 the work by autumn, and be able to work in the new build- 
 ings in the winter, always supposing that the necessary funds 
 did not fail us. In reference to this last critical point, I was 
 only half informed ; by no fault of my own, however, as de- 
 spite all my efforts I had not been able to bring the commer- 
 zienrath to a clear statement of his affairs. Even now I 
 cannot think, without a feeling of pain and shame, of the in- 
 terminable debates I had with him upon this point, from 
 which I sometimes left him full of confidence and hope, and 
 at other times weighed down with doubts and cares. Could 
 he command the necessary funds 1 Of course he could, and 
 it was ridiculous to doubt it for a moment. Had he really 
 maturely reflected upon a determination which involved so 
 much ? Of course he had. Did I take him to be in his do- 
 tage, or suppose that he did not understand his own wishes t 
 That was a ticklish question to which, for very intelligible 
 reasons, I did not care to answer " yes " to his face, and yet 
 to which, in my own breast, I could scarcely find another 
 answer. It was plain that he was no longer the man he had 
 been, the man he must have been to hold the threads of a 
 hundred heavy and important undertakings at once, and draw 
 his profit and advantage from all. In some moments he 
 seemed to have a consciousness of the change that had come 
 over him, but he then did not complain of himself but of the 
 times which had changed, so that his old theories were no 
 longer applicable. His old theories, and he might have 
 added his old practices and his old tricks. All his life long 
 the man had been a partisan of fortune, a buccaneer upon 
 the high seas of trafiSc and life, a free-lance upon the long 
 caravan route to El Dorado, a gamester at the green-table 
 of chance, who had often staked copper pence for gold 
 pieces, and, favored by fortune and time, gathered in gold 
 
6i2 Hammer and Anvil.. 
 
 pieces for copper pence. And now the time, as he clearly 
 felt, had changed, and his lucl^ had left him. He did not 
 deny that he had suffered great losses, but took care never 
 to state how great these losses really were. He had never 
 insured either his ships or their cargoes, and, as he said, had 
 always found his advantage in doing so. But lately two had 
 gone down with all on board, and though he attached no 
 great importance to this latter feature of the calamity, he 
 felt severely the loss of the cargoes, which were unusually 
 valuable. Then again a sudden fall in the price of breadstuffs 
 had reduced by one-half the value of his immense stocks in 
 his warehouses at Uselin, and then the failure of his hope 
 of selling Zehrendorf, as the young prince, whose father still 
 lay very ill at Prora, seemed to have given up all thoughts of it, 
 and for which Herr von Granow, who had before been all agog 
 to purchase, now declined to make any offer — as I suspected, 
 at the instigation of the justizrath, who seemed to know 
 more of his client's affairs, and to be less scrupulous in using 
 his knowledge, than was by any means favorable to the in- 
 terests of the latter. Other things were also added. The 
 long and tortuous channel leading between the island and 
 the firm land to Uselin, had, in consequence of the disgrace- 
 ful neglect of the authorities, silted up to such a degree that 
 it was now only passable for vessels of very light draught, 
 and the danger of its complete closure seemed scarcely 
 avoidable. Thus the traffic of the town, the greater part of 
 which had been in the hands of the commerzienrath, was as 
 good as destroyed ; the large docks which he had repaired 
 at his own private expense in part, his immense warehouses 
 and other buildings, had partly become entirely worthless, 
 and the remainder greatly dejjreciated in value.. For sev- 
 eral years trade had turned to the much more favorably situ- 
 ated town of St. , and now, since this town had been 
 
 connected with the capital and the interior by the railroad, 
 Uselin could no longer contend with its more fortunate rival. 
 The commerzienrath quite lost his self-control every time he 
 came upon this topic ; he declared railroads to be an inven- 
 tion of the devil, and asseverated that it was a sin and a 
 shame to ask him to assist with his own funds the diabolical 
 system that was ruining him. When I f)ointed out to him 
 that the bane might be made the antidote, that he must turn 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 613 
 
 the altered position of affairs to his own advantage, and that 
 he was in a situation to do this on the largest scale if we only 
 carried resolutely out my plan for extending our works, he 
 caught at this idea, which had seemed so hateful a moment 
 before, with the greatest enthusiasm, but only to go over the 
 same ground the next day. 
 
 These were trying weeks, and the dark shadow which they 
 threw still darkens in my memory the sunshine which, 
 heaven be thanked, even at this time brightened so many 
 of my hours. 
 
 With what unalloyed pleasure do I recall my return to the 
 works, which really resembled a triumphal procession ! Now 
 I reaped the reward of having been always, whatever the 
 changes of my fortune, on brotherly terms with my comrades 
 of the hammer and file, that I had omitted no opportunity 
 of promoting their welfare and being serviceable to them 
 with head and hand. No distinction nor success in later 
 days — and my life has not been passed without a share of 
 both — has ever made me so proud as the certain knowledge 
 that among all these men with the knotted callous hands 
 and the grave faces furrowed with toil and too often with 
 care, there was not a single one who grudged me my good 
 fortune, and that by far the most rejoiced in it with all their 
 hearts. I still see them before me — and often has the mem- 
 ory brightened ray hours of dejection — their friendly eyes 
 lighted with sincere pleasure, as they looked at the " Malay " 
 going, escorted by the manager, through the shops, and pre- 
 senting himself to them privately in friendly confidence as 
 their new chief. I still hear the cheers they gave when a 
 day or two later I had them officially assembled and made 
 them a speech, in which I said in few words what filled 
 my heart to overflowing. And when the triple cheer had 
 died away, with what importance the head-foreman cleared 
 his throat as he commenced a reply, in which the worthy 
 man's favorite theme, "Go ahead !" was treated with the 
 boldest license of speech, and the peroration of which was 
 lost without a trace in the primitive forest of his whiskers 
 and in the emotion he could not master. And was it not 
 the good Klaus whose voice intoned another outburst of 
 cheering, compared with which the first both in length and 
 vehemence, was mere child's play ? I have to laugh even 
 
6i4 
 
 Hamrner and Anvil. 
 
 now when I think of the confusion in which I was plunged 
 when an hour later the Technical Bureau, in white cravats 
 and gloves, waited upon me in a body, and its speaker, Herr 
 Windfang, compared me to the Khalif of Bagdad, who for a 
 long time had lived unknown among his faithful subjects, 
 and at last took the lofty station which belonged to him of 
 right. 
 
 Yes, these are bright and happy memories, all the brighter 
 and happier that the following years, so far from belying the 
 promises made then by sanguine hope, fulfilled them all in 
 abundant measure. At this very day, when I look at the 
 assembled force of workmen in the establishment, I see for 
 the most part the dear well-known faces of that time, not 
 grown any younger, it may be, by the lapse of years, but 
 none the less dear to me. And those whom I no longer see 
 — all but very few — hav^e been drawn off by that great rival 
 whom we name Death. 
 
 " But what sort of a bridegroom is a man who has nothing 
 but blast furnaces, pigs of iron, and frightful things of that 
 sort in his head ? " said Hermine, " and who knits his fore- 
 head into such ugly wrinkles ! Let me smooth them out " — 
 and she passed her hand over my brow and eyes — " If I had 
 known all this, I would never have fallen in love with you, 
 you sooty monster ! " And she threw herself in my arms 
 and whispered in my ear : " Tell me at once that you love 
 your old ugly workmen more than you do me, so that I may 
 know what I have to do." 
 
 " You have to go with me through the works to-day, and 
 to be nice and kind to the ugly men, and to me more than 
 all." 
 
 " And why to you ? " 
 
 " That they may see how happy I am." 
 
 " What is that to them ? " i 
 
 " It is a great deal to them." ' 
 
 "But what.?" 
 
 "It is the certainty that when they come to me to repre- 
 sent their distresses, they will find a man who is ready to 
 help if he can." 
 
 " I never knew anybody with such odd notions. When 
 shall we go ? " 
 
 "At once." 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 615 
 
 So we went through every part of the whole establishment, 
 Hermine opening great eyes of wonder and sometimes cling- 
 ing tight to my arm, but she was very kind and friendly to the 
 men, only a little cool and distant with the gentlemen of the 
 Technical Bureau — so cool and distant that Herr Windfang's 
 beautiful speech, which he had known by heart for a week, 
 stuck fast in his throat. 
 
 " Why were you so ungracious to the poor fellows ?" I 
 asked. 
 
 " Poor fellows ?" said Hermine, pettishly pouting. " They 
 did not look that way to me ; and Herr Windfang, or what- 
 ever his name is, struck me as a complete coxcomb. I did 
 not promise to be gracious to men of his stamp." 
 
 " But they belong to us." 
 
 " Nobody belongs to us. We belong to one another, you 
 to me and I to you : remember that once for all, if you 
 please !" 
 
 I laughed, but afterwards had some serious reflections on 
 a peculiarity of character in my betrothed, which struck me 
 not for the first time this morning. She interpreted the ex- 
 pression that we belonged to each other, quite literally, and 
 when she appeared to make an exception to it, it was only in 
 appearance, and always in favor of persons who were really 
 in need of help^ and to whom she could condescend as a 
 princess to her subjects. Towards such she could behave 
 with proud, but perfectly irresistible kindness. 
 
 I shall never forget how, upon the occasion of a little tour 
 that we made through the island in these first happy days, 
 and in which we visited the lonely village on the coast which 
 had played so memorable a part in my flight — how she sat 
 by the old sailor's widow, patted her brown wrinkled hands, 
 wiped the tears from her brown wrinkled face, and consoled 
 her with the assurance that her son would yet come back in 
 spite of all ; told her stories, which she invented at the mo- 
 ment, of sea-faring men who had returned laden with riches 
 after being supposed lost for ten or twenty years ; and how 
 in the meantime she must look upon us two as her children, 
 and that we would take care of her and make her comforta- 
 ble in her old age. So too when we went to Uselin she was 
 friendly beyond all my expectation to my sister, who had 
 recently increased her family for the seventh time. She 
 
6t6 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 gave presents to all the children, who were very far from 
 being either pretty or amiable, offered to be godmother to 
 the new-comer, and contrary to her custom did not ridicule 
 even the blundering attempts at politeness and clumsy obse- 
 quiousness of my brother-in-law. 
 
 " Poor people," she said : " Seven children and such a 
 little house and such a little father. How did you ever 
 manage to grow so big in that house, George, without knock- 
 ing a hole in the roof with your hard head ? And your father 
 was quite as tall as you, and had every bit as hard a head. 
 I don't wonder that you two could not get along together in 
 such a nutshell of a house. But we must take care of them, 
 George ; don't forget that." 
 
 And then again my good Klaus and his Christel with her 
 four children — a fifth was expected soon — had occasion to 
 rejoice in her kindness, though in a different fashion. She 
 had not shrunk from climbing the three interminable flights 
 of stairs, and getting Christel to initiate her into the more 
 recondite mysteries of the washing and ironing arts, nor from 
 listening to Klaus's long enumeration of his wife's virtues. 
 ^ Even if I were not compelled to like Klaus for his faithful- 
 ness to you, he would have captivated me by the way he 
 worships his pretty plump wife. There, George ; here's a 
 pattern for you to follow. For him the world began with 
 the moment when the waves cast up his Christel, who must 
 have been then just as fat and white and nice as she is now, 
 on the beach ; and if she should be so unfeeling as to die 
 before him, he would lie down and die too. And so will I 
 do, if you should die — " she added, and looked at me with 
 compressed lips, and angrily contracted brows. 
 
 Towards the poor, towards all who were dependent or 
 seemed so, her proud nature could be kind and condescend- 
 ing ; but all who wished to win her favor must make no pre- 
 tensions to my affections, claim no place in my heart which 
 she desired to dwell in and occupy alone. The lightest ap- 
 prehension that any one besides herself might take posses- 
 sion of what was hers alone, filled her with an alarm which 
 the vivacity of her nature could seldom long conceal, and 
 which found vent sometimes in gloomy anger, sometimes in 
 hot passionate tears. But how could I, beloved by this 
 proud beautiful creature, complain of what after all was but 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 617 
 
 an excess of that in which others daily exhibited so lamenta- 
 ble a deficiency ? No ; no word of complaint shall my pen 
 enter in these records of my life, as none ever passed your 
 lips, you good and noble hearts that loved me well, but 
 withdrew to one side lest an unguarded look might seem to 
 accuse her or myself 
 
 Hermine felt this and understood it ; and said sometimes, 
 when Paula or Doctor Snellius visited us so very seldom, 
 and her cheeks flushed while she said it : 
 
 " I ought to be ashamed to come thus between you and* 
 your friends ; it is ungenerous, it is mean, I know ; I know 
 it, George, but I cannot help it ; I cannot spare a crumb that 
 falls from the table of our love. If I could only live with you 
 on some lonely island, in the farthest seas, and some day an 
 earthquake came and the island sank in the waters, and no one 
 even knew of the spot where we had been so happy ! But here 
 among all these people for whom you have to care, who take 
 an interest in you or you in them, for whom you must work, 
 and, worse still, those who have no- claim of any sort upon 
 you, and take a cruel pleasure in coming about us, and ques- 
 tioning us, and watching us, as if we were on the world for 
 no other purpose. I already think with horror of Uselin, and 
 the curious looks of all the population, no one of whom can 
 spare himself the treat of seeing the great clever George 
 marry the little stupid Hermine. And then the celestial 
 weeping of the two Eleonoras, to one of whom you are a 
 traitor, you monster ! or Duffy's tears of joy when she hears 
 from the good pastor's mouth what she has known for eight 
 or nine years ! It is frightful ! Couldn't we slip into some 
 church about twilight and be married by a pastor, who would 
 see us both for the first, and, as far as I am concerned, for 
 the last time, and get for witnesses two or three old men or 
 women who might happen to be about, who would not know 
 us the next day, if they should meet us on the street ? " 
 
 I cannot say that this wish of Hermine's was very strongly 
 opposed to my own feelings — rather the contrary. But my 
 father-in-law declared that he felt it incumbent upon him as 
 the first citizen of Uselin, that his daughter's marriage 
 should take place in that town. He held to this with an 
 obstinacy which he was not wont to display to his daughter ; 
 and so we had to yield the point. 
 
6i8 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 Nor can I say that the fateful day proved by any means 
 so terrible as we had fancied it. The discourse of the good 
 pastor, who was the same that had officiated at my confirma- 
 tion, and must even then have been an aged man, was very 
 long and very rambling, it is true ; the St. Nicholas church 
 looked as bald and bare as ever, and the hundreds of eyes 
 that were all fixed immovably upon us, all with the identical 
 look as if we were presently to be executed before them, made 
 the bleak space by no means more comfortable ; the great 
 dinner at the commerzienrath's villa was pompous and cere- 
 monious to the last degree, and the healths and speeches a 
 little flat and stupid — all these facts I admit ; but then on 
 the other hand it was the church among the timber-work of 
 which I had performed so many neck-breaking gymnastic 
 feats, and from whose belfr)' I had so often gazed longingly 
 over land and sea into the blue distance ; and among the 
 indifferently-curious faces there was here and there one that 
 I should have been sorry to miss on this day ; and then the 
 day itself, one of the brightest days of summer, was so fair, 
 the sky so blue, with great white motionless clouds, the air 
 so crystal-clear, that the old town looked really young in the 
 splendid sunlight, and the threadbare uniforms of Luz and 
 Bolljahn, those energetic guardians of the peace, who had 
 held the youth of the streets assembled in front of the church 
 in check in a most masterly manner, seemed absolutely new ; 
 and in the harbor, where all the ships had run up their 
 colors, the bright pennons fluttered so gaily in the fresh east 
 wind ; and upon the wide expanse of waters the wavelets 
 were dancing so merrily, beyond the strait the white chalk- 
 cliffs of the island glittered so brightly, and upon the island 
 was Zehrendorf, for which we started as the sinking sun 
 began to tinge with red the edges of the white clouds. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 PERHAPS that isolated life which is the ideal of a 
 young married pair, when from any causes its realisa- 
 tion by an abode upon a desert island is found to be 
 impracticable, can nowhere be better realised than in a very 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 619 
 
 large, populous city. It all depends upon one's possessing 
 the secret of creating an isle here, past whose shores the 
 restless tides of social life roll away. The thorough mastery 
 of this art is greatly facilitated to the adept, when the great 
 world, as often happens, has no special motive to trouble 
 itself about him ; the heart of the mystery lies in the other 
 and harder condition, that he shall not trouble himself about 
 
 the world. 
 
 The first of these conditions had already been very satis- 
 factorily fulfilled in my case. The world had interested itself 
 amazingly little about the young machinist while he pursued 
 his laborious but valuable studies in the ruinous house stand- 
 ing in the ruinous court. He resembled at all points Les- 
 sing's wind-mill which went to nobody and nobody came to 
 it, and which simply ground the corn that was thrown into 
 the hopper. But now the case was very different ; that court 
 was no longer a wilderness of rubbish. The ruins had been 
 cleared away, or built up into stately buildings; the wall 
 which had separated the two lots was pulled down and the 
 old factory united with the new into a single great arena for 
 industry and activity. This was a great change, which was 
 much discussed, gladly welcomed by some, scornfully criti- 
 cised by others, but which still made scarcely so much talk 
 as the change in my own fortunes. 
 
 From the obscure chrysalis of an ordinary machinist, had 
 been developed that splendid butterfly, the ruling chief of 
 this great new establishment, and this enviable butterfly was 
 the son-in-law of a millionaire, the husband of a young wife 
 whose striking beauty excited the envy of women, the ad- 
 miration of men, and attracted the attention of all wherever 
 she appeared, To so notable a metamorphosis even the 
 blase, public of a metropolis could not be indifferent, and 
 when so remarkable a person, over whose past life there cir- 
 culated the most various and scarcely credible legends, 
 determines to baffle the curiosity directed to him from all 
 sides, he must understand and practise arts undreamed of 
 by him in his former obscure pupa-state. 
 
 I cannot say that in the practice of an art so new to me I 
 always succeeded, or was at all times favored by fortune. 
 
 After spending a fortnight at Zehrendorf, we had returned 
 to the city and rented a set of apartments by no means expen- 
 
620 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 sive, but still pleasant and roomy, the only objection I had to 
 which was that they lay too far from the factory, but which 
 by no means suited Hermine, who had always been accus- 
 tomed to having a house of her own. Now, as I knew and 
 shared Hermine's wish in this respect, I thought I would 
 please her, and at J:he same time realize a favorite dream of 
 my own, if with the assistance of my good friend the archi- 
 tect, I very quietly, but with as much expedition as possible, 
 restored the house I had so long occupied, to its original de- 
 sign, and by help of the old plan, turned it into a charming 
 little villa. I had to use an infinity of stratagems to keep 
 the secret a month, and I felt really childlike, as after return- 
 ing from a winter trip with Hermine to Zehrendorf, I found 
 everything complete and according to my wishes. In the 
 joy of my heart I embraced my friend the architect who had 
 shown himself so tasteful a decorator, and blessed the day 
 when I should bring Sermine from her hated city lodgings 
 to this little paradise. 
 
 " You dear boy," said Hermine, as on the day after her 
 return I showed her with triumph my new creation, "you 
 dear boy, that is all very pretty and nice, and in the summer, 
 for a couple of weeks or months which we have to pass in 
 this wretched town and not in Zehrendorf, it will be a very 
 nice place to stay ; but now, in the middle of winter — no, 
 George, it will never do ! It makes me shiver to think of it. 
 And then the great bare buildings around, and the tall 
 chimneys that look as if they would topple over on our 
 heads every minute — that one does lean a little — just look at 
 it — I could not sleep here a single night in peace. And you 
 are already too fond of the horrible noise and confusion 
 around us here, so that the thought will come into my head 
 that you might change into some frightful great machine 
 yourself. No, you must mix more among men, go into 
 society ; you must begin at last to have a little pleasure of 
 your life, you poor, overworked man ! And you can do this 
 better in our old lodgings ; so I think we will spend the win- 
 ter there. The rent is paid in advance, anyhow, and we 
 must be economical, as all young beginners should. Have 
 I not heard that out of your own distinguished mouth, sir? 
 And now put down your distinguished mouth and give me a 
 kiss, and that settles the matter." 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 62 1 
 
 Of course that settled the matter ; for I had really planned 
 the whole for Hermine's sake rather than my own. And if 
 she really wished to make a pleasure-trip or two from our 
 lonely island upon the sea of city life, I was certainly not 
 the man to say no. Indeed I saw perfectly that in my 
 present position I was in duty bound to perform certain 
 social duties, if not for my own pleasure, at least in the in- 
 terest of my business, and that I had already some derelic- 
 tions in this respect to make good. 
 
 So I returned without a sigh to our city-lodgings, and 
 while we were at dinner we drew up, with much merriment, 
 a list of tne influential persons upon whom, as Hermine said, 
 we would make our first social experiment. 
 
 I cannot say that this experiment was crowned with very 
 brilliant success. True we were most kindly met, and I for 
 my part took all possible pains — and as I flattered myself, not 
 unsuccessfully — to play^ the agreeable host \ and Hermine 
 had really no need to take pains to be the most charming 
 of the company. Upon this point there seemed, so far as a 
 young husband can judge in such a matter, to be but one 
 opinion. The gentlemen were full of sincere admiration of 
 her beauty, her manners, and whatever else is attractive in 
 a young and charming woman ; and if the admiration of the 
 other sex was not altogether so sincere, they knew how to 
 give it so enthusiastic an expression that it needed a much 
 readier wit than I could boast of to find always a fit answer 
 to all the handsome things that were whispered to me about 
 my wife. 
 
 " What makes you so charming ? " I used to say to her 
 sometimes, when we came home after one of these social ex- 
 periments, and Hermine was walking up and down our sit- 
 ting-room in her full evening dress, as she had a way of 
 doing, stopping now and then to strike a few chords on the 
 piano, while I leaned back in the rocking-chair smoking my 
 beloved cigar. 
 
 Then she would suddenly stop, and begin to take off the 
 company we had just left, in the most amusing and wittiest 
 style of caricature. There was Privy-Councillor Zieler, our 
 banker, who kept perpetually glancing down at three family- 
 orders at his button-hole, which had been graciously bestowed 
 on him by three small princely houses in return for his ser- 
 
622 ^ Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 vices in negotiating a loan for them ; there came his lady 
 rustling along in the heaviest of satins, her snub nose turned 
 up to the chandeliers, in whose light the diamonds that 
 decked her bosom glanced so splendidly ; and behind the 
 corpulent mamma floated the sylph-like daughter, all gauze 
 and Ess. Bouquet and fond memories of the three court- 
 balls at the three princely houses. Here was the Railroad 
 Director Schwelle, who would not talk before supper, in 
 order not to excite himself, had no time to talk during sup- 
 per, and after supper was in no condition for talking. Here 
 were the two Misses Bostelmann, the intellectual daughters 
 of our host — a wealthy contractor for building-stone — be- 
 tween whom Hermine had sat awhile, during which time the 
 one entertained her unremittingly with Heine, while the 
 other, with equal persistence and enthusiasm discoursed of 
 Lenau. 
 
 " Heine — Lenau ; Lenau — Heine ! It was enough to drive 
 one wild !" cried Hermine. " And that they call pleasure ! 
 Would you venture to maintain that doctrine, Sir .?" 
 
 " I made no assertion of the kind, Madam !" 
 
 " Indeed ! And why then do you drag your poor little 
 wife among these horrible people, and rob her of the happy 
 hours that she might spend in a delightful . tete-^-t^te with 
 her monster of a husband ? Is that right ? Is that the love 
 that you vowed to me in the St. Nicholas church at Uselin be- 
 fore all the assembled population ? Heine — Lenau ; Lenau 
 —Heine ! Oh !" 
 
 I laughed, and then suddenly became grave, and the re- 
 mark rose to my lips that it was perhaps not difficult to prove 
 that we could find no pleasant people to live with, if we did 
 not choose to live with those that we really liked. 
 
 And where were at this time the people who were really 
 dear to me ? 
 
 The good Fraulein Duff, Hermine's most faithful friend, 
 was with her relations in Saxony. She had only gone on a 
 short visit, for eight weeks at the furthest, and the eight 
 weeks had lengthened to as many months. Where was 
 Paula .'' Eight hundred miles away, under another sky, 
 which I trusted shone as brightly on her as she deserved. 
 It had been now five months since Paula, with her mother 
 and her youngest brother, Oscar, and accompanied, as a 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 623 
 
 matter of course, by old Sflssmilch, had taken a journey to 
 
 Italy. 
 
 " Had to go," said Doctor Snellius. " What would you 
 have, sir ? It was an unavoidable necessity. An artist like 
 Paula cannot possibly develop her talents here, in this small, 
 petty, narrow, dark land of fog. Sunshine, light, air, those 
 were what she needed. Venice, Rome, Naples, Capri — 
 what do I know ? I was never there ; shall never go there ; 
 wouldn't know what to do there ; but she knows well, and 
 we shall know it and see it at the next Exposition, when 
 people will make pilgrimages to her pictures as if they were 
 miracles. Her mother too, that angel of a woman, will feel 
 the benefit of a residence in a milder climate, and as for 
 that young fellow Oscar, a young crocodile like him cannot 
 be put into the water too soon. It is only in the water that 
 one learns to swim, sir ! Only in the water, even when one 
 is born a crocodile, that is, has such an incredible talent as 
 that youngster has. It will cost a fabulous sum, to be sure ; 
 but she can afford it now, thank heaven, and after all it is 
 golden seed which will bring forth fruit a hundred and a 
 thousand fold. She felt some hesitation on this point, but I 
 persuaded her into it, and she writes me in her last letter — 
 where did I put it ? I want to show you what she says ; 
 well, it is no matter ; I will show it to you the next time, 
 if you remind me — anyhow she writes me so happily, so 
 very happily, that it even made me happy. God bless 
 her ! " 
 
 This was the way the doctor talked to me, shortly after 
 Paula's departure, which happened early in October, when I 
 had been married three months, during a journey which I 
 
 had to make to St on business, and on which Hermine 
 
 accompanied me. " For you know," said the doctor, " in 
 such cases one must take advantage of an opportunity, as 
 Nature does, when for example she separates soul and body 
 by a stroke of apoplexy or paralysis of the heart while 
 the patient sleeps, or when the band connecting both has 
 been sufficiently loosened by long sickness, so that the part- 
 ing is scarcely painful, and sometimes is even longed for. It 
 would perhaps have been a hard trial for poor Paula to 
 leave you, had she gone from your presence direct to the 
 railroad-car ; but it happened that you were not there, and 
 
624 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 whether there are eighty or eight hundred miles between you 
 makes very little difference." 
 
 " When she separates soul and body." This was one of 
 the physiological illustrations which the doctor was fond of 
 introducing into his discourse, but it struck me strangely. 
 I looked him fixedly in the eye, and by an energetic effort 
 he tuned down his voice a couple of octaves, and continued 
 in a more indifferent tone : 
 
 " And then a temporary separation will not only be 
 beneficial to them, but it will be a good thing for the boys 
 that stay behind. It is time Benno and Kurt were cutting 
 loose from their sister's apron-strings. Young men must 
 learn to think and care for themselves, and to stand upon 
 their own feet. I know that from my own experience. Had 
 my old father sent me to Bonn or Heidelberg, instead of 
 shutting me up here for four years under the shadow of his 
 church-steeple in the old worm-eaten superintendent's house, 
 I might have spread my wings better, and would not have 
 been the cross-patch I am now ; that is, if any man who has 
 been christened Willibrod — Willibrord it should be correctly 
 — out of love for an ancestor who has been in his grave these 
 two hundred years, has any chance left to be anything but a 
 cross-patch and oddity." 
 
 The letter in which Paula wrote to the doctor how happy 
 she felt in that far-distant land, I never succeeded in getting 
 a sight of. The next time he had forgotten it ; and after 
 awhile I grew used to the doctor's regularly wanting to show 
 me the letters which Paula wrote him from Venice, Rome, 
 and Naples, and as regularly leaving them at home. 
 
 I do not know why it was that I always felt a singular con- 
 fusion whenever the doctor began one of his fi^itless searches 
 for Paula's letter, and why I always tried to get him upon 
 another subject as soon as possible. Not that I had any 
 doubt of Paula's alleged happiness. The short and unfre- 
 quent letters which she wrote to Hermine and myself con- 
 veyed no intimation to the contrary ; but I was by no means 
 quite assured as to the source from which that happiness 
 flowed, and the letters, whether addressed to myself or to 
 Hermine, had all the same physiognomy, in which I could 
 only here and there recognize a trace of the beloved features 
 of Paula. And the longer the separation lasted, the shorter 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 625 
 
 and fewer were these letters, so that they were nearly as 
 brief and rare as 'the doctor's visits. 
 
 " It must be so," said the doctor, as I once assailed him 
 with friendly reproaches on this point ; " a young married 
 pair is like a young plant, which thrives best when put under 
 a bell-glass, and meddled with as little as possible. Men 
 call Love a goddess ;* but to me it appears a god ; a stern, 
 inapproachable, jealous god, that will endure no rivals, and 
 who puts to the sword all colleagues that he may find in his 
 chosen realm, be they lovely Astartes or hideous Mumbo- 
 Jumbos. And he is quite right to do so ; the human heart 
 is a stubborn, cross-grained affair, and takes a frightfully 
 long time in learning merely to spell through the ten com- 
 mandments." 
 
 The doctor always said things of this sort in a very kind tone, 
 the same that I heard him use in speaking to his patients, and 
 was at all times full of friendliness and attention, even more 
 towards my wife than myself Indeed a peculiar relation 
 seemed to have been established between Hermine and him. 
 She, with her usual impulsiveness, had at first made no se- 
 cret of the dislike with which she regarded my old friend, 
 and often enough ridiculed, even in his presence, his odd 
 eccentric ways. But the man who on other occasions had 
 the keenest arrows in his quiver ready for any aggressor, 
 let him be who he might, and who did not lightly grant quar- 
 ter to an antagonist, on no occasion used his powerful 
 weapons against her ; and this gentleness which nothing 
 could change, and which was assuredly not always easy for 
 the hot and caustic temper of the man, succeeded at last, 
 however she might resist, in touching and captivating Her- 
 mine. Perhaps this happy result may have been in part 
 owing to the fact that lately she had received the doctor not 
 only as my friend, but as her medical adviser. 
 
 " He is really too good ! " she said more than once, look- 
 ing thoughtfully at the door through which the odd figure of 
 my old friend had just vanished. 
 
 " There is not much the matter with your wife," said the 
 doctor to me, when I expressed some uneasiness at Her- 
 mine's altered looks. " But she has been used from child- 
 
 *" Die Liebe" is feminine in G.-rman.'" -T?. 
 27 
 
626 Hammer and Anvil. ' 
 
 hood to freer exercise and fresher air than can be had in a 
 city Uke this." 
 
 "I would with pleasure take her to Zehrendorf," I said ; 
 " but now it is winter ; and how can I possibly leave here ? " 
 
 " Well, as it is an impossibility, we will not rack our brains 
 any more about it,"' replied the doctor. " We must do the best 
 we can. Sometimes mental activity may, to a certain point, 
 make up for the deficiency of physical. It is a pity that 
 your wife was so soon satiated with the bustle of society. 
 Why do you not take her sometimes to the theatre or the 
 opera.' She is so great a lover of music." 
 
 " I do not care to go to the opera any more," said Her- 
 mine, after we had tried it a few times. " They sing badly 
 and play worse. Now could you call that a Zerlina ? And 
 that Dan yuan ' You might have waited for me long 
 enough, if you had been such a stick of a lover as that ! 
 And with such monstrous self-conceit to boot ! Masetto was 
 really the better man." 
 
 " Try the theatre once," said the doctor. I 
 
 I looked him full in the eyes. 
 
 " The Bellini has been back a week," he added, and brought 
 his round spectacles to bear upon me. We looked at each 
 other awhile in silence. 
 
 " Your wife does not know that Fraulein Bellini and a 
 certain other lady are one and the same person ? " he pres- 
 ently asked. ! 
 
 " No," I answered. 
 
 " And you are not willing to tell her ? Not willing to tell 
 her what I know, who am your friend, and what very prob- 
 ably others know, who are not your friends .'' " 
 
 " It is a peculiar sort of thing, doctor." 
 
 " There are many peculiar things, especially in a new mar- 
 ried life." 
 
 " Which one would do more wisely to keep to liimself." 
 
 " Not in all cases," replied the doctor. " Whatever can 
 be communicated, should be, always ; and there is but little, 
 hardly anything, which a young husband should not tell his 
 wife. In a river crawling sluggishly between sandy shores 
 to the end of its course, every stone lies unmoved ; but a 
 stream bursting fresh and joyous from the mountain will 
 roll and whirl along heavy masses of rock, its young strength 
 
Hammer and Anvil. (>-l 
 
 sweeping everything before it. Think it over, my dear 
 
 friend." 
 
 I had thought it over, but I could not bring myself to fol- 
 low the doctor's advice. It was not cowardice that kept me 
 silent, but rather a feeling of shame that I could not over- 
 come,' and a fear of the consequences upon a character so 
 ])eculiar as Hermine's, and in her present state of health. 
 And yet the revelation hovered more than once upon my 
 lips, but crept back again to my heart, that beat uneasily 
 when in almost every number of the papers I came across 
 the ominous name, and Hermine once or twice said casually. 
 " We ought really to see this Bellini they talk so much 
 about." 
 
 They did indeed talk much about her. " Are you a Bel- 
 linist or an anti-Bellinist ? " was the question in all salons .- 
 " the Bellini is a marvel," " the Bellini is nothing at all," 
 said the papers. I did not know which party was right, nor 
 wish to know ; and right glad was I that Hermine seemed 
 as little curious in the matter as myself, until one day, when 
 I had replied, in answer to her question, that I was disen- 
 gaged that evening, she startled me by saying : 
 
 " Then we will go this evening and see the Bellini." 
 
 " If you wish," I answered, with the determination of a 
 man who sees that he has met a"fatality that is too strong for 
 him. 
 
 And we went to the theatre and saw Ada Bellini as Juliet 
 in Shakespeare's tragedy. I cannot assert that I felt any 
 inclination to join in the enthusiastic applause that was 
 lavished upon the actress by the crowded house, nor in the 
 hisses that were occasionally heard, but only to be over- 
 whelmed by fresh plaudits. Nor can I say that in the course 
 of the evening I found myself able to pass a critical judg- 
 ment ufKjn the artist. However attentively I watched the 
 stage, I saw little more than if I had gazed at vacancy, 
 dreaming of times long past, and wishing at intervals that 
 this evening also belonged to past time, I remember that 
 once arousing from this unpleasant reverie and looking at 
 Hermine, I caught her eye fastened upon me with a mysteri- 
 ous expression ; but she only jested at my indifference as we 
 drove home, and declared that the question of Bellinist and 
 anti-Bellinist was settled for her. 
 
628 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 " With what result ? " I asked, lighting my cigar from the 
 lamp. 
 
 " And are you going to smoke now, you unfeeling man ? 
 Do you suppose that Romeo would have poisoned himself if 
 he had had a cigar in his pocket with the fatal flask ? Much 
 good may your cigar do you, dear Romeo : Juliet will bid 
 you good-night." 
 
 This evening for the first time I smoked my nightly cigar 
 alone ; and never did I smoke one in deeper reflection. 
 
 " The doctor was right, " I said to myself, as I threw the 
 stump into the dying coals on the hearth, and rose with a 
 sigh from my easy-chair ; "perfectly right. I must wait for 
 a favorable opportunity." 
 
 But as it usually happens in such cases, a week passed, 
 two weeks passed, and the opportunity did not occur. Nor 
 did the necessity seem very urgent, as Hermine had not 
 spoken again of going to the theatre. She still felt unwell, 
 and the doctor's visits were more frequent than formerly. 
 
 " Have you told your wife yet who the Bellini is ? " he 
 asked me one day. 
 
 " Not yet." 
 
 " She knows it." 
 
 " Impossible ! " 
 
 " She knows it ; I give you my word upon that." 
 
 " Has she said so to you ? " 
 
 "No." ' ' 
 
 " How then ? " 
 
 " How then ? A physician, my dear fellow, has sharp 
 ears, and a physician who is the friend of the family, as he 
 should always be, has them doubly sharp. He hears be- 
 tween the words that are spoken ; and I can only repeat to 
 you that I have heard between the words of your wife, and 
 learned that she knows the Bellini to be Constance von Zeh- 
 ren, and that she knows more beside. Whether she knows 
 all, and whether she knows the real truth, is only known to 
 the person that told her." 
 
 " And that is ? " | 
 
 " Our common friend Arthur." 
 
 " Arthur has not been in the city for eight weeks." 
 
 " Our postal system forwards with admirable fidelity all 
 letters intrusted to it, even anonymous ones." 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 629 
 
 "But good heaven, doctor, what interest could Arthur 
 
 have ? " 
 
 " Revenge is sweet," said the doctor. 
 
 " In this case it would be stupid too, for " 
 
 " It is often stupid too." 
 
 " For the steuerrath lives almost exclusively upon my 
 father-in-law's purse, and I bought a considerable place for 
 Arthur only yesterday, and upon the table there lies a letter 
 in which he asks me again for a large loan of money." 
 
 " All that makes no difference. And my dear George, 
 don't take to moping. You are a man, and there is no 
 occasion here for despair. We must not take things harder 
 than they are ; the really hard ones cannot be made any 
 lighter so, and with this latter article I should think you 
 were already sufficiently supplied." 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 AND in this the good doctor was perfectly right, in a 
 wider sense than he had himself any idea of. 
 
 It was not merely that without sufficient experience 
 I had to a certain extent to find my way in a vast domain 
 of industry, at that time scarcely explored by us Germans. 
 I shared that plight however with all my rivals, who, how- 
 ever great their experience in other branches, in the con- 
 struction of locomotives were as much novices as I was 
 myself And any advantage that they might have over me 
 in more extended knowledge, could perhaps be equalized 
 by diligence. In this point, in truth, I had no slight confi- 
 dence in myself; indeed I was conscious that notwithstand- 
 ing the load which now rested upon me was far from being 
 a light one, I could still take additional weight upon my 
 shoulders. But a man who carries a heavy burden must at 
 least see clearly the way that he has to follow, or all his 
 strength and endurance cannot preserve him from stumbling 
 and p>ossibly falling. So was it here. I was confused in all 
 my plans, hampered in my movements, and checked in my 
 resolutions, because at all times I had to look around for the 
 
630 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 man who should stand at my back and upon whom I was forced 
 to rely, and who often in the most critical moments was no 
 more to be found. 
 
 Not to be found, in the literal sense of the words. The 
 commerzienrath had always been a restless man, as could 
 hardly have been otherwise with the multiplicity of business 
 that he had in various places, and with his maxim that noth- 
 ing was well done unless you do it yourself " I am," he 
 used to say in confidential moments over a bottle, " like 
 Caesar, or whatever the fellow's name was, with whom to 
 come, to see, and to conquer, were all one. To come, to 
 see, to conquer — that is the art of success ! " 
 
 And now he came and went more frequently than ever ; 
 
 to-day in Uselin, to-morrow in St. , then here again, and 
 
 the next day in hot haste to Zehrendorf, where my following 
 letter did not reach him, because in the meantime he was at 
 
 St. 
 
 again, or heaven knows where. This had now be- 
 
 come a regular thing ; and I made besides the unpleasant 
 discovery that he was always hardest to find and had cov- 
 ered his tracks most carefully, precisely when he was most 
 needed. Was this his old cuttle-fish manoeuvre which he was 
 so fond of using in conversation, now applied in a practical 
 form ? was it more than this .-' 
 
 Yes, the commerzienrath came and went enough, but the 
 seeing and conquering by no means corresponded. His blue 
 eyes were now too often dimmed by a watery mist, and how- 
 ever grand his vauntings, his appearance was by no means 
 that of a conqueror. The impression that had struck me 
 when I first saw him again at Zehrendorf, that the commer- 
 zienrath had become an old man, was now most painfully 
 confirmed, and not to me only, his old business friends were 
 struck with the change that had taken place in him, 
 
 " Your father-in-law has grown strangely irritable of late," 
 said the banker Zieler. " The commerzienrath ought to give 
 himself more rest," occasionally remarked the Railroad Di- 
 rector Schwelle. " My honored patron, the Herr Commer- 
 zienrath, is in a very bad humor to-day," whispered to me 
 the landlord of the hotel where he used to stop, for he never 
 stayed at our house ; and even the waiters privately shrugged 
 their shoulders when the old man over his bottle stormed at 
 them like a madman for some real or fancied neglect 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 631 
 
 No ; the man with the blinking watery eyes, and the pet- 
 ulant temper, doubly noticeable and disagreeable in a man 
 of his years, did not look like a conqueror, nor was he one. 
 
 Long as our intimate relations had now continued, I knew 
 of no triumph that he had won. It was assuredly no tri- 
 umph for the Croesus of Uselin that he had been compelled 
 to close his vasl grain-trade, nor was it any triumph that even 
 after this retreat in good order, as he termed it, no order 
 could be brought into our financial arrangements. On the 
 contrary, we were more pressed fo» ready money than ever ; 
 so hardly pressed that I struggled from one embarrassment 
 to another, and was really often brought to the verge of des- 
 pair. Not only was I most seriously hampered in my busi- 
 ness operations by the perpetual uncertainty in which my 
 father-in-law kept me, I also was harassed by the equally 
 painful feeling that I had not been able to introduce a single 
 one of those improvements in the condition of my workmen 
 over which, in by-gone hopeful times, the doctor, Klaus, and 
 I had so often laid our heads together, and drained so many 
 a glass of grog. A chief who does not know how he shall 
 meet his pecuniary obligations the next day is in no position 
 to make concessions to his workmen to which he is not 
 pledged, to which he is not bound by the letter of any con- 
 tract, only by the voice in his own heart pleading for the 
 poor. There were even times — and I think of them now as 
 one recalls a peculiarly frightful dream — when I felt that I 
 would close my heart against a cry of distress, even against 
 a timidly murmured complaint, and when the example of my 
 rivals, who had lowered the daily wages a groschen, seemed^ 
 one that I ought to follow. I remember that at these times 
 it was as if a gray veil had been spread over the world, that 
 neither food nor drink were pleasant to me, that I tossed 
 sleepless upon my bed as if I had a murder upon my con- 
 science, that I went to and fro by the most unfrequented 
 streets, and if I met an acquaintance, pulled my hat over my 
 face and crossed to the other side. Once, as the load upon 
 my heart was almost unbearable, I hastened to my friend, as 
 the tortured patient hastens to the physician, and poured my 
 sorrows into his faithful breast. He listened to me with kind- 
 ness, and said : 
 
 " I have seen this coming, my dear George j so it is noth- 
 
632 Hammer and An-oil. 
 
 ing which lies outside of human calculation, and conse- 
 quently need not be despaired of, for the fault may be re- 
 paired by time and endurance. He who desires to preserve 
 the freedom of his resolutions must not attach himself to any 
 point on which others have fastened their unclean and dis- 
 honorable webs, and where there cannot fail to be confusion 
 and entanglement. Wealth which, like your father-in-law's, 
 has not been acquired with perfectly clean hands, cannot be 
 kept without some soil. He who wishes to remain impartial 
 in the cause of Hammer -irersus Anvil — no one can keep free 
 from participation in it — must not place himself decisively 
 on either side ; and to a certain extent you have done this. 
 Your father-in-law is a knight of the hammer, and you — you 
 are his son-in-law, that is, the first of his followers, revolt as 
 much as you may against this unpleasant truth. And my 
 friend, I see, as things now are, no escape from this laby- 
 rinth but one, and that is that the case shall be brought as 
 soon as possible before that higher tribunal of the great laws 
 of economy, and there be decided promptly and finally, that 
 you may become the free man you were before. This sounds 
 very hard, very cruel ; but my dear friend, you cannot take 
 it amiss of a disciple of Hippocrates if he holds fast to that 
 saying of his master: Qjiod medicamenta non sanant, ferrum 
 sanat; quod f err Jim non sanat, ignis." 
 
 The higher tribunal to which the doctor had referred me, 
 was to decide for the Hippocratic fire-method in my case, 
 sooner than perhaps the doctor himself expected. 
 
 When the commerzienrath complained to me again and 
 g.gain how hard it was just now to raise the very considera- 
 ble amount of funds which I needed for the works, I had 
 repeatedly and urgently entreated him to undertake seriously 
 the sale of Zehrendorf. Heaven knows how hard it was for 
 me to press this upon him. Zehrendorf had grown more 
 dear to rne than I can express. There was scarcely a clod 
 on which my foot had not rested, no tree, no bush, that I 
 had not become attached to. The prospect of being able to 
 spend a day at Zehrendorf made every labor light, and bore 
 me over many a care ; the hope of passing my old days in 
 the place where for the first and only time in my life I had 
 been really young was dearer to me than any other. And I 
 knew that Hermine felt the same. There she had dreamed 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 633 
 
 her dream of love, and there it had become reality. Had 
 she not been most seriously offended with me when her 
 father intentionally gave her to believe that I was the origina- 
 tor of the project ? Had I not breathed freely, and had she 
 not loudly exulted when the sudden sickness of the old 
 Prince Prora cut short the negotiations ; and should I now 
 be really the man who was to deprive her and myself of this 
 treasure ? Not I ! It was the circumstances that were 
 stronger than I ; circumstances which I had not caused and 
 was not responsible for, but which I could not allow to re- 
 main as they were, or the responsibility would really fall upon 
 me. This I knew perfectly well ; so I urged the matter 
 upon my father-in-law again and again. 
 
 Strange to say, he now most obstinately resisted my ur- 
 gency, as if the project had not been of his own devising. 
 Did he really fear the unfavorable conjuncture of events ? 
 Did he really believe that he could retain the property.^ 
 Did he fear what malicious tongues would say, remembering 
 that when he closed his grain business he gave it out that he 
 was tired of work and was going to retire to his country- 
 seat for the rest of his old age ? Was it simply despotic ob- 
 stinacy, and an old man's waywardness .-' I did not know ; 
 and could not even say with certainty. At such times I con- 
 soled myself with the thought that perhaps the storm would 
 blow over ; his affairs must be in a better condition than I 
 thought : perhaps he has grown a miser in his old days, and 
 is holding back his hoarded treasures ; for it it impossible 
 that he can be as short of money as he pretends : what could 
 he possibly have done with it ? 
 
 " Your father-in-law has had an unlucky day to-day," said 
 the banker Zieler to me, as coming from the Exchange one 
 day, he met me on the street. 
 
 " How so, Herr Privy-Councillor ? " 
 
 "Well, he had to pay a difference of a hundred thousand 
 thalers upon a speculation he had made for a rise in alcohol : 
 a curious miscalculation in so experienced a man of busi- 
 ness." 
 
 A hundred thousand thaien at a moment when I was per- 
 plexed to raise a^ thousand, and in an operation of which he 
 had never spoken to me, and which lay entirely outside of 
 his regular business ! I could not altogether keep my face 
 27* 
 
634 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 from indicating the alarm that this piece of news caused me, 
 and the councillor must have" seen it, for he added with a 
 smile : 
 
 " Well, well, your father-in-law can afford himself these 
 little amusements. I have the honor to wish you a very 
 good day." 
 
 I did not take this view of it : I wrote at once to Uselin 
 and entreated him to let me know if the information, which 
 I had received from a very good source, was really true ; 
 and I concluded with pressing him once more to give me at 
 last a clear insight into his affairs, since as a man of honor 
 I could no longer endure the present condition of things. 
 
 In answer came a long letter, full of complaints of my 
 want of confidence, and of the hard fate of an old man who 
 was deserted by his children, and crammed with wordy 
 boastings about his fifty years' experience in business, about 
 his well-proved good-fortune, and ending with the recommen- 
 dation than in any event I should write to the prince at once, 
 and ask him if he was still thinking of the purchase of 
 Zehrendorf, or not. 
 
 I let the rest of the letter pass, and held to the single 
 fixed point that it contained. I wrote at once to the young 
 prince, who was still with his sick father in Prora, and re- 
 ceived in reply an autograph letter to the effect that he had 
 been intending to come to the city, and would carry out this 
 intention at once. He would arrive on Friday at four o'clock, 
 and would be very glad to see me an hour later at the palace, 
 where we could talk over the matter at length. 
 
 And so it was to be then. My heart felt heavy at the 
 thought, but I suppressed the emotion and repeated the 
 doctor's aphorism : "what medicines and iron cannot cure, 
 must be cured by fire." 
 
 In this half-dejected, half-resolved mood, I went at the 
 appointed day and hour to the palace of the prince. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 635 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE prince received me with politeness which I might 
 almost call cordial. He had arrived half an hour 
 before, and the journey through the cold winter's day 
 seemed to have done him good ; he looked fresh and youthful 
 as I had never seen him before, and in his whole bearing 
 there was such elasticity, such vivacity in his discourse, that 
 I could scarcely recognize in him the wearied dreamer in the 
 old hunting-lodge of Rossow. I could not refrain from con- 
 gratulating him on this change, which I attributed to his im- 
 proved health. He seemed pleased to hear it, and said it 
 was high time for him to have outgrown childish distempers. 
 
 " I have always resolved," he said, " that when the time 
 came, it should find me a man ; and I believe that the time 
 has come. May God long preserve the life of the prince, my 
 father ; but by all human reckoning his days are numbered. 
 It may justly be demanded of me that an event which influ- 
 ences the destinies of thousands shall not find me unpre- 
 pared." 
 
 The prince said these words very earnestly. He had been 
 walking up and down the room, and stopped before a por- 
 trait which represented a young and very handsome man in 
 a rich and fantastic dress. 
 
 " Strange," the prince went on, " that life can play with 
 us thus ! See here ; this is the portrait of the prince, my 
 father, in his twenty-eighth year. He wore that dress at a 
 masked ball at court, and created an immense furore, and 
 the late queen insisted that he should have his portrait taken 
 in it for her. This is a copy of the original. Do vou not 
 find " 
 
 He suddenly checked himself^ threw himself into an easy 
 chair, giving me a sign to be seated, and continued : 
 
 " But I did not come to talk with you about myself and 
 my affairs. Your own have changed very much since we 
 last met. Why sir, you are a great diplomatist ! To let me 
 talk and talk, and make you heaven knows what well-meant 
 proposals, without indicating by word or look that you were, 
 so to speak, over the mountain, at the foot of which I 
 
636 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 thought we both were standing! How you must have 
 laughed in your sleeve ! And poor Zehren ! He pretended 
 to be as much astonished as I was myself. But I believe he 
 knew perfectly well how things stood, for though I have always 
 considered him half fool, I have a strong suspicion that he 
 is whole knave. I should be glad if anybody will take him 
 off my hands ; he is sometimes a real annoyance to me, and 
 yet I do not want to send him away. I have been thinking 
 that if I buy Zehrendorf from you, I might make him the 
 bailiff of it, or rent the estate to him ; but it has occurred to 
 me that you might not like that arrangement. Am I right ?" 
 
 " Your highness," I replied, " Arthur is certainly not the 
 proper person for such a trust. In his hands all the excel- 
 lent and most useful improvements that have been made at 
 such heavy expense, would go to ruin. I confess that if I 
 believed it to be your serious intention — instead of being, as 
 I am sure, only the suggestion of your generous heart — I 
 would even now at the twelfth hour endeavor to retain Zeh- 
 rendorf in my father-in-law's possession, greatly as I desire, 
 on other grounds, to effect a sale of it." 
 
 '* You are right — it was only an idea," said the prince. 
 " But why do you accord me this so flattering preference ? 
 You know that I have no longer the same interest in obtain- 
 ing the property, that I had last spring, and that in conse- 
 quence you will find me hard to deal with." 
 
 " But easier than Herr von Granow, at all events." 
 
 A pleasant smile played about the prince's refined lips. 
 
 " You may be right there," he said. " That fellow is a 
 fox, despite his bulldog-face. He has sounded me once or 
 twice- through Zehren and the justizrath, to find out if I have 
 still any thoughts of buying Zehrendorf. It seems that he 
 wants to get all competitors out of the way, to be the only 
 one upon the field, and then at the right moment, of which 
 the justizrath will no doubt give him the sign, step in and 
 secure the place for a song. No, sir, you shall not fall into 
 the dirty hands of that rascal if I can help it." 
 
 " I thank your highness," I answered. 
 
 " I have to thank you," the prince replied, " that you again 
 give me an opportunity to discharge an old debt that I owe 
 you. Since you wrote to me I have reflected much upon 
 your position : indeed I may say that at no time have you 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 637 
 
 been entirely out of my mind, thanks to the good friends of 
 your father-in-law. You yourself probably do not know how 
 much is said about him, and how deeply he is sunk in 
 general estimation. I am very sorry to say this ; and I say 
 it only because I feel it is due to you as the person nearest 
 concerned, to let you know what others perhaps have not 
 the courage to tell you, or conceal from you from malicious 
 motives. The commerzienrath's credit seems to me greatly 
 shaken ; there is talk of immense losses that he has lately 
 incurred ; they say he speculates on 'Change and in all sorts 
 of hazardous enterprises. I can assure you he is considered 
 half insane and more than half ruined ; though it is true that 
 others maintain the old man was never clearer-headed than 
 now, and never richer ; and that if he plays the fool and the 
 bankrupt, it is only one of his old feints, which have always 
 been successful. What is your own opinion ? " 
 
 I felt that the prince's kind advances to me deserved to 
 be met with all sincerity, and so I stated to him in detail, as 
 well as I could, the singular position in which I fdund myself 
 placed with the commerzienrath, the subterfuges, equivoca- 
 tions and concealments of which he had been guilty to me ; 
 that I believed that while he was not yet the ruined man his 
 enemies declared him to be, if he kept on in this way he 
 would of necessity ruin himself sooner or later. 
 
 The prince listened to me attentively, here and there inte- 
 posing questions which, if they indicated no great familiarity 
 with business, showed a clear understanding and rapid com- 
 prehension. We had come back to the original point, the 
 sale of Zehrendorf, and had already agreed upon the princi- 
 pal conditions, when the old white-headed servant, whom I 
 had already seen at Rossow, entered and standing by the 
 door gave his master a sign, 
 
 " Ah," said the prince, " is it already so late ? That is 
 unfortunate. I have to go to the theatre : her Royal High- 
 ness the Princess, my patroness, who was informed of my 
 arrival, has sent me word that she wishes to speak with me a 
 moment, in her box, and learn the state of the prince, my 
 father. But perhaps we can combine the useful with the 
 agreeable. I should like to know how soon I can command 
 the requisite funds, and Henzel" — ^this was the prince's 
 banker— "will be at the theatre also. I know that the 
 
638 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 great Maecenas of all singers and actors — actresses and 
 ballet-girls not forgotten — never misses a first representa- 
 tion. I shall find an opportunity to speak with him. The 
 best thing would be for you to come too : we might then ar- 
 range all the preliminaries this evening, and have a draft of 
 the conveyance made to-morrow morning by my solicitor. 
 Will you come ? " 
 
 " I have the evening at my disposal," I said. 
 
 " A proud word for a young husband ! " said the prince, 
 laughing. " But why not bring your wife along ? I have 
 long desired the pleasure of making her acquaintance. I 
 could not do it at Rossow, for I had pledged myself not to 
 go more than a mile from the castle. Well, what; do you 
 say .'' You seem to hesitate and look confused. Sir, those 
 old times are past : you need never more feel any hesitation 
 in presenting Prince Prora to a virtuous lady ! " 
 
 "I have not the least doubt of that, your highness," I re- 
 plied ; " but my wife — I really do not know " 
 
 " Ah, indeed ! " said the prince. " I understand. Well, 
 you can see. Au revoir, then, and bring your lady if 
 possible." 
 
 The prince gave me his hand as we parted. I had neither 
 said yes or no, because I did not wish to accept his sugges- 
 tion, and of course could not with any show of reason de- 
 cline it off-hand. 
 
 " But what a miserable thing it is when a man does not 
 know whether to say yes or no," I said to myself, as I went 
 through the darkening streets to my not very distant lodging ; 
 " a thing to which I am not yet used, and must not learn to 
 be." And while I thus sf)oke, I was on the point of crossing 
 the street to a corner where I saw by the light of a street- 
 lamp a play-bill pasted up, but I checked myself. " No, no," 
 I muttered, " you must not give your cowardice a respite ; 
 for cowardice it is, and nothing else." 
 
 So I reached home, where Hermine was expecting me 
 with impatience. I had told her of my appointment with 
 the prince, but not of its object, not reflecting that this con- 
 cealment of an affair which was about to be decided at once, 
 could only increase her secret uneasiness. I perceived this 
 as I caught her eyes bent anxiously upon me. Should I not 
 now tell her at once all that I had hitherto so carefully con- 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 639 
 
 cealed from her ? A confusion that embarrassed my reason, 
 and a fear that seemed to weigh down my heart, suddenly 
 seized me, I wished to free myself from this painful embar- 
 rassment, as one strives to escape from a room in which he 
 feels himself suffocating ; and as in such a case he takes the 
 first mode of escape that offers, though it be a leap through 
 a window, I said, as if reciting a lesson : 
 
 ** The prince wishes to see me at the theatre ; he has a 
 communication to make to me which can not well be post- 
 poned until to-morrow. He expressed the wish that you 
 would accompany me, if you can. He has been very kind 
 to me, and I feel myself under great obligations to him. I 
 should be glad to show him an attention, if you have no ob- 
 jection." 
 
 " Ah, she plays to-night then !" said Hermine, her lips 
 quivering and brows contracting darjcly. 
 
 " What is that to me — what is that to us, Hermine .?" 
 
 I opened my arms, and my wife lay upon my breast. The 
 whole long pent-up passion burst forth at once : she sobbed, 
 she laughed, and cried : " Yes, yes, what is that to us t what 
 is that to us ?" 
 
 Her sweet face that lately had looked so pale and often so 
 sad, now beamed with life and happiness : I thought I had 
 never seen her so beautiful. 
 
 " You will create a furore," I said, playfully. 
 
 " So I mean," she answered. " There is no art in being 
 fair when one is so happy." 
 
 And she threw herself again into my arms, and then hast- 
 ened into her dressing-room, from which she presently re- 
 turned in a simple charming toilet, such as she well knew 
 how to make. 
 
 " Do you think I can let the prince see me so ? " she asked, 
 archly. , 
 
 " Yes ; any king in the world ! " 
 
 " Even when ? " 
 
 " Even when ! " 
 
 The distance to the theatre was short, yet in this short 
 drive I had time to tell her everything that had passed be- 
 tween the prince and myself; the negotiations about Zehren- 
 dorf, and the causes which rendered the sale necessary. 
 And the fair creature agreed contentedly to everything. Ah, 
 
640 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 the doctor was indeed right when he said : " A young hus- 
 band can tell his young wife everything ; " but I was also right 
 that he must choose a fitting opportunity. 
 
 We reached the theatre. I'he prince had told me that 
 there would be places in his box for us, and it was well that 
 it was so, for the house was full. A new piece was played, 
 the work of a young poet who had a considerable reputation 
 at that time, a conversation-piece, in which Constance had 
 no part, as I convinced myself by a glance at the play-bill. 
 It was not yet late, but pit and galleries were already filled, 
 and the boxes were filling up. The prince was not there yet, 
 and only appeared towards the close of the overture, accom- 
 panied by an officer of high rank, whom he presented as his 
 cousin, Count Schlachtensee. He looked exceedingly hand- 
 some and distinguished in evening dress, with a blue ribbon 
 around his neck, to which was attached the star of some 
 foreign order set in brilliants ; and exhibited the most per- 
 fect and engaging courtesy towards Hermine, to whom he 
 apologized for his late arrival, and then seated himself beside 
 her, conversing very pleasantly for a few moments, until he 
 perceived that the royal princess who had summoned his at- 
 tendance, had entered her box, when he left us. 
 
 Lieutenant-colonel Count Schlachtensee, when his cousin 
 had departed, seemed not quite to know what to do, until he 
 hit upon the happy idea of offering me his opera-glass, which 
 I politely declined. So he applied it to his own eyes, fixing 
 it upon a box opposite to us so long that I involuntarily 
 turned my own looks in the same direction. Directly front- 
 ing us was a lady who at the moment had her head turned 
 to a gentleman sitting behind her, but in whom I at the first 
 glance recognized Constance. I do not know what effect 
 this discovery would have had upon me, had I not just 
 before had that precious understanding with Hermine : even 
 as it was my heart beat violently as I observed that my wife 
 also turned her gla^s in that direction ; but I breathed freely, 
 and murmured a '" thank heaven ! " from the bottom of my 
 heart, when she lowered her glass again, and looked at me 
 with an indescribable arch smile. As the curtain rose she 
 fixed her attention upon the stage without ever casting 
 another glance at the woman whose form had no doubt 
 floated lately often enough through her melancholy reveries. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 641 
 
 Constance on the other hand seemed to take less interest in 
 what was going on upon the stage. I observed her glass 
 fixed almost constantly upon us when she was not engaged 
 in conversation with her companion, who had now taken his 
 seat by her side, and in whom I recogitized the actor Von 
 Sommer, who went by the name of Lenz, or else turned to 
 a couple of younger gentlemen, in elegant dress and of aris- 
 tocratic, though foreign appearance — two Wallachian noble- 
 men as I afterwards learned — who were behind her chair, 
 and evidently belonged to the party. It was plain that they 
 were talking of us, and in no friendly manner \ and I thought 
 that more than once I perceived the pale face of Herr Lenz 
 contract with a bitter smile, while the others, who kept their 
 glasses steadily levelled at us, somecimes laughed openly. 
 
 Whether it was the too conspicuous interest which the beauti- 
 ful actress and her party took in the lady in the opposite 
 box, or whether it was Hermine's charming appearance, the 
 public, between the acts, followed the example set them, and 
 their unpleasant curiosity increased still further when the 
 prince returned and resumed his place byllermine. Per- 
 sons stood up in the pit to see better : they looked from 
 Hermine to Constance and from Constance to Hermine, and 
 evidently instituted very interesting comparisons between the 
 two, both beautiful, though with beauty so widely different. 
 No doubt the prince had observed Constance, but in vain 
 did I secretly watch his face for any mark of the impression 
 which this unexpected and unfortunate meeting must have 
 made upon him. Not in vain had he moved from his early 
 youth in circles where it is the first law to keep the features 
 under perfect control. He laughed and jested in the most 
 natural and easy manner with Hermine, named to her var- 
 ious distinguished persons in the proscenium-boxes whom 
 he knew, turned to speak with his cousin and myself, and 
 behaved as if altogether he was enjoying himself greatly. 
 
 This scene was repeated in the second entr'acte, but this 
 time a chamberlain of the princess came to our box, charged 
 by her to learn from the prince the name of the lady whose 
 beauty and grace, as he said, had charmed her highness. 
 
 The prince told us this, laughing, as the stately gentleman 
 left us, and said it was not unlikely that her highness might 
 summon us to her box, and that I should hold mvself in 
 
642 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 readiness for a councillor's title, or the order of the fourth 
 class. 
 
 I confess that though I did not altogether believe this 
 peril so imminent, a feeling ever more strongly impressed 
 me that some serious disaster was close at hand, as if float- 
 ing in the hot atmosphere of the place. I also thought that 
 I perceived that the heat, animated conversation, and the 
 fact that she was the object of general observation, had too 
 much excited Hermine, so after exchanging a look with her, 
 at the conclusion of the third act, I begged to take leave of 
 the prince, especially as the banker Henzel had not arrived, 
 and thus nothing could be done in the matter of our busi- 
 ness. The prince rose at once and oflfered Hermine his arm 
 to conduct her into the lobby, into which a great crowd was 
 now pressing from all the box-doors, out of the intolerably 
 hot theatre. 
 
 There was a good deal of crowding, and we were soon 
 separated from the prince, who had taken leave of Hermine 
 at the moment when Constance pressed by me on the arm 
 of Herr Lenz, and followed by the two Wallachians. She 
 saluted me in a manner that masked a stinging mockery 
 under a show of great cordiality : but the pale face of her 
 companion was turned towards us for a moment, and his eyes, 
 which appeared to be looking for some one, had a fixed and 
 ominous expression. He pushed on through the crowd as 
 rapidly as he could with the lady, towards the place where I 
 had last seen the prince. Other persons then came between 
 us^ and I lost sight of the party ; Hermine, who was busy 
 taking care of her dress, had luckily not seen Constance \ 
 and she now asked me to help her to get out as quickly as 
 possible. We had descended the stair a few steps, when 
 suddenly there was a tumult behind us in the lobby. Her- 
 mine stood still, and leaned half-fainting upon my arm ; and 
 during this delay, the tumult became louder. There was a 
 buzz of many voices speaking at once, and then loud words, 
 apparently from persons in authority who were striving to re- 
 store order. A gentleman came hurrying past me, and I 
 stopped him : I 
 
 " What is the matter ? " 
 
 " Prince Prora has just been most outrageously insulted 
 by Lenz the actor ! " 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 643 
 
 The gentleman hurried on. 
 
 I looked at Hermine : she had not heard it, she had 
 fainted. I carried her down the stairs, placed her in a car- 
 riage and drove home, where she arrived in a rather weak 
 state, but otherwise completely restored. I must not be un- 
 easy about her, she said ; and she had had a delightful even- 
 ing, for which she thanked me a thousand times. And now 
 she would go to bed, and I must positively go back to the 
 theatre, that the prince should not think she kept me tied to 
 her apron-string. 
 
 I pretended to yield to her wishes, and promised to go 
 back. But in reality I had already determined to do this if 
 possible. Suppose it were true, what the gentleman on the 
 steps had told me ! and how could I doubt it ? Then the 
 disaster which I had felt impending in the sultry atmosphere 
 of the theatre, had come to pass. I remembered the scene 
 in the 2^hrendorf wood, so many years before, and how the 
 boy preferred to die, to receiving a blow from my hands, 
 of which there would have been no witness but the moon. 
 Would the man feel differently ? Would he not risk every- 
 thing to avenge an insult offered him, the Prince of Prora, 
 before the eyes of a crowd of spectators ? 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 BUT I scarcely had quitted my house when I reflected 
 that after what had happened, it was scarcely possible 
 that the prince could still be in the theatre, and I turned 
 my steps towards his palace. It was about nine o'clock ; 
 the evening was cold and raw, though we were at the begin- 
 ning of March ; the snow was blowing about in the wind 
 and eddying around corners; pedestrians were hurrying 
 along with pulled-up collars and bent heads ; and I could 
 not help remembering the evening a year before, when I saw 
 the unhappy girl in the yellow light of the lamps at the door of 
 the palace, which I now reached all out of breath. For the 
 revenge which had then blazed in her dark eyes and breathed 
 
644 
 
 Ilamnicr and Anvil. 
 
 from her mouth, the revenge to which she had in vain en- 
 deavored to entice me, for this sweet, this terrible revenge 
 she had found the right man at last. 
 
 I was possessed with the feeling that all this had to come 
 so ; that a destiny long-appointed, which neither I nor any 
 one could baffle, had now reached its accomplishment. I 
 asked myself — What brings me here ? What do I mean to 
 do ? I could find no answer to this question ; not even when 
 I stood in the ante-chamber and besought the old servant, 
 who had been called, to lead me at once to his master. 
 
 " I can admit no one," the old man replied. 
 
 He seemed greatly agitated, his voice trembled as he spoke, 
 and his withered hand, which he raised as if to keep me off, 
 trembled visibly. 
 
 At this moment the door leading to the room in which the 
 prince had received me in the afternoon opened, and Count 
 Schlachtensee came out and passed us with the same fixed 
 look I had observed on him in the theatre. Evidently it was 
 not pretence ; he really did not see me. So what I had 
 feared, was now rushing down. I could not restrain myself 
 longer, and regardless of the old servant, rushed through the 
 door through which the count had come, traversed a second 
 large ante-chamber towards the inner room, through the 
 open door of which I saw the prince sitting at a writing 
 table. 
 
 " This to Herr Hartwig at once ! " he said, holding out 
 to me a letter in his left hand, while he leaned his head on 
 his right. 
 
 " I am he," I said, taking the letter, and holding his hand 
 firmly in mine. 
 
 His hand was cold, and the face which he now turned to 
 me was pale as death ; only on the right cheek glowed a crim- 
 son spot, as if branded there. 
 
 " You here ? " he asked, in surprise. " That is very well ; 
 now I can tell you what is in the letter, which I will ask you 
 to take care of It is a written memorandum of our agree- 
 ment to-day, with the addition of a request to the prince, my 
 father, to carry out this agreement, whatever happens." 
 
 I still held his hand, and endeavored in vain to speak a 
 word. If I had needed any explanation of the irresistible 
 sympathy with which this man inspired me, I had it now in 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 645 
 
 my very hands. And this man must be the sacrifice of a 
 base piece of treachery ! This man, who through all tempta- 
 tions had preserved so pure his native generosity and kind- 
 ness of heart, must be entangled in the snare which his rash 
 youthful foot had touched years before ! 
 
 This, or something like this, was what I said to him when 
 I found words at last, and I added that I could not endure 
 the thought, and eagerly asked if there were no possible way 
 — none — to escape from the toils ? 
 
 " Sit down," said the prince, bringing me to the fireplace 
 in which a comfortable fire was burning, offering me an easy 
 chair and taking another himself " Did I not say that you 
 were an original ? For none but a man who has preserved 
 to his thirtieth year a considerable share of the innocent 
 philosophy of his childhood, could hit upon the idea of ask- 
 ing a prince of Prora if it is not still possible to carry 
 patiently through his whole life an insult offered him before 
 a score of witnesses." 
 
 He said this in a very friendly manner, and with an at- 
 tempt to smile, but his pale lips quivered and the spot on 
 his cheek glowed a deeper red. 
 
 " I am no child," I said ; " but it may well be that a man 
 who has lived so solitary a life as mine, is an incompetent 
 judge of the customs and principles that rule the great 
 world. I only know that in my heart a voice cries : this 
 must not be ! Must it be then t Are those laws which I 
 confess I do not understand, as inflexible as fate ?" 
 
 "Yes ; it must be," the prince replied. " I also have con- 
 sidered it — not for my own sake, but for the sake of those to 
 whom I would gladly have been something — but it must 
 be." 
 
 " And your rank ?" I began. 
 
 " Does not excuse me," he answered, with a smile like 
 that of a teacher who dissipates the crude and futile objec- 
 tions of a pupil, " I am not a sovereign prince, though my 
 ancestors were sovereigns. I am a nobleman like other no- 
 blemen, and subject to the same laws. My antagonist is 
 noble too : the house of Sommer-Brachenfeld, of which he 
 comes by direct descent, is an ancient race, nearly as ancient 
 as my own." 
 
 " But a notorious profligate, a miserable adventurer like 
 
646 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 this man — has he not dispossessed himself of the right of 
 being challenged to the field by a prince Prora ?" 
 
 " I fancy not," the prince replied, still with the same good- 
 natured smile. " The man is an adventurer, it is true j but 
 I saw in Ireland a fellow who descended from the legitimate 
 kings of the green isle of Erin, and who was a keeper of 
 hogs ; and in Paris, in a cafh chantant, I saw the genuine 
 scion of an ancient ducal house, who was singing indecent 
 songs to the guitar before an audience of men in blouses and 
 women of the streets. Now an actor at a Royal Theatre is 
 quite a respectable person. And again, have I been no 
 profligate in my time ? And can I know what would have 
 become of me if the family council had really cut me off 
 from the succession, and thrust me out into the world with 
 an indemnity in money .'' However large the sum might have 
 been, it would not have lasted long, and then — no, no, I have 
 no right on this ground, not even an excuse, to avoid a 
 duel, supposing that I looked for an excuse ; but I look for 
 none." 
 
 We both remained silent. Without, the winter wind swept 
 through the streets and howled and whistled around the pal- 
 ace, like a hungry wolf around the fold ; and here in the 
 room the light beamed so soft from the lamps upon the mar- 
 ble tables, over the splendid furniture, on the hearth the fire 
 glowed and sparkled so cosily, and surrounded by all the 
 splendor, and illuminated by the soft light, at the fire upon 
 his own hearth, sat the master of this house, who did not 
 even look for an excuse to avoid a duel with an adventurer 
 who had nothing at risk but his own bare life. 
 
 " I look for none," said the prince again. " Indeed I 
 believe that though there were the most indisputable justifi- 
 cation of such a course, I should decline to avail myself of 
 it. I will say nothing of the fact that it is impossible for me 
 to live in the consciousness that such an insult is unavenged 
 — as impossible as for me to live by picking pockets — but I 
 have a feeling which I cannot shake off that this is a doom 
 which has fallen upon me, against which all resistance is un- 
 availing." 
 
 He raised his eyes as he said this, and his look fell upon 
 the portrait of the young cavalier in the fantastic costume, 
 which he had told me represented his father, and which hung 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 647 
 
 at some distance from us, brilliantly illuminated by the light 
 
 of a large lamp. 
 
 " Altogether unavailing," he repeated, with a deep sigh, 
 turning his face from the portrait to the flame on the hearth, 
 upon which his eyes remained vacantly fixed, while his pale 
 lips moved as if uttering words which I could fancy I heard, 
 though they were unspoken : " altogether unavailing.! " 
 
 This was the same fatal presentiment that had laid its 
 spell upon me from the first. The events that had just now 
 taken place, had been prepared long, long ago ; they had 
 stood already written in the stars that glittered on that 
 autumn night when the young prince stole through the park 
 of Zehrendoff to his love. I sat there, my fevered brow 
 resting on my hand, and thought of that night, and how I 
 was summoned to guard her who did not wish to be guarded, 
 who even then was planning and weaving the web of treach- 
 ery, and was even then a wanton, who, if I could believe what 
 the good Hans told me, had been in this case the betrayer 
 and not the betrayed, and who yet like a vengeful fury pur- 
 sued the man who was guilty of no wrong towards her, 
 except that of being her first lover, if he was the first. 
 
 I must have spoken aloud some part of the thoughts that 
 were passing through my mind while the prince was walking 
 up and down the room, and at last stopped beside me and 
 laid his hand upon my shoulder: 
 
 " True heart," he said, " how true you are, and how you 
 increase the debt which I have never yet paid you, and which 
 I would so gladly pay before it is too late. Perhaps it will 
 be something if I do for you what I would do for none other : 
 if I try to justify myself to you for the part I have played in 
 this unfortunate affair. Perhaps too I owe it to her ; and I 
 would fain settle all my debts : I would wish that one man 
 lived who will know, if Prince Carl von Prora falls, how and 
 why it was that he died." 
 
 He checked me with a gesture as I was about to speak, 
 and proceeded, his soft beautiful eyes fixed upon the fire 
 which was now dying out on the hearth : 
 
 " You think that Constance never loved, neither me nor 
 any other ; that it was not in her nature to love, and that 
 therefore no one could be a traitor to her. In this way you 
 attempt to justify me ; but you are wrong. Constance really 
 
648 Hammer and Am'il. 
 
 loved me, and still I did not betray her. Whether I loved 
 her or not is another question, which I cannot affirm — which 
 I would not for much be able to affirm. I was very young 
 when I first saw her at that unlucky watering-place ; scarcely 
 more than a boy ; and I may have loved her as boys love, 
 romantically, passionately, and yet not deeply. I know I 
 behaved like a madman when my father came and said that 
 I could never marry the daughter of a professional gamester 
 and notorious smuggler, especially when the girl was not even 
 the legitimate child of this dishonored father. But this you 
 know : I told you all this \ and this was all the prince then 
 told me. But this was not all that he might and should have 
 told me. And his telling me but half the truth while he con- 
 cealed that which was of most importance, out of what I must 
 call false shame of appearing to his son in the light of an 
 evil example, and out of prudery to the world which had 
 long known him as a pious man and jDrotector of the church, 
 this is the evil seed from which has sprung this disaster for 
 me and for himself 
 
 " I cannot say that the prince's warning was altogether 
 fruitless, nor can I say that I was convinced by it. I was a 
 boy, a wild spoiled boy, accustomed to having my own will 
 because it was my will — my own will often against my will. 
 So was it here. The prince, convinced of my obedience, 
 committed the imprudence of sending me, accompanied by 
 my- tutor, to Rossow, to hunt there, to recover my injured 
 health, and to pay court to the fair Countess Griebenow, 
 who was allotted to me by common consent of both families. 
 How easy it is for a youth with monej'^ enough in his pocket, 
 to bribe his servants, I need not say. I spent the morning 
 at Griebenow, and the evening — ^>'ou know where. But you 
 do not know, and probably would not believe upon any other 
 authority, that my courtship was carried on in very nearly 
 the same style and tone in both places. I repeat it, I was 
 young, very young, and youthful modesty and a certain chiv- 
 alrous sense of honor, which is perhaps native to me, always 
 restrained me, even in the secrecy of Constance's apartment. 
 Whether it was female modesty, or calculation — probably 
 both ; for I have rarely found women in which both were • 
 not present together — she always knew how to keep me in 
 limits, and scarcely at rare intervals allowed me to kiss her 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 649 
 
 hand. She maintained this rigor so firmly that I was more 
 than once convinced she loved some other ; and you can con- 
 ceive whom I believed this other to be. Thus the play went 
 on which had very nearly been brought to a sudden end by 
 our meeting in the wood, and on the very day following I 
 succeeded in realizing a long-concerted scheme, and carry- 
 ing off my beloved. I had made her no promises, but she 
 asked none, and no doubt thought all would come right if 
 she played her part well. And she played it just as before ; 
 and while we were looked upon by all the world as a pair of 
 unlawful lovers, and were pursued in all directions by my 
 father's letters and couriers, I had received no favor from 
 her beyond the privilege of kissing her hand. 
 
 " I had made my preparations so skilfully that I escaped 
 all the prince's researches, though he moved heaven and 
 earth to find the fugitives. He would have started in pursuit 
 himself, no doubt, only his alarm at what had happened, 
 brought on a violent attack of his old gout. And well had 
 he cause to be alarmed." 
 
 The prince suddenly arose from his chair, and walked 
 once or twice across the room, stopping again before the 
 portrait of his father, at which he looked with a darkened 
 countenance. He then resumed his seat, and proceeded : 
 
 " I had already got as far as Munich, when the old servant 
 whom you have seen overtook us. He was the bearer of a 
 letter in cipher, in which there was important information 
 from various members of my family, and a few lines in my 
 father's own hand, upon reading which I had laughed aloud. 
 They ran : ' I adjure you by all that you hold sacred, to 
 part from her at once if you do not wish to load yourself 
 with a horrible crime: Constance von Zehren is your sis- 
 ter.' " ^ 
 
 " Great heavens ! " I cried. 
 
 " As I said," continued the prince, " I laughed ; laughed 
 madly at the thought, and then felt a shudder run over my 
 whole body and seem to settle in my heart. 
 
 " The letter referred me to the old servant for further par- 
 ticulars, until the prince was in a condition to write me more 
 fully. ^ He, who from his youth had been attached to the 
 prince's person, and had accon^^nied him upon all his 
 travels, was better able than any other to explain the matter. 
 28 
 
650 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 He had been with the prince in Paris at the time when Herr 
 von Zehren arrived there in his wild flight from Spain with 
 his beloved. The two gentlemen had been very intimate 
 friends, and at our court the two handsome stately young 
 men went by the names of Orestes and Pylades. But it 
 seems that this friendship was much shaken when the prince 
 married my mother, whom Herr von Zehren had also courted. 
 Whether the prince could never forgive his friend this rivalry, 
 or whether Herr von Zehren, who was a man of fierce and 
 uncontrolled passions, gave the prince afterwards any cause 
 of offence — I do not know : but it appears that the prince 
 was not only fascinated by the charms of the young Spanish 
 lady, who tormented by her conscience, and perhaps as weak- 
 minded as she was beautiful, bestowed upon her lover's 
 friend a confidence which he abused, and perhaps also a love 
 which he only did not refuse. 
 
 " Was the prince the father of the child which passed for 
 Herr von Zehren's ? It could not be certainly known ; and 
 the doubts which the prince himself had on this point might 
 never have been removed ; for when a few years later the 
 unfortunate woman came to Rossow, where the prince was 
 then staying, and threw herself, with dishevelled hair at his 
 feet, crying that he was the father of her child, imploring him 
 to protect her and her child from their pursuer, and to tell her 
 the way to Spain — at this time she was a mere maniac. But 
 there were other confirmatory circumstances. An old female 
 servant — the same horrible old woman who was with Con- 
 stance later, and whom you probably knew — declared that 
 her young mistress had told her the secret from the first. 
 She may have lied ; but nature rarely deceives, and the 
 prince found in the child, which he contrived to see privately, 
 a likeness of which perhaps a trace may still be discovered 
 in that picture yonder," 
 
 The prince pointed with trembling hand to the portrait 
 of his father ; but he only told me what I had discovered 
 for myself while he was telling me this frightful story. He 
 must have read in my looks what I did not venture to ex- 
 press, for he continued, fixing his beautiful melancholy eyes 
 upon me : 
 
 "You see it too, do you not? We easily discover the 
 truth when it is pointed out to us ; and I perceived it while 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 651 
 
 the old woman was making her terrible confession, and I 
 blessed a merciful heaven that had saved me from an awful 
 crime. But how to free myself from this wretched entangle- 
 ment ? Perhaps I should have disobeyed the prince's orders 
 and told Constance the whole truth ; but I cannot too often 
 repeat that I was very young, and not in a condition to judge 
 what might be all the consequences of my hasty resolution. 
 So I thought I should be managing with great adroitness if 
 I could continue to inspire Constance with hate of me, or at 
 least aversion, for the love that I now regarded with horror. 
 The means of attaining this end she had herself supplied me 
 in her arts of keeping me at a distance, in which I now was 
 disposed to see more than mere calculation. I returned her 
 caprice with caprice, her obstinacy with obstinacy, her cold- 
 ness with coldness ; I played my game so well that I could 
 not fail to win. What she suffered, I never heard her say ; 
 but I saw it in her face which grew paler day by day, in her 
 eyes in which there often seemed to be the fire of madness. 
 "At last came the catastrophe. After a violent scene, 
 which I had provoked, in Naples, whither we had come on 
 our travels — I do not now know why or how — I parted from 
 her, in the firm conviction that she would emplo)' the ample 
 means I had left at her disposal, either in returning, or in 
 the flight with which she had often threatened me. But this 
 would have been insufficient for the revenge which she con- 
 ceived such treachery as mine deserved. She, whom I had 
 held to be the proudest of the proud, who refiised to belong 
 to the Prince of Prora unless he made her his wife — she cast 
 herself into the arms of the first comer, a wretched coxcomb 
 whose acquaintance we had made by the way. I shudder 
 when I think what this first step must have cost the unhappy 
 girl ; but I shudder still more when I think how little all 
 subsequent stqps have cost her." 
 
 He sighed deeply, and his sigh awakened a terrible echo 
 m my own breast. I sprang up and took a stride towards the 
 door. 
 
 " Where are you going ?" asked the prince. 
 I grasped my temples with both hands ; my brain seemed 
 on fire. 
 
 " I do not know," I said, " I only know that this duel 
 must not take place." 
 
6s2 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 The prince smiled and shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " It is a queer business, altogether," he said, 
 
 " And is there no remedy — none ?" I cried. 
 
 " Not that I know of," the prince answered with the same 
 kindly melancholy smile. " The young man would have to 
 declare that he was out of his senses. And that would not 
 help ; for any one who declares his own insanity is not insane 
 — ah, there you are, dear Edmund !" 
 
 I had not seen that Count Schlachtensee had entered the 
 room behind me. The prince advanced to meet him, and 
 took his hand : the count said " I come — 
 
 and then 
 
 checked himself and fixed a surprised look on me whom he 
 now observed for the first time. 
 
 " I must now take leave of you," said the prince. " 1 
 thank you heartily for your visit — heartily," and he grasped 
 my hand firmly in his own which was small and delicate as 
 a woman's. " Farewell !" 
 
 I was at the door when he followed me and gave me his 
 hand again. " Farewell," he said once more, and added in 
 a low tone, " perhaps for ever !" 
 
 I stood in the street, with the snow driving into my face. 
 I turned back to look at the palace, and saw upon the low- 
 ered curtain the shadows of two men who were pacing up 
 arid down the room. They were the prince and his cousin ; 
 and I knew what they were conversing about, and that there 
 was not a moment to be lost. I called a hackney-coach that 
 was passing, and ordered the coachman to drive as quickly 
 as possible to the lodging of the actor Von Sommer, who 
 went by the name of Lenz. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 I HAVE often in later days tried to recall the state of 
 mind in which I was on this miserable night : but 
 have never been able perfectly to do so. So I am con- 
 scious than any account I can now give of it must be a most 
 imperfect one. I can only say that I was overpowered by 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 653 
 
 an emotion which was probably the intensest form of pity — 
 a feeling always peculiarly strong with me, and which on far 
 lighter occasions is aroused in my breast to an extent which 
 must appear absurd and childish to shrewder and more cold- 
 blooded persons. Perhaps the extraordinary statements 
 which I had just heard might have affected me differently, 
 had the persons concerned been entire strangers to me ; but 
 this they were not. Constance had played an important and 
 fateful part already in my life ; the young prince had come 
 into contact with me at eventful moments ; and I had loved 
 Constance, and the prince had inspired me with interest and 
 sympathy such as an older brother might feel for a younger. 
 What had happened appeared to me awful, and what was to 
 happen, terrible. True I had again a dim consciousness 
 that I could do nothing to hinder the march of fate, that I 
 had started opon an idle, an insane expedition ; but what 
 was this to the voice that cried within : It must not be ! it 
 must not be ! 
 
 In this intense excitement which now seems to me to have 
 bordered on insanity, I reached the lodgings of the actor. 
 He was greatly surprised at seeing me, but received me with 
 politeness, and conducted me from the room in which I found 
 him with one of his companions at the theatre, into another 
 apartment to hear what I had to say. 
 
 But what had I to say ? Good heavens, there was so 
 much to be said, or else so little ! The much I could not 
 tell him, for I felt that I had no right to disclose the secret, 
 and that if I had revealed it, he would have considered it a 
 wretched device suggested by the prince's cowardice. And 
 the little — that the duel must not take place — what good 
 could that do? What could the man do but shrug his 
 shoulders and look sharply into my eyes to see if I was quite 
 in my senses ? . He was a young man with a face wasted by 
 a life of dissipation, and yet handsome, and with very expres- 
 sive large dark eyes, and I felt how my cheeks flushed under 
 their steady gaze. Under their gaze, and at the words 
 which almost forced their way through my lips, the words 
 that if he desired vengeance on Constance's lover — one 
 who had been her lover at a time when he claimed her as his 
 own — he should select the right man — he should come to 
 me rather than the prince. And though I bit my lips to 
 
654 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 restrain myself from saying this, the words forced their way 
 through my teeth in a hoarse hissing tone, which the other 
 probably took for the accents of rage that could scarcely be 
 controlled. 
 
 " That is your business then," he said, rising from his 
 chair. " A favored or a betrayed lover, I do not know 
 which. Very well : I shall meet you, sir, you may rely upon 
 it ; and every one who has or pretends to have any claim 
 upon the lady's favor. But each in his turn, sir, each in his 
 turn ; you have come some hours too late ; and you will per- 
 ceive that I can settle with my antagonists only in the order 
 in which they present themselves. Is there any other way 
 in which I can serve you ? " 
 
 He made me a polite bow, as he finished, and added : 
 " Through this door " — indicating by a gesture — " you can 
 pass at once into the hall." . 
 
 I had also arisen and stood facing him. I could have 
 stricken this slender delicate man, feeble and nerveless from 
 a life of dissipation, to the earth with a single blow ; the 
 puny arm which he extended towards the door with a theat- 
 rical gesture as I hesitated, I could have crushed in my 
 hand. It was the only time in my life that I was ever 
 tempted to abuse my physical strength ; but I withstood the 
 temptation, and forced myself out of the room and out of the 
 house. 
 
 The coach was still standing at the door. 
 
 " Where am I to drive now ? " asked the man. 
 
 I directed him to Constance's lodging, and we drove off. 
 It was bitter cold, and the glass of the coach-window was 
 encrusted with sleet, the crystals of which sparkled and glit- 
 tered in the light of the street-lamps as we passed them. I 
 noticed it, and mechanically counted the seconds that elapsed 
 until we passed another lamp, when I again observed the 
 sparkling and glittering, and recalled to mind certain optical 
 laws which seemed to bear upon this phenomenon, as if I 
 had nothing else in the world to do on my way to see Con- 
 stance von Zehren, Prince Prora's sister. 
 
 The coach stopped. I 
 
 Notwithstanding the lateness of the hour — ^it was now 
 probably eleven o'clock — the door was opened at once ; the 
 hall and stairway were lighted up : they seemed in this house 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 655 
 
 to be accustomed to late arrivals and departures. As I rang 
 at the door upon which stood, in great golden letters, " Ada 
 Bellini, Actress at the Theatre Royal," I heard the rustling 
 of a dress inside, and the next moment Constance stood be- 
 fore me. She had doubtless expected a different visitor, and 
 started back with a cry. I closed the door, caught her by 
 the hand as, with a face white with terror, she endeavored* 
 to escape, and said : 
 
 " I must speak with you, Constance. " 
 
 " You want to murder me ! " she said. 
 
 "No ; but I intend to prevent another being murdered on 
 your account. Come ! " 
 
 I drew her, half by force, into the brightly lighted, almost 
 gorgeous parlor which she had just left, leaving the door 
 open after her, and led her to a chair in which she took her 
 seat, her eyes uneasily watching all my movements. 
 
 " Have no fear," I said. " Do not be in the' least alarmed. 
 Once in long-past days you called me your faithful George, 
 who was to kill all the dragons lurking in your path. Hith- 
 erto I have had no opportunity ; or did not use it if I had. 
 The hour is now come ; but I cannot do it alone : you must 
 help me and will help me." 
 
 " Are you assured of that ? " she asked. 
 
 Her face had suddenly assumed another expression ; the 
 terror which had been previously imprinted upon it, had 
 vanished and made way for a look of dark hatred, the same 
 look that it wore that night when she adjured me to avenge 
 her on the prince. 
 
 I do not know how I found the words, but I said what I 
 had come to say. 
 
 " What does the prince pay you for it ? " 
 
 This question was her reply. 
 
 It was the same reply that I had expected from the actor, 
 and it was not to hear this that I had held my tongue before 
 him. Here it was different : it was the sister to whom I was 
 speaking : she must believe me : I must find the place in her 
 heart : nature could not so belie herself. 
 
 And whether it was that I succeeded in touching the mys- 
 terious bond that unites two beings whose veins flow with 
 the same blood ; whether it was that Constance's clear intel- 
 ligence could not reject the proof that I offered, I saw that 
 
6s6 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 the dark look passed away from her face, and gave way to a 
 confusion, an astonishment, that passed into actual horror. 
 
 " It was that, then ! " she murmured ; " that was the rea- 
 son ! And that then was the reason that I hated my father 
 — no, he was not my father — and that he hated me I That 
 — but then she must have known it ! no, no, it cannot be ! " 
 
 She had sprung from her chair. 
 
 " Where are you going ? " I asked, seizing her hand. 
 
 She tore herself loose and rushed from the room. 
 
 I remained, hesitating what to do ; I feared for a moment 
 she was going to kill herself ; and then I heard her coming 
 back, not alone. 
 
 She re-entered, dragging after her the decrepit form of an 
 old woman, whom under other circumstances I should have 
 taken for a housekeeper or something of the sort, and in 
 whom I recognized, with a shudder of disgust, old Pahlen. 
 
 How this horrible creature, after her escape from prison, 
 found her way to her mistress, I never learned ; but the 
 closer the relations that had existed, as mistress and servant, 
 between them, the fiercer was the rupture, and more fright- 
 ful the reckoning. 
 
 " Here ! here ! " cried Constance, dragging the woman 
 almost to my feet, " here she is ! George. I adjure you by 
 heaven and all that is holy, kill this monster who would have 
 plunged me into horrible crime." 
 
 Constance's words, her passion, my presence, all combined 
 overwhelmed the wicked woman. I saw in her old wrinkled 
 face, in the sidelong look of her evil eyes, that she knew her 
 guilt ; and Constance saw it as well as I ; for as the creature 
 with faltering words tried to frame some excuse, she cut her 
 short with a cry of rage, almost a yell, that long after 
 sounded in my ears ; " Begone ! out of my sight ! wretch ! 
 monster ! " 
 
 The wretch was no doubt glad of the chance of escape for 
 which her sidelong eyes had been searching before, and 
 rushed out of the door. I never saw her again, and know 
 not how long afterwards she dragged out her wretched exist- 
 ence, nor when and how it ended. 
 
 Constance was pacing up and down the room, with a face 
 which showed her entire conviction of the truth, and wring- 
 ing her hands in anguish. Suddenly she threw hferself upon 
 
" Hammer and Anvil. 657 
 
 her knees in a corner of the room, and seemed to pour forth 
 her heart in agonized prayer. I observed that where she 
 knelt a small ivory crucifix was attached to the wall, and 
 that from time to time she separated her hands to make the 
 sign of the Cross, and then clasped them again in fervent 
 prayer. Later I learned, by chance, that Constance, when 
 in Italy, had returned to the Catholic church, the faith of her 
 mother. Whatever spiritual peace she may have afterwards 
 found, after confession and long penance, as the abbess of a 
 Roman convent, at this moment her prayers seemed to be un- 
 availing. She arose from the crucifix only to fall at my feet, 
 to clasp my knees, and to beg me to avert the frightful con- 
 sequences of what she had done. I raised her, saying that 
 I had already done all that was in my power, and that I had 
 come to her to learn if she could do nothing. 
 
 " There is but one means," she said ; " and that is to pre- 
 vail if possible upon Herr Lenz to quit the field — to leave 
 here immediately." 
 
 " How can we do that? The man is evidently your tool, 
 the tool of your revenge ; and it is no longer in your control 
 — or do you think it is ? " 
 
 " It may be, it may be," she said, in a low hurried tone. 
 " He knows that I do not love him ; he knows about Carl, 
 and that has made him furious ; but I know that he loves 
 me, and that for the prize of my hand, which I have always 
 refused him, he would consent to anything — to anything ! 
 Am I not fair enough, George, for a man to consent to any- 
 thing for my sake ? " 
 
 She threw back with trembling hands the dark lustrous 
 masses of hair from either side of her face, and smiled upon 
 me. I have only once in my life seen such a face, and that 
 was when, in the Glyptothek at Munich, I saw the Ronda- 
 nini Medusa, and then the world-celebrated mask seemed to 
 me but a weak copy. 
 
 " Come ! " I said. 
 , She was about to start just as she was : I wrapped her in 
 a cloak of furs which she had probably worn from the theatre, 
 and which was lying on the floor. We left the house and 
 drove to the lodging* of Herr von Sommer. The house was 
 closed. Some minutes passed before our repeated knocking 
 brought the porter to the door. 
 
658 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 " Herr von Sommer set out half an hour ago." 
 
 " Do you know where he was going ? " 
 
 " He did not say, further than that he would not be back 
 for several days." 
 
 " Is no one in the house that can give further informa- 
 tion ? " 
 
 " Hardly : he took his own servant with him." 
 
 " You have no idea where he was going ? " 
 
 " None. He went in a droschky." 
 
 I saw that nothing more was to be got out of the man, who 
 stood shivering in his sheepskin cloak ; and in fact he cut 
 short the interview by shutting the door with a muttered 
 oath. 
 
 Constance who had followed me, had heard all. 
 
 " Perhaps we can learn from him.'" 
 
 We drove to the palace of the prince. Our progress was 
 slow ; a furious gale was blowing, and the wretched horse 
 could scarcely drag the coach through the snow-drifts. I 
 fancied that our own slow journey was an emblem of repent- 
 ance, which toils painfully after the evil deed that it can 
 never overtake. 
 
 At ]ast we reached the palace. As we got out, I cast an 
 involuntary look towards the sky. From a clear space, the 
 blackness of which contrasted with the white clouds that 
 were driving with arrowy speed across the sky, looked down 
 upon us the calm eternal stars. The words of Constance's 
 favorite song came into my my mind : 
 
 •' All day long the bright sun loves me, 
 Woos me with his glowing light j 
 But I better love the gentle 
 Stars of night." 
 
 Alas, this starry love had guided her far astray — ^had brought 
 her at last here, in this fearful night, to the house where the 
 sister was knocking at the door of her brother whom she 
 had involved in the web of death. 
 
 The palace was dark ; only the two lamps on either side 
 the great entrance were burning, and their golden light, in 
 which the snow flakes were once more fluttering down, shone 
 dimly, as it had done a year before at the unhappy meeting 
 between us two at this very spot. 
 
r _ ■ 
 
 s 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 659 
 
 I rang the bell : I heard its hollow clamor dully reverbe- 
 rating in the hall of stone, as in a great sepulchral vault. 
 No one came. At last after minutes of agonizing expecta- 
 tion, the door was opened : a man in his shirt-sleeves, with 
 a light in his hand, stood before me. The fellow's face was 
 flushed with drinking and his eyes glassy ; it was evident 
 that in the servants' hall the master's absence had been 
 turned to good account. He was about to close the door in 
 my face, but I set my foot against it and pushed in. The 
 man then recognized me, having seen me at the palace twice 
 already to-day, and probably before at Rossow. He answered 
 my questions with disagreeable servility. His highness had 
 driven out half an hour before with the count ; not in his 
 own carriage, but in a hired droschky taken from the stand. 
 He did not know where his highness had gone ; his highness 
 often went out in a droschky. He would certainly not be 
 back until very late, if he came back at all to-night. He, 
 for his part, had leave to go to bed. 
 
 It was evident that it was high time the fellow was making 
 use of this permission, for he tottered with sleep while he 
 stammered out these words. It was the same report that I 
 had received at the other house : both parties had already 
 left the city, to go heaven only knew where : somewhere 
 where their meeting might be undisturbed. I said to Con- 
 stance that we could do no more. 
 
 " I will go home and pray," she said. 
 
 Was it a reminiscence from the tragedy in which she had 
 been playing ? Was it really for her the close of the tragedy 
 of her life } She spoke no word further as we went home, 
 except that once she said : 
 
 " I have at least helped you to your happiness." 
 
 1 do not know what she meant. 
 
 -o- 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 WHEN I reached home it was one o'clock— ^a fact 
 which I could scarcely comprehend. It seemed to 
 me as if not hours but weeks had elapsed since I 
 parted from Hermine. I went on tip-toe to her room and 
 
66o 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 bent over her bed, where she lay sleeping, one arm beneath 
 her head, like a slumbering child. And like that of a child 
 was the expression of her face, as though a happy dream 
 were passing ^through her spirit. It seemed to me like a 
 crime to sit watching, with a world of sorrow and anguish in 
 my soul, by the side of this blessed peace ; and yet slumber 
 was impossible to me. So I put the shade before the night- 
 lamp again, and went to my own bed-chamber where I had 
 already lighted a lamp. 
 
 In the dim light of this lamp which only made a few ob- 
 jects in the room visible while the rest were plunged in 
 darkness, I sat for hours before the hearth in which the last 
 spark had long died out from the ashes, revolving in my 
 breast thoughts indescribably painful. In vain did I en- 
 deavor to recall my old cheerful courage ; it seemed to have 
 died out, like the embers in the ashes before me, which had 
 once glowed as brightly and sparkled as cheerfully : in vain 
 did I try to bring to my memory all the goodness and kind- 
 ness that life had brought me hitherto, and in which it still 
 was rich ; nothing would appear to me in the old light : all 
 was empty, gray, and dead, as though the world were but a 
 scene of devastation and decay, and I were wandering com- 
 fortless and alone, among the ruins of splendors long passed 
 away. 
 
 A reaction from my excessive excitement must have over- 
 come me at last. I dreamed that there was a gray twilight 
 that was neither night nor day. I was wandering alone upon 
 the bleak ridge of the promontory at Zehrendorf, and a bit- 
 ter piercing wind was blowing from the sea. All was waste 
 and desolate, and there was nothing to be seen but the ruin 
 of the old Zehrenburg, which rose dumb and defiant in the 
 twilight. But when I looked at it, it was not the old castle, 
 but a gigantic statue of stone, which was the Wild Zehren 
 looking with dull glazed eyes towards the west, where his sun 
 had set forever in the eternal sea. And though no light 
 illuminated the gray twilight, a bright glitter flashed from a 
 golden chain which was on the neck of the stone giant who 
 was the Wild Zehren, and spurs of gold gleamed upon his 
 feet of stone, and brightly flashed the bare blade of the 
 broad knight's sword which lay across his knees of stone. 
 And as, full of inward terror, I watched the statue, a small 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 66 1 
 
 figure came through the tall broom and drew near the stone 
 giant, which it crept lurkingly around, and watched from all 
 sides. And the queer small figure was the commerzienrath, 
 and he made the oddest faces and cut the strangest capers 
 when he found the giant was so fast asleep. Suddenly he 
 began to clamber up the knees, then stood upon tip-toe and 
 took the golden chain from the giant's neck and hung it 
 around his own, then sprang down and took the sword, and 
 lastly the golden spurs, which he buckled on. Then with 
 ridiculous f>omposity he strode backwards and forwards in 
 the knight's accoutrements, and tried to brandish the sword, 
 but could not lift it, while his spurs kept catching in the high 
 broom and tripping him, and the heavy chain upon his 
 shoulders pressed him down, so that he suddenly became a 
 decrepit and bowed old man who could scarcely stand upon 
 . his feet, and still tried to balance himself like a rope-dancer, 
 upon the sharp edge of the precipice where the chalk-clifF 
 fell perpendicularly to the sea. I strove to call to him to 
 have a care for Hermine's sake, but I could neither speak 
 nor move ; and suddenly he fell over the cliff. I heard the 
 heavy fall of his body upon the pebbly beach, and the giant 
 begun to laugh, a laugh so loud, so terrible that I awakened 
 in fright, and with wildly-beating heart looked around the 
 room, into which, through the curtains, there fell a gray twi- 
 light which was neither night nor day, just as it had been in 
 my dream, and I still heard the resonant peals of laughter, 
 but they were blows with which some impatient hand was 
 battering at the house-door. I hastened to open it myself. 
 
 " What is the matter.?" I asked. 
 
 " A message for Herr Hartwig, and — and — ^ah ! you are 
 there yourself, Herr Hartwig, I see." 
 
 It was a servant from the hotel at which for many years 
 my father-in-law had been in the habit of stopping whenever 
 he came to the town. 
 
 " Yes ; what is the matter ?" 
 
 " My master sends his respects, and — and the Herr Com- 
 merzienrath has just been found dead in his bed." 
 
 I stared aghast into the face of the man : he probaWy 
 thought that I had not understood him, and stammered out 
 his awkward message again ; but I had perfectly well under- 
 stood him at first ; that is, I had understood the meaning of 
 
662 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 his words. The commerzienrath has been found dead in his 
 bed. That is very easily said, and as easily understood. 
 The commerzienrath had been found dead in his bed. 
 
 " I will come at once," I said. 
 
 The man hastened off; I went back to my room, put on 
 my overcoat and hat, took a pair of dark gloves instead of 
 the light ones I had worn the previous evening — all quite 
 mechanically, as if I were going out about some ordinary 
 business. " The commerzienrath has been found dead in his 
 bed," I repeated, as I would have repeated a report brought 
 to the office that a belt had broken in such and such a shop. 
 
 Then suddenly a pang darted through me as if a dagger 
 had been thrust into my breast. 
 
 " Poor child !" I muttered, " poor child, how will she bear 
 it ? But there is so much misfortune in the world ; so much 
 misfortune, and he was an old man." , 
 
 Thus I left the house, in which the inmates already began 
 to be stirring. 
 
 '* You are going out early this morning," said the porter, 
 coming out of his lodge. " Anything happened at the 
 works ?" 
 
 I did not answer : not until I had reached the street did I 
 comprehend the meaning of the man's words. It was now 
 near seven o'clock, and already clear daylight. The wind 
 had hauled to westward, and was blowing hard. It was 
 raining : streams of water poured from the roofs, and the 
 heavy snow that had fallen in the night was mostly changed 
 into gray slush, through which the bakers' and milkmens' 
 carts were toiling heavily. I was shivering, and said to my- 
 self that it was a very disagreeable morning ; but no other 
 feeling awakened in me. At a corner I met a hearse with 
 no following of carriages ; the driver upon his high seat had 
 pulled his cocked hat down over his face ; the broken-down 
 horses were going at a half-trot ; the hearse slipped about 
 in the slush, and the threadbare black pall that was hung 
 over the hearse flapped to and fro in the wind. 
 
 "That cannot be the commerzienrath," I said, looking 
 after the hearse with a vacant mind. 
 
 Thus I reached the hotel. 
 
 " Number eleven : first door to the right at the top of the 
 stairs," said the porter. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 663 
 
 He accompanied me up the stairs, more, no doubt, from 
 curiosity than sympathy, and told me that the Herr Com- 
 merzienrath had arrived in the last train yesterday evening, 
 and he had been ordered to wake the commerzienrath at 
 half-past six this morning, as he had a note to send to Herr 
 Hartwig. He knocked at the door punctually to the minute, 
 and the Herr Commerzienrath had called out quite plainly : 
 " Very well ; let Louis bring my coffee ; " and when ten 
 minutes later, Louis took the coffee up, the commerzienrath 
 did not answer, and they found he was dead. Who would 
 have expected it ? Such a robust old gentleman ! And 
 they sent off at once for Doctor Snellius, because he was 
 Herr Hartwig's family physician, and the doctor would cer- 
 tainly be here in a minute. " This door, Herr Hartwig, this 
 door." r * 
 
 The door was ajar. The landlord, the head-waiter, and 
 another man, if I remember rightly, were standing in the 
 large room, into which the dim light fell through the half- 
 drawn curtains. At the farther end of the room was a bed, 
 before which two lights were burning on a small table. 
 
 " We left everything as we found it," said the landlord in 
 a low tone, as he went with us to the bed. " It is a rule 
 with me in such cases to exercise the greatest discretion. 
 One has then no reason to reproach oneself, and avoids much 
 inconvenience. The Herr Commerzienrath is lying precisely 
 as Louis found him ; and there lies the tray with coffee 
 where Louis put it down." 
 
 There lay the tray with coffee where Louis had put it down, 
 and there lay the commerzienrath as Louis had found him. 
 The light from the two candles, their long wicks unsnuffed, 
 fell brightly enough upon his face into which I now gazed. 
 It was the third time in my life that I had looked closely 
 into the face of the dead. And naturally the other two faces 
 rose in my memory ; that of the Wild Zehren, that of my 
 dear and fatherly friend, and now here was this. In the 
 sombre features of the Wild Zehren had lain gloomy defiance, 
 like those of an Indian chief, who, bound fast to the death- 
 stake, sings taunting songs at his tormentors; upon the 
 mild face of his noble brother had lain a sublime calm, as 
 ui^n the face of one who dies for the sake of others. How 
 different was the face before me ! About the large mouth 
 
664 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 hovered something like the mocking smile which he usually 
 wore when he thought he had overreached any one ; his 
 eyes half shut, as he used to shut them when he wished to 
 hide his real meaning : over all the old, wrinkled, yellow 
 face was spread the deceitful cloud in which he loved to hide 
 himself, only that the cloud was drawn now a little closer than 
 usual, and it was not his old cuttle-fish manoeuvre, but death. 
 
 " And we were so cheerful last night," whispered the host. 
 " We sat in the dining-room until half-past one, and drank 
 three bottles of champagne. The Railroad Director Schwelle 
 was with us. I have warned the old gentleman often enough ; 
 at his years one should be more prudent. And such a clear 
 head ! Such a head for business ! And here lies the note 
 that was to be sent to you this morning." 
 
 It was a leaf apparently torn from his pocket-book, with 
 half a page of writing on it ; the pencil with which he had 
 written, lay by it. I took up the paper ; the characters were 
 very legible, even firmer than his writing usually was of late : 
 
 " Dear Son : I arrived here yesterday evening, and would 
 like to speak with you before you go home from the works. 
 May I ask you to wait for me ? I must first go on 'Change, 
 where I shall meet many envious faces to-day. They will 
 see to-day how soon an old hand can grind little notches 
 out of his blade. But more of this when we meet. If you 
 are engaged out, please excuse yourself, as I should like to 
 sit at your table once more. But no preparations for me, I 
 beg. Only, if you can manage it conveniently, my favorite 
 dish, Magdeburg cabbage, and a little " 
 
 The bill of fare was broken off, and here lay the guest. 
 
 " Death overtook him while he was writing," said the 
 landlord, whose discretion had not hindered him from look- 
 ing over my shoulder into the paper. " How sudden it 
 comes, sometimes ! " 
 
 At this moment the doctor stood among us : I had not 
 heard him enter. He nodded to me without speaking, and 
 leaned over the dead man. Thus he remained sometime 
 and then he raised himself up and said to the landlord : 
 
 " I wish you would heat for me about a wine-glassful of 
 pure Jamaica rum. It must be perfectly pure rum, and must 
 be brought to a boil. You would probably do better to look 
 after it yourself." 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 66-5 
 
 " Certainly, certainly," said the landlord. " It is my duty 
 in such cases to do everything that lies in my power." 
 
 " And do you go and see that I get it at once ; and you, 
 young man, tell my driver to wait for me." 
 
 "Yes sir," said both the waiters at once, and hastened 
 after the landlord. 
 
 " Have you any hope ? " I asked. 
 
 The doctor did not answer. He gave a hurried glance at 
 the door, then stepped again to the bed, threw back the cover- 
 lid which the dead man had drawn up over breast and arms 
 as high as the chin, and then I saw that he took out a small 
 phial which he had probably found under the cover in the 
 stiffened hand of the corpse. He smelled its contents cau- 
 tiously for a moment, then wrapped it in a piece of paper 
 and put it in his waistcoat pocket. 
 
 " Unless there is some especial reason for it," he said, 
 "your wife need not know that her father has poisoned 
 himself" 
 
 I groaned aloud. 
 
 " Courage ! courage ! " said the doctor ; " this is a world 
 in which things are often desperately dark. But this cannot 
 be helped now, and you have to think of your wife and 
 children." 
 
 As I went home an hour later, the wind was howling as 
 furious as ever through the rainy streets, and at the same 
 corner I met the same hearse, now coming back in a slouch- 
 ing trot as before. I looked at it without the least emotion 
 or feeling, which seemed indeed to have perished forever in 
 my breast. Yes, yes, the doctor was right : it was often 
 desperately dark in this world ; and I do not know that it 
 would have seemed darker to me had I known what I did 
 not know, that in the palace of the prince, which I had to 
 pass on my way home, behind the lowered curtains, the last 
 of the male line of the princes of Prora-Wiek, counts of 
 Ralow, was giving up his young life under the hands of the 
 surgeons. 
 
666 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 IT is often desperately dark in this world ; who can say : 
 " It cannot be darker now ? " 
 When I reached home there was a running and a 
 calling — something had happened. An hour before she had 
 rung for me, and I was not to be found. "She was taken 
 in a dreadful way ; but luckily what was most needed was 
 ready at hand ; for the doctor " 
 
 " He is close behind me," I said, and hurried into the 
 room, from which came the most heart-breaking cries. 
 
 " Courage, dearest friend, courage," said the doctor an 
 hour or two later : " it is a little too soon, and — but there 
 are often worse cases, I think — but stay here a few minutes 
 and breathe a little fresh air ; you are terribly excited ; you 
 cannot bear it." 
 
 " She has to bear it," I cried, wringing my hands. 
 
 " Of course," he answered. " Come with me." 
 
 The day was fine, notwithstanding the cold night and the 
 gray rainy morning ; the March sun had broken gloriously 
 through the clouds, and shone dazzlingly from the clear-blue 
 sky : the thawing snow was dropping from all the roofs and 
 pouring from all the rain-spouts, and in the thick branches 
 of the trees of the garden upon which the windows opened, 
 birds were fluttering and twittering, proclaiming that winter 
 was at last over and the spring had come. 
 
 But I had no ear for this proclamation : I had no faith in 
 the blue sky and the running water ; I awaited other tidings — 
 awaited them with fervent prayers and passionate vows, such 
 as men offer in the time of sore extremity ; and the tidings 
 came at sunset, in a tiny piping voice that seemed to go 
 directly to my heart. 
 
 Yes, now it was spring. I saw the spring sunlight in the 
 happy smile of the pale young mother ; I saw the bright 
 spring sky in her blue eyes that looked smilingly up to 
 me in a soft tremulous light such as I had never before seen 
 in them, and then were turned with beaming love upon her 
 babe. 
 
 " It is a girl, after all," she whispered. " You will spoil 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 667 
 
 her terribly, and love her a great deal more than me ; but I 
 will not be jealous, I promise you." 
 
 And the next day the sun was shining again, and the 
 heaven still blue and the birds jubilant. 
 
 " If the weather keeps so fine, we can soon go to Zehren- 
 dorf," she said. " It is very well that you have not come to 
 a definite settlement with the prince. He has been very 
 kind and obliging to us, it is true, but still I think you had 
 better reconsider the matter with my father. Why does my 
 father not come "i You have written to him, haven't you ? " 
 
 " Certainly ; but he had started on a journey. And you 
 must not talk so much." 
 
 " I feel quite strong : I only wish I could give the little 
 one some of my strength. Oh me ! such a giant as you are, 
 George, and such a tiny morsel of a babe ! But it has your 
 eyes, sir ! " 
 
 " I hope it has yours, madame." 
 
 " Why so ? " 
 
 " Because then it would have the loveliest in the world." 
 
 " What a flatterer ! But to come back to Zehrendorf : we 
 will have to keep it on account of the child, which will need 
 country air, the doctor says. I can see us both sitting 
 under the great beech which I saved because you carved 
 your name on it — for somebody else, sir ! — and now to be sit- 
 ting with wife and child, a prosaic, common-place husband, 
 where you once stood full of romantic dreams — ^is it not very 
 comical .'' " 
 
 " Oh yes, it is inexpressibly comical ; but now you really 
 must not talk any more." 
 
 " Your commands shall be obeyed, my lord." 
 
 And her blue eyes laughed so saucily, and she was so full 
 of life and hope and happiness, so merry, and full, of mirth- 
 ful fancies ; it cut me to the heart when I saw and heard 
 her, and had to leave her, under the pretext of urgent busi- 
 ness, to go and bury her father, who had killed himself to 
 avoid the disgrace of a shameful bankruptcy. And this day 
 too was a bright golden day of spring ; only here and there 
 were these drops falling from the roofs, for the bright sun 
 and warm air had dried the moisture ; in the sky, making it 
 a still deeper blue, were standing great white clouds, and 
 the birds in the budding trees were thinking seriously of set- 
 
668 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 ting up housekeeping — who could help looking cheerfully in 
 spite of all, into the future that was to make all right ? Who 
 would not shake off his winter cares when he saw how every- 
 thing was springing and budding and blooming ? But — 
 
 One night in spring there came a frost ; 
 It nipped the tender blossoms. 
 
 Let this sad refrain of the old song say for me what I can- 
 not bring myself to narrate in words. It needs no comment; 
 nor do the two fresh graves, one larger and one tiny hillock, 
 close side by side ; nor the flowers which loving hands have 
 strewn above them. 
 
 One night in spring there came a frost ; 
 " > - ' • It nipped the tender blossoms. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 ONLY work can make us free ! 
 I had opportunity enough in the two following years 
 to test this leading aphorism of the wisdom of my 
 teacher, in all its bearings. 
 
 Work indeed made me free. 
 
 But free from what ? 'I 
 
 First from the meshes of the dishonest web in which the 
 association with my father-in-law had involved me, the meshes 
 from which he for his part had torn himself swiftly loose by 
 a self-inflicted death, and from which I gradually disengaged 
 myself with incredible toil, which I had to disentangle, untie, 
 straighten out, if I would not let disgrace and obloquy rest 
 upon the name of the man who had been the father of my 
 wife. 
 
 It came to light that, like a desperate player, he had given 
 up the game before it was quite lost. But in truth that is 
 not exactly the right word. It was lost for him ; for what 
 alone could have saved him, could have set him free, as it 
 set me free who took his obligations upon myself, was con- 
 scientious, honest, manly work. But this was to him impos- 
 
Hantm^ and Anvil. 
 
 669 
 
 sible : he had never accustomed himself to it, had never be- 
 lieved in its efficacy and its mighty results. When I spoke 
 with enthusiasm to him of the future that would bloom for 
 our enterprises, and that out of the waste place of ruins that 
 he had despised for so many years, there would arise a star 
 of life and prosperity whose genial influences would extend 
 far and wide, he only smiled in contemptuous incredulity, 
 and called me an enthusiast, a dreamer, who would end by 
 burning his fingers, or at best would only pull the sweet 
 chestnuts out of his furnace-fires for others to feast upon. 
 
 And he had gone on and gambled on upon 'Change, in 
 stocks, in foreign loans, in spirits, in cotton, in heaven knows 
 what, just as he had formerly gambled in contraband goods 
 and in uninsured ships, until at last the cards so fell that he 
 saw no escape but to quit at once the table and his life. 
 
 I could never rid myself of the thought that the shame of 
 having to appear so small before me, to whom he had always 
 so vaunted himself ; to have to admit that I was right with 
 my stupid honesty ; the shame of this it was, I say, drove 
 to his death the man who had inordinate vanity, but not a 
 trace of genuine pride. He knew that it was all over with 
 his wisdom, his superiority ; and worst of all, it was all over 
 with his authority : and he grudged me what was to come in 
 the future, since I had so often, both in jest and earnest, 
 foretold him that a new time had come ; an age of brother- 
 hood, of equity, of justice, of mutual help ; and that the old 
 egotism with its narrow schemes, its little tricks and petty 
 craft, would perish at the coming of the great new era. 
 
 Perhaps one or another of my readers may think that in 
 thus prophesying I drew too largely on my hopes and fancies, 
 and that the golden time of which I spoke lies still as then 
 upon the lap of the gods. 
 
 But I am merely writing the history of my own life ; and 
 I can only say that if my temperament be sanguine and my 
 views mclined to optimism, my own experiences in these 
 thmgs have not rendered turbid the free current of my blood, 
 nor shaken my pious belief in the better qualities of human 
 nature and beyond all, my faith in the approaching triumph 
 ot goodness and truth, even in our own day. Wherever in- 
 dustry and uprightness have gone hand in hand, in those 
 provmces where I am most at home— the provinces of indus- 
 
670 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 try and commerce — there and only there have I seen per- 
 manent successes achieved ; and if in politics it now and 
 then appears otherwise, this is but an appearance destined 
 soon to vanish and disclose the stern reality. 
 
 But, as I said, I am only writing the story of my own life, 
 which has taught me this lesson first and chiefest of all, and 
 at no time were the lessons more impressive than at the 
 period of which I am now speaking. And had I been the 
 worst of pessimists, the most splenetic of misanthropes, the 
 proofs of love, of kindness, and of devotion which were off- 
 ered me on all sides, would have taught me another and a 
 better faith. 
 
 On all sides, even where I had least expected them. 
 
 For instance from the old man whom during the building 
 of the new factory I had often seen in dressing-gown and 
 slippers, a little black cap on his bald head, and a long pipe 
 in his toothless mouth, standing by the paling which sepa- 
 rated the building-place from the gardens behind it, and with 
 whom I had occasionally exchanged a few friendly words, 
 without knowing or asking who he was. This old man came 
 to see me on one of the first days of my trials, while my 
 business misfortunes and my domestic afflictions were dealing 
 me blow after blow, and introduced himself as Herr Weber, 
 the former owner of the ground. He had heard, he said, 
 that my deceased father-in-law's affairs were not in the best 
 condition, and he had come to say to me that as for the pay- 
 ment I need be in no hurry — (my father-in-law had assured 
 me that the purchase had been paid for to the last farthing) 
 — and that he saw what trouble I was in, and that I had 
 never shunned to give my personal help wherever it was nec- 
 essary. As for the old gentleman, he would never have 
 lent him a penny ; but when active young men like myself 
 needed it, he had always a few thousands at their service, 
 say twenty or forty as might be wanted, and if- they would 
 be of any help to me, I might come and see him when I 
 pleased. 
 
 A day or two later came a letter in a big school-boy band 
 and the queerest spelling, from the good Hans, to the effect 
 that there was a considerable portion left of his mother's for- 
 tune, which was entirely at his disposal, and that it was at 
 my service to the last penny; but as he could not lay hands 
 
Hammer and Atwil. 671 
 
 upon the cash at once, he had in the meantime instituted a 
 very thorough search in his desk and in all his coats, with 
 astonishingly successful results, and he expected of my 
 friendship that I would allow him to send me this sum with- 
 out delay. Moreover, I knew, he said, that he was a better 
 manager than he seemed to be, and if I would permit him 
 to canter over every day to 2^hrendorf and look after things 
 a little there, it would be a real kindness both to his bay- 
 horse and himself 
 
 I scarcely need mention that the good doctor offered me 
 his capital for the third time ; but this and all the rest did 
 not move me so much, nor exercise such an influence on my 
 future, as the proposition made to me by a deputation of 
 the workmen of the factory, with Herr Roland at their head 
 as spokesman. They had heard, he said, that matters were 
 not in the condition they should be, and that there was dan- 
 ger that the works would pass into other hands ; that this 
 possibility was very alarming to them, and they had unani- 
 mously resolved to avert it, if it lay at all within their power. 
 They therefore begged to inquire if it would in any way 
 diminish my embarrassments if they one and all agreed to a 
 reduction of wages until the danger was over, and I was in a 
 condition to make good the arrears; releasing me at the 
 same time from all responsibility in case the hoped-for turn 
 of affairs did not come to pass. 
 
 It was some time before I could so far control my emotion 
 as to be able to answer, and then I said to the brave fellows 
 that I could never agree to accept their generous offer ; not 
 because I was ashamed to be under an obligation to my 
 comrades, but because, thanks to the friendly assistance I 
 had received from other sources, I was in a position to fulfil 
 all my engagements to them. 
 
 But I had something else, I said, in view. And here I 
 unfolded to them a project which I had long planned with 
 the doctor and Klaus, upon the model of similar enterprises 
 111 England, by which each of the workmen, according to the 
 degree of his skill and merit, became a participator in the es- 
 tablishment. I told them that a time of uncertainty, a crisis 
 like the present, was not suitable for putting this plan into - 
 execution, but that I was more resolved than ever to exert 
 all my powers to bring about a fitting time, and that I hoped 
 
672 Hammer and Anvii. 
 
 to be able to offer the matter to them definitely, perhaps 
 ■within a year. 
 
 And before a year had passed, I was able to redeem my 
 word. 
 
 Nor was I less fortunate in regard to the second point, 
 which I had held to with a kind of passion while I gave up 
 so much else so willingly : Zehrendorf still remained in my 
 possession, and I had not been forced to abandon a single 
 one of the useful improvements that had been commenced 
 there. On the contrary, all was thriving and prospering ; 
 and I had even commenced a new work, the draining of the 
 great moor, with the best results. The property was now 
 worth, if not the price which the commerzienrath had de- 
 manded for it, still very nearly that which the generous young 
 prince had offered at our memorable interview. I could not 
 look without sadness at the letter which he had written to 
 me that evening, before I went to him the second time, in 
 which he placed his credit at my disposal to an extent far 
 exceeding the sum mentioned. What had become of the 
 other letter in which he called upon his father to make good 
 this offer, in the event of his falling in the duel ? Doubtless 
 it never reached the hands for which it was intended, for the 
 old prince, who survived his son several years, was a man of 
 generous and noble character, and would have held sacred 
 the last wish of his unfortunate son. And the dishonesty of 
 those who intercepted this letter turned to my advantage. 
 I should certainly, in those first days of trial and confusion, 
 have parted at once with the property had the proposition 
 been made to me ; but as no one offered to buy it, and I was 
 not disposed to tlirow it away for a fourth of its value to 
 Herr von Granow, I was compelled to keep it, and I was 
 enabled to keep it, thanks to the generous help of my good 
 Hans, and — why should I not say it ? thanks to my own un- 
 tiring exertions. 
 
 But I had to thank labor for yet more than this. As she 
 set me free from the load of indebtedness which my father-in- 
 law had suddenly thrown up)on my shoulders, so she bathed 
 me in dragon's blood until I was invulnerable to the keen 
 arrows of grief which at first pierced my heart at the loss of 
 my wife and my child. It is true that under the covering 
 of apparent insensibility remained a deep-seated sorrow; 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 673 
 
 but the tears which I often wept in the evening when I came 
 home after the toils of the day to my solitary room, or when 
 I awaked in the night to a sense of my loneliness, had no 
 longer the old corrosive bitterness ; they flowed gently, and 
 less for my own loss than at the thought that one so loving, 
 so gentle, so graceful, so full of innocent mirth and light- 
 heartedness had been so untimely summoned away. And 
 yet here too there was something which almost seemed a 
 consolation. As her father had never loved any creature 
 upon earth but her, so she had loved him dearly, however 
 often he may have wounded her pride and sensibility by his 
 coarse and dishonorable nature. His death, the cause of 
 which could not be altogether kept secret, would have been 
 a fearful blow to her ; and how could she have passed through 
 this time of trouble, of comparative poverty, this almost des- 
 perate struggle, she, who from her earliest youth had found 
 life a long festival, and who only knew struggles and poverty 
 by hearsay ? How could she have borne to know that her 
 husband of whom she was so proud, whom her love placed 
 so high above all other men, was a debtor to his friends ? 
 And could she have entered with her whole heart into the 
 feast in which the chief of the establishment and his work- 
 men celebrated the founding of their co-operative associa- 
 tion, and I declared that from henceforth the distinction 
 between us of master and workmen was at an end ; that we 
 were all workmen and all masters in one common cause. 
 Could she have adapted herself to these relations ? Of a truth 
 she could ! For her love for me was greater than her pride. 
 
 She would have adapted herself to it, for she could well 
 play a part when she thought it necessary to do so ; but to 
 enter into it, to throw her heart into it, that she could never 
 have done ; and this thought remained like a faint dimness 
 upon her lovely portrait, which all my love and endearing 
 memories could not wipe away. I had to admit to myself 
 that in the tasks which were dearest and most sacred to me, 
 I must have been alone. 
 
 Alone ! 
 
 I do not know whether there are men who can endure the 
 
 sense of being alone ; but I know certainly that I do not 
 
 belong to such. And I was alone for the first time for many, 
 
 many years ; far more alone than in that solitary apprentice- 
 
 29 
 
674 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 ship I passed in the little house among the ruins. There I 
 had at least had the dreams of a golden future for my com- 
 panions ; now this future lay behind me as a past, as some- 
 thing irrevocably gone. I called myself ungrateful : there 
 was still so much left to me, and above all, my dear, my 
 beloved friends. There was the good Doctor Snellius, there 
 was my brave Klaus, there, over on the island, was my faith- 
 ful old Hans, and even good Fraulein Duff might have been 
 near me, if her parents — now very aged — in Saxony, with 
 whom she was staying, could have been prevailed upon to 
 part with her. And before all, there were Kurt and Benno, 
 now grown tall stately young men, and whom I often sport- 
 ively called m y staff and my prop. 
 
 In earnest as well as in sport : for Kurt had now become 
 the soul of the Technical Bureau, and the superiority of his 
 knowledge and his talents freely acknowledged by all, even by 
 Herr Windfang ; and Benno, who, half from natural inclina- 
 tion and half from affection to me, had turned farmer, knew 
 how to turn his knowledge of natural science to such account 
 at Zehrendorf as to astonish all who understood what he 
 was doing. 
 
 In truth I had no lack of friends, not to mention the hun- 
 dreds of stalwart men in the midst of whom I lived, and who 
 would have gone through fire and water at a sign from me, 
 and it would have been ungrateful, shamefully ungrateful, 
 had I spoken of being alone, so I did not speak of it ; but I 
 was alone, and I felt it, nor could all my labor banish this 
 feeling — indeed it seemed to strengthen it. 
 
 " You have worked too hard," said the doctor. " Even 
 such a nature as yours cannot keep this up. You must 
 break away — take a journey — recreate yourself a little. One 
 should study the Brunels and the Stephensons on their own 
 ground, as one studies Raphael and Michel Angelo. Only 
 don't stay away so long as Paula." 
 
 The doctor seemed to have startled himself by associating 
 my name thus with Paula's ; at least he tuned himself down 
 with an especially energetic effort, looked at me rather 
 doubtfully through his round spectacle-glasses, and said, as 
 if in answer to a question on my part : 
 
 " She is very well, and enjoying herself extremely ; she 
 writes to me from Meran " 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 675 
 
 And the doctor began to hunt for the letter in his old 
 
 fashion. , , , , 
 
 "From Meran?" I asked; "how long has she been 
 
 there?" , ^ ,. 
 
 " About — let me see — about a week. I thought a short 
 stay there would be beneficial to her. The prolonged stay 
 in the Italian climate does not seem to suit her." 
 
 " But I thought you said just now, doctor, that she was 
 very well ? " 
 
 " Well, so I did — that is to say — what I mean was — of 
 course she is well ; but better is better, and she has been 
 there now long enough. Oscar stays behind in Rome. Has 
 not Kurt told you all about it? " 
 
 " Not a word, from which I infer that he does not know it 
 himself Paula corresponds with scarcely any one but you." 
 
 " Well, I believe that is so," answered the doctor, " and I 
 know I ought to read her letters now and then to you and 
 the boys ; but somehow it always happens " 
 
 And the doctor made another dive into his breast-pocket, 
 then, as if in desperation, crammed his battered hat upon 
 his large bald head, and hurried off, leaving me once more 
 in absolute uncertainty as to what really were the contents 
 of Paula's letters, which he was always rummaging his pock- 
 ets for without ever finding. 
 
 That their contents had, directly or indirectly, some refer- 
 ence to me, was not to be doubted ; for what other reason 
 could the doctor have had in concealing these letters from 
 me so carefully? But my conjectures could penetrate no 
 further than this ; and I was obliged to admit to myself, with 
 deep grief, that I could no longer understand Paula. And 
 I also could not avoid the thought that she was herself re- 
 sponsible for this, and that it was the result of her own con- 
 duct, if my dearest friend, my sister, as she had so often 
 called herself, had become a stranger and a riddle to me. 
 And why ? I did not know, nor could I fathom the cause. 
 Was it a fault in me that I once loved her with all the 
 strength of my young, buoyant, confiding soul ? That after 
 she had so often, under such different circumstances, and in 
 so many ways, rejected my love, I had become like a ship 
 torn from its anchor and driven rudderless upon a rough sea ? 
 Was it a fault that even in my love for Hermine, I could not 
 
676 Hammer and Anvil. j 
 
 forget her, though I knew that she would remain forever dis- 
 tant from me, and that I had in future only to look up to her 
 as to the high inaccessible stars ? Must I pay so heavy a 
 penalty for what was as natural to me as to breathe ? Must 
 she on this account exclude me from the council of her 
 heart, in which I had before been so proud of my place ; 
 and forbid my participation in her hopes, her plans, her 
 wishes, her triumphs, and perhaps her disappointments ? 
 Must she for this deny the cordial interest which she had 
 once felt for me, and deny it at a time when all my friends 
 crowded around to help me with word and deed, and when 
 she had nothing for me but two or three lines which she 
 wrote from Rome, containing scarcely anything but the ex- 
 pression of a sympathy which in such cases is felt by mere 
 acquaintances ? 
 
 I -had become a stranger to her, that was plain ; or I should 
 have heard her sweet consoling voice in the dark hours that 
 followed Hermine's death. And she had grown a stranger 
 to me : I scarcely knew more of her than did the indifferent 
 crowd that stood before her pictures at the exhibition. I 
 knew as little as they why she, whose fresh venturous power 
 had charmed and astonished every one in her first pictures, 
 now for a long time seemed only to take pleasure in melan- 
 choly themes — in views in the most . desolate parts of the 
 Campagna, where sad-featured peasants watched their goats 
 among the ruins of long-past splendor ; in scenes upon the 
 Calabrian coast where a burning sun glowed pitilessly be- 
 tween the bare pointed rocks, and the solitude and desertion 
 seemed to sink into the beholder's soul. How did the choice 
 of such subjects, and the strangely serious, even gloomy 
 coloring, agree with the cheerful frame of mind which, ac- 
 cording to the doctor's report, she continually enjoyed ? 
 
 " Only one who is deeply unhappy can paint thus," I once 
 heard a lady dressed in mourning remark to her companion, 
 as they stood before one of these pictures. 
 
 " Of late her pictures have shown a great falling-off," said 
 a critic whose judgment carried great weight in the city. 
 " Such pictures please, because they flatter a certain leaning 
 towaids pessimism which belongs to most men of our time ; 
 but all largeness of conception and treatment is wanting. I 
 might say here is an egotistic sorrow which is forcibly im- 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 6^^ 
 
 posed upon nature. The execution, too, leaves much to be 
 desired : look here, and here " — and the critic p>ointed to 
 several places which he pronounced weak. " But her younger 
 brother is a genius indeed," he went on. " Have you seen 
 his aquarelles 7 Heavens! what fire and what life! And 
 he is still little more than a boy they say. He will be at the 
 top of the tree before long, mind my words." 
 
 It seemed that the public did not altogether agree with the 
 critic in his estimation of Paula's talents ; at all events they 
 fairly fought for her pictures, and paid the highest prices for 
 them. I, for my part, did not trust myself to form a judg- 
 ment, and in fact I had none ; I only knew that if Paula en- 
 joyed such unbroken happiness and cheerfulness as the doc- 
 tor reported, she gave this cheerfulness the strangest expres- 
 sion in the world. 
 
 The conversation in which the doctor informed me that 
 Paula and her mother were staying at Meran, took place in 
 February, nearly two years after my misfortunes. In the be- 
 ginning of the summer I heard again from him that she was 
 making sketching excursions in the Salzkammergut and 
 Tyrol, and somewhat later, that she would pass the latter 
 part of the summer in Thiiringen. 
 
 " She keeps coming nearer, nearer, all the time," said the 
 doctor ; " will you not now undertake your long-planned trip 
 to England ?" 
 
 " It seems," said I, looking straight into the doctor's spec- 
 tacles, " that you think I ought to celebrate Paula's return 
 by my own absence." 
 
 " I do not see how you arrive at this singular conclusion," 
 said the doctor. 
 
 " Nor do I see how otherwise to interpret your suggestion 
 that I should go away when Paula comes." 
 
 " Your wits are certainly wandering," he answered. 
 
 A few weeks later he surprised me with the news that he 
 thought of taking a journey the next morning to J., the 
 Thuringian town in which Paula was staying. Her health 
 seemed to be not so good as he could wish, though it was 
 true her letters were as cheerful as usual — here the doctor 
 made a motion toward his breast-pocket — but he would 
 rather see her for himself ; it was but a " cat's jump," and 
 he thought of returning the next day. 
 
678 Hammer and AnviL 
 
 " Bring her back with you," I said ; " perhaps she would 
 like to stay awhile here again." 
 
 The doctor looked at me fixedly. 
 
 " I would very gladly do you and her the pleasure of being 
 absent when she returns," I continued ; " but I really can 
 not now well leave the works for any length of time ; and 
 perhaps it will be sufficient if you tell her, doctor, that I have 
 suffered much in the last twelve months, and also learned 
 much ; for example, to use your own expression, my friend, 
 to live with half a heart. Will you tell her that ?" 
 
 I had done my best to speak as firmly as possible, but 
 could' not prevent my voice from trembling a little at the last 
 words, and my hand also trembled, which the doctor held 
 fast between both his own small and delicate hands, while he 
 looked steadfastly into my face through his round spectacle- 
 glasses. I 
 
 " Will you .''" I repeated, a little confused. 
 
 " I certainly will not ! " exclaimed the doctor, suddenly 
 dropping my hand, pushing me back into the chair from 
 which I had risen, and walking in an agitated manner up 
 and down the room ; then suddenly stopping before me, he 
 crowed in his shrillest tones : 
 
 " I certainly will not ! I am sick of this game of hide-and- 
 seek, and out it must come, happen what may. Do you 
 know, sir, or do you not know, that Paula loves you 'i Do 
 you know, or do you not know, that she has loved you for 
 ten years ? that she has loved you from the hour when you 
 saved her father from the axe of that murderous scoundrel 
 — I can't remember his name. That with this love for you 
 she has grown from the half child you first knew her, to 
 womanhood ? and that from that time there has been no 
 hour of her life when she has not loved you, and certainly 
 most of all at the times when she has seemed to love you 
 least — for example at the time when you, you brainless 
 mammoth, were fancying she was captivated by Arthur, who 
 was tormenting her about you, and asking whether it was 
 right and fair for the daughter of a prison-superintendent to 
 make an inexperienced young man, condemned to only 
 seven years' imprisonment, a prisoner for life ? Have you 
 any idea what it cost the poor girl to conceal her love from 
 you ? What it cost her to play the part of a sister and only 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 679 
 
 a sister towards you, that you might remain unfettered to 
 grasp boldly at whatever was highest and fairest in the 
 world, and be able to mount the ladder upon whose topmost 
 round the high-spirited girl wished to see the man she 
 loved ? What it cost her to send you to Zehrendorf to win 
 the bride she had destined for you ? What it cost her to 
 turn a smiling face upon your happiness ! And finally, what, 
 it cost her not to hasten to you in your misfortunes, not to 
 be able to say to you : ' Here, take my Hfe, my soul — all, all 
 is yours ? ' I ask you for the last time, do you know this, 
 sir, or do you not ? " In his excitement the doctor's voice 
 had reached a pitch from which all tuning down was impos- 
 sible. He did not even make the attempt, but instead, tore 
 off his spectacles, stared angrily at me with his sparkling 
 brown eyes, put on his glasses again, crammed his hat upon 
 his flushed skull until it covered his ears, turned abruptly 
 upon his heel and made for the door. 
 
 In two strides I overtook him. 
 
 " Doctor," I said, catching him by the arm, " how would it 
 do if you let me go to-morrow in your place ? " 
 
 " Do whatever you like ! " he cried, running out of the 
 room and banging the door behind him. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 THERE come days in our lives which we afterwards 
 remember as some blessed dream which knows 
 nothing of earthly sufferings or earthly restrictions, 
 in which we soar as on the pinions of eagles, strong and 
 high above all the little pitiful obstacles that otherwise so 
 lamentably hamper our feet. 
 
 Of such dream-like beauty was the day on which I took 
 the most memorable journey of my life : a wonderful summer 
 day, whose glorious brightness was not marred by the small- 
 est cloud, and yet palpitating in a mild balmy air that played 
 around my cheeks and brow, while the train whirled in rat- 
 tling speed through the lovely Thilringian country. It was 
 
68o Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 the first journey I had made in my life, at least the first 
 that was not a business trip, and the first also that took me 
 from my northern home into the sunny plains of Middle Ger- 
 many. The novelty of the scenery probably helped to make 
 everything appear to me doubly graceful and lovely : I could 
 not satiate myself with gazing at the soft undulating lines of 
 the hills ; at the sharply-defined crags whose summits were 
 crowned with ruined fortresses and ancient keeps, and whose 
 feet were laved by the clear water of winding rivers ; at the 
 flowing meadow-lands in which lines of trees with foliage of 
 brightest green marked the courses of the streams ; at the 
 cities and towns that lay so peacefully in the valley^ and at 
 the little villages that nestled so cosily among the trees. It 
 was not Sunday, but all these things wore a Sunday look, 
 even the men who were working alone in the fields and stop- 
 ped to look as the train rushed by, or those gathered in the 
 neat stations where we stopped. It was as if everybody was 
 travelling only for pleasure, and that even taking farewell 
 was not painful on such a lovely day. And then the meet- 
 ings of friends — the happy faces, the hand-shaking and kiss- 
 ing and embracing ! Every one of these scenes I watched 
 with the liveliest interest, and always with a feeling of 
 emotion, as if I had a portion in it myself 
 
 Thus I arrived in the afternoon at E., where I quitted the 
 railroad and engaged a carriage from a number that were at 
 the station to take me the remaining distance. We soon 
 left the level land and entered a valley through which the 
 road to " the forest " ran in many windings between hills on 
 either side. The journey lasted several hours, and the sun 
 was already declining as we slowly toiled up a mountain the 
 steepest of all, " but the last," said the driver. We had both 
 descended and were walking on either side the large and power- 
 ful horses, and keeping the flies off them with pine branches. 
 
 " Woa ! " cried the driver ; the horses stopped. 
 
 We had reached the summit, and stopped to let the horses 
 blow a little. 
 
 " That is our pride," said the man, as I looked with aston- 
 ishment at a primeval and gigantic oak which grew here in 
 an open space in the heart of the pine forest, and spread its 
 gnarled and weather-beaten boughs far up against the blue sky. 
 
 " That is a great curiosity," he went on. " People come 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 68 1. 
 
 from miles and miles to see that tree ; and it has been painted 
 I don't know how often. Not many days ago a young lady, 
 who has been staying with us a few weeks, came here and 
 made a picture of it. I drove her here myself ; I often drive 
 her about." 
 
 Absorbed in my own thoughts hitherto, I had, contrary to 
 my usual custom, spoken but little with the man, and indeed 
 scarcely noticed him, and now it seemed as if he and I were 
 old acquaintances, and had the most intimate interests in 
 common. I asked him the young lady's name ; not that I 
 had any doubt that it was Paula, and yet it was a sort of 
 shock to me when he pronounced it, and from his lips it 
 sounded strangely. And now the man, who- seemed to have 
 been awaiting his opportunity, became very communicative, 
 and told me, while we crossed the back of the mountain and 
 descended in a rattling trot, a multitude of things about the 
 charming young lady ; and the old lady her mother, who was 
 blind, but who recognized people at once by the voice ; and 
 about the old man, with the hooked nose and long gray mous- 
 tache and curly white hair, who was really only their servant, 
 but the ladies treated him as one of themselves ; and yester- 
 day a young gentleman had arrived, with a sunburnt face and 
 bright brown eyes and long brown hair, who was the young 
 lady's brother, and a painter too. 
 
 The carriage was clattering over the rough pavement of 
 the little town, and the talkative fellow was still chattering 
 about Paula and the rest. I had told him that I had come 
 on purpose to see that lady, and that he must put me down 
 at the inn at which he told me she was staying. 
 
 The carriage stopped. The head-waiter with two small 
 myrmidons^ rushed out ; two boys who saw a chance of their 
 services being called into requisition as guides came up to 
 have a look at the strange gentleman. Concealing my agi- 
 tation, I asked the head-waiter if I could have a room, and 
 if either of the guests was at home. 
 
 I could have a room, he said, but neither of the guests 
 was at home : the lady and the young gentleman had gone 
 out for a walk, and the young lady had started for the moun- 
 tains with Herr Sussmilch early in the afternoon : she went 
 into the mountains every afternoon : she painted up there, and 
 hardly ever came back until after sundown. 
 29* 
 
682 Hammer mid Anvil. 
 
 " Do you know the place ?" 
 
 " Certainly ; perfectly well : this boy heje has carried the 
 lady's things there often enough. Say, Carl, you know where 
 the lady goes to paint?" 
 
 " To be sure," said the boy. " Shall I take the gentleman 
 there?" | 
 
 " Yes," I said, and turned to start at once. 
 
 " You need not be in any hurry, sir," the attentive head- 
 waiter called after me ; " you will reach the place in half an 
 hour.^' 
 
 My little guide ran on ahead, and I followed him along 
 the main street of the little town, planted with lindens, with 
 groups of travellers seated here and there before the doors, 
 and reached the fields upon which still lay the golden even- 
 ing light, and then entered the cool twilight of the woods. 
 We pursued the wide road which ascended the mountains by 
 a steep acclivity for the most part, but occasionally ran along 
 small level glades, and was elsewhere inclosed on both sides 
 by the tall forest trees. It was wonderfully quiet in the cool 
 pines : no breeze stirred, scarcely was the silence broken at 
 rare intervals by the chirp of a bird : the blue sky looked 
 down from above, and I felt as if the path climbed up to 
 heaven. 
 
 No one met us on the way ; only when we were almost at 
 the summit and had turned to the right from the main road 
 into the wood and reached an open space where stood a sort 
 of hunting-lodge, I saw a couple of men who were sitting 
 upon benches with mugs of beer in their hands. Out of the 
 wood, directly opposite the spot at which we had entered the 
 clearing, came a man followed by a boy carrying an easel 
 and other painter's apparatus. I recognized the sergeant at 
 once ; and my little guide said that the boy who was carry- 
 ing the things was his brother Hans, and that they were 
 coming from the place where the lady used to paint. This 
 place was only five minutes walk distant, and we had only to 
 follow the way by which the sergeant and Hans had just 
 come. 
 
 My old friend, who was talking in a rather animated man- 
 ner to the boy, who probably was not carrying the things 
 carefully enougla to please him, had not observed me, and I 
 was glad of it, for I felt that I was not in a frame of mind to 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 6S^ 
 
 talk with him. So I gave my guide a sign to wait for me ; 
 and crossed the clearing towards the path he had pointed 
 out. 
 
 It was a broad path, overgrown with short green grass 
 upon which the foot fell noiselessly, and the pines on both 
 sides were of such growth that their branches almost en- 
 tirely roofed it in, so that only here and there the red sunset 
 glow pierced to the green twilight. It gradually but contin- 
 ually ascended, and I walked on, not even conscious that I 
 was walking or moving my limbs, as one ascends heights in 
 a dream. A breathless expectation, a joyful fear possessed 
 me wholly. Thus might an immortal spirit feel which is 
 about to enter the presence of its judge, and with all its timid 
 hesitation, knows still that this judge is mercy itself 
 
 And now it grew lighter and more open with every step, 
 and I passed out of the forest upon the crest of the moun- 
 tain, which to my right hand rose to a mighty height, while 
 westwardly, to the left, it sloped away to a deep valley, over 
 which I could see far-distant mountain terraces rising slope 
 above purple slope, against the evening sky. The sun had 
 set, but its radiance still lay calm upon the light clouds which 
 floated over the mountain, and a few paces from me, bathed 
 in the roseate light reflected from the clouds, stood a female 
 figure by a mossy rock upon which she leaned her right arm, 
 while her left hand with her broad straw hat hung idly by 
 her side. She was looking fixedly at the sunset sky, and her 
 features were clearly defined against the bright background. 
 Thus I saw her once more. 
 
 But she neither saw me nor heard me, for the soft grass 
 muffled my steps. I wished to call her by name, but could 
 not ; and now she slowly turned her face towards me and 
 looked at me with wide fixed eyes and unmoving features, as 
 though I were an apparition which she had long yearned to 
 behold, and which the might of her longings had summoned 
 before her. But as I spread my arms, saying, " Paula, dear- 
 est Paula ! " a heavenly light flashed into her lovely ,face, a 
 faint cry broke from her lips, and she lay upon my breast 
 with a storm of passionate tears, as if all the sorrows she 
 had borne all these long years had burst forth in one 
 moment. 
 
 What I said, what she said, while we stood on the moun- 
 
684 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 tain ridge, while streak after streak of the rosy light faded 
 out of the sky, I cannot now recall. 
 
 And then we went back hand in hand through the silent 
 wood, by another way than that by which I had come; a 
 way that at first led over a grassy slope directly down the 
 mountain, so that we could still see the valley in the faint 
 evening light, and then under high beeches where it was 
 quite dark, so that Paula held firmly to my hand until we 
 came upon open spaces and the valley lay before us again, 
 now dim in gray twilight, so that I thought the descent must 
 be longer than the ascent, and yet it was so short — so short ! 
 What did it matter ? I knew that with her who was leading 
 me down the dim mountain path I would walk henceforth 
 hand-in-hand so long as we both lived upon earth ; and an 
 inward prayer rose in my soul that her last day might be 
 mine also. 
 
 And now I see ourselves — that is our mother, Paula, Oscar 
 and myself — seated at a table in one of the arbors in front 
 of the inn, and the light of the lamp in its glass shade falls 
 mildly on the gentle features of the blind lady who from time 
 to time lays her soft hand upon mine, and on Paula's dear 
 face that beams with a lovely radiance from her inward hap- 
 piness, and upon the beautiful young features of Oscar, 
 whose dark eyes glow while he tells how a young English 
 nobleman whose acquaintance he made at Rome has given 
 him a grand commission to paint a series of frescoes in his 
 castle in the Highlands, and how before he sets out there, he 
 had to come after his sister to get some advice from her ; 
 and then the youth tosses back his long hair, and lifts a full 
 glass and drinks it off to our health, and the mother smiles 
 gently upon us, and as our glasses clink together there ap- 
 pears in an opening in the trellis that head with the gray 
 moustache and white hair which played so important a part 
 in the history of art. 
 
 Then I am standing at the open window of my room, 
 listening to the rustling of the west wind in the branches 
 and the plashing of the fountain before the inn, and my gaze 
 is fixed upon a star that beams brighter than all the rest in 
 the nightly sky. 
 
 And the old sadness awakens once more in my heart, 
 and my eyes fill with tears. 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 685 
 
 But when I look again, the star is beaming more brightly 
 than ever, as if it were an eye looking lovingly down and 
 sending me greeting from the abodes of the blest. 
 
 -o- 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 IN this history of my life I have now reached the point at 
 which from the first I intended to close the narrative. 
 To be sure I said to myself then, and still must admit, 
 that in this way I shall not give contentment to all. One 
 will find that there is a certain regular and not unsatisfactory 
 progress in the story, and that he. would not object to read a 
 few hundred pages further, if no better entertainment was at 
 hand ; another will maintain that according to his experience 
 (this is a man of great experience) life begins to be truly in- 
 teresting exactly at the point at which I cut short my stor}'. 
 Youthful adventures, he says, are like the maladies of chil- 
 dren ; every one must have them, sooner or later, and there- 
 fore there is nothing of special interest about them ; only 
 when the perfectly developed man takes his position in pub- 
 lic life, and undertakes his share in solving the problem of 
 the age, or when he, as a private man, has had the opportu- 
 nity of proving his character in those conflicts which are 
 never wanting in wedded life, and in the relations of parent 
 to children, which always present trials and difficulties — then 
 only is it worth while to follow the story of a life. 
 
 Profoundly do I feel the weighty nature of these criticisms ; 
 but I had once for all made up my mind not to be guided by 
 the wish to please this one or that — nor, indeed, to please 
 any, as it would now appear — and to the one I can reply that 
 with the least possible trouble he can find a far more amus- 
 ing book to while away his leisure hours ; and as to the other 
 (the man of great experience) with the best will in the world 
 I cannot possibly satisfy his great requirements, though I 
 freely admit that he has a perfect right to make them. Did 
 I wish to make my story ever so interesting, I could find 
 nothing to tell of conflicts in wedded life, nor of domestic 
 trials and difficulties — or nothing that would be worth the 
 
6S6 
 
 Ha7jimer and Anvil. 
 
 telling ; and if I — as I sometimes flatter myself in moments 
 of peculiar elation and self-satisfaction — have done an hon- 
 est day's work at the great task of our time, and all things 
 considered, have approved myself no despicable workman, I 
 would not willingly anticipate my wages ; and I think that 
 there will in due time, perhaps, be found a good friend, who, 
 either in an elegant epitaph, or an elaborate obituary notice 
 in the newspapers, will award me my meed of praise in well- 
 chosen words. 
 
 But in earnest, dear reader, who have grown to be my 
 friend, or you would not have read on so far — you for whom 
 alone I have written, and for whom alone I write this closing 
 chapter — in earnest I think it will be agreeable to both of us 
 if I break off here. I do not know whether you are a crafts- 
 man initiated into our art and mystery ; and this is what I 
 should have to know in order to narrate to you the life of a 
 craftsman, such as I am, in such a way that in the one case 
 it would be satisfactory to you, and in the other not too 
 wearisome : indeed I do not even know whether you may 
 not be a lady, who, despite your excessive amiability and 
 general loveliness, with all your other accomplishments have 
 no especial fondness for the discussion of technical matters, 
 and who, for the care with which I have hitherto limited my- 
 self to merely touching the edge of these obscurities and 
 mysteries, have given me hearty thanks — thanks which for 
 much I would not forfeit now. 
 
 As I say, I know none of these things ; but one thing I 
 know, and that is that you — to borrow the phrase of good 
 Professor Lederer — are a human being, to whom nothing 
 that concerns humanity is alien ; and as I have hitherto, I 
 trust, only told you what found a ready response in your 
 sympathies, because it concerned a man who was neither bet- 
 ter nor worse, wiser nor more foolish, more interesting nor 
 more common-place, than the average of his kind, and whose 
 thoughts and feelings, whose aims and endeavors, even whose 
 errors you could readily understand, so I think you, as a good 
 man and my friend, must feel why I ask you to depict for 
 yourself the rest of my life's history, in accordance with 
 your friendly sympathy and amiable imagination, in bright 
 and cheerful colors. 
 
 And the words " bright and cheerful " you may take liter- 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 687 
 
 ally, for — and I say this with a heart full of the deepest 
 gratitude, and without fear of " the envy of the gods " in 
 which I do not believe — there has fallen much, very much 
 glorious sunlight across the path of my life. My efiforts have 
 been crowned with amplest success, far beyond my boldest 
 expectations, and very far beyond my modest pretensions 
 and moderate wants ; and, what is of far more importance, 
 to arrive at these results I have never had to deny the doc- 
 trines of my teacher, never had to be a hard hammer to a 
 poor much-tormented anvil, on the contrary, I am as sure 
 of it as of my own existence that I should not only not be 
 the cheerful man that I am, but I should also not be the rich 
 man that I am, had I not all my life long been a believer in 
 the great and lovely doctrine of mutual helpfulness, brother- 
 hood, and the community of all human interests. 
 
 This living, active, and inspiring faith has brought me 
 blessings a hundred and a thousand fold ; and with the 
 deepest conviction I recommend it to all who aim at success, 
 even those who are disposed to attach no especial value to 
 the possession of a good conscience, and yet perhaps find 
 that this little prized and contemptible thing, if one only has 
 it, contributes no little to the happiness of life. 
 
 You will willingly, I doubt not, my friend, spare nie any 
 further exposition of these truths, since you have found them 
 confirmed in your own life ; and you are quite ready to go 
 on with the picture of my life in the way I have indicated, 
 and dispense with the narration of further details concern- 
 ing myself and my family, the number and ages of my chil- 
 dren, and whether the boys are strong and intelligent, and the 
 girls bright and handsome — ^you are already disposed to heap 
 all those excellences upon their young heads, when I simply 
 say that they are, without exception, fine children ; but you 
 think that what may be sufficient for myself, my wife, and my 
 children (although these last nowhere appear in this narra- 
 tive, and consequently have really no just claims to any con- 
 sideration), what may be sufficient for us, is in no wise just 
 to the other persons who have appeared in this story, and in 
 whose behalf you have a right to put forth decided claims ; 
 and you would like before the close to know what has be- 
 come of them, to one or the other of whom you have per- 
 haps taken a fancy. 
 
688 
 
 Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 ! i". 
 
 Many a one, as you may well suppose, in the five and twenty 
 years that have passed has been taken away by death, whom 
 neither entreaties nor exertions can compel to relinquish his 
 prey, however desperately the survivors try to hold fast in 
 their hands the vanishing threads of a life so dear. 
 
 Thus you departed, dearest and best of mothers, and were 
 changed for us into a luminous picture of gentleness, kind- 
 ness and patience, and at the same time of calm, strong, 
 self-sacrificing courage, to which we have at all times been 
 wont to turn with devotion, as to that of your noble husband, 
 and from whose memory we have often drawn counsel and 
 comfort. 
 
 And you too, brave old sergeant, faithful heart of gold, 
 you too left us, full of years, highly honored, and deeply 
 wept, and by none more deeply than our boys whom you 
 taught to ride and to fence, and to speak the truth, happen 
 what might. 
 
 And you also, dear good Hans, last of an ancient race of 
 heroes ! Be not vexed with me, dear friend, if I have allowed 
 myself now and then a sportive word at the quaint ways 
 that clung to you as long as your massive frame threw its 
 broad shadow upon the ground. Believe me, despite all, no 
 one ever loved you as I loved you, perhaps because no one 
 was ever so near to you as I, and no one had the chance of 
 knowing how not one drop of faithless blood ever coursed 
 through your great noble heart, and how from crown to heel 
 you were a true knight without fear and without reproach. 
 
 You too, enthusiastic friend with the fantastic ways, with 
 the affected speech, and with sincere love in your soft and 
 gentle soul, kindly Fraulein Duff! I thank you for allowing 
 us to have the care of your declining years ; and though your 
 ardent wish to see all our daughters, your pupils, married be- 
 fore your death, was not fulfilled, I think you still lived to 
 find what your loving and affectionate heart had sought so 
 faithfully. 
 
 Ah ! yes; the ranks of the dear old familiar faces have been 
 sadly thinned ; but we will be thankful that so many are still 
 left us, so many whom we never could replace. 
 
 For who could replace you, my brave Klaus, best of all 
 foremen, and yourself head-foreman after the worthy Roland 
 with his smile under his bushy beard had himself vanished 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 689 
 
 into that primeval forest from which no one has ever yet 
 emerged, any more than all the treasures of the archipelago 
 which your Javanese aunt was to bring, could replace your 
 Christel, or your eight boys, who, since as boys they cannot 
 compare with their mother, try their best to be as like her 
 as possible, and have all her blue Hollander's eyes and 
 blond hair. The old Javanese aunt has not made her ap- 
 pearance yet, and I am afraid she never will. But I fancy 
 you have long forgiven her this misbehavior ; and only once 
 were you really angry with her, and that was at the time when 
 for your friend George fifty thousand thalers more or less 
 were a matter of salvation or ruin, and when you besought 
 heaven to send you the aunt quickly, even though she were 
 an uncle. 
 
 And a few other friends are left still, and will remain, if 
 it be heaven's will, awhile longer, though one of them at 
 least has been expecting a stroke of apoplexy every day for 
 the last fifty years 
 
 " No, no, doctor ; I will not finish the shameful sentence. 
 You fly at once into your altitudes that I should mention 
 you in my book, as if the history of my life could be any- 
 thing but the history of my life, and assert that after you 
 have worn an honorable baldness for half a century, I make 
 a child's jest of you at last, and you can no longer show 
 yourself upon the street. Scold as much as you like, doctor, 
 and in the topmost notes of your highest register, if you like ; 
 I understand you, and know that you will tune yourself down 
 again presently ; and I further know that if everybody does 
 not take off his hat to you on the street, it is because every- 
 body does not know you." 
 
 " And I do not wish to be known," cries the doctor, " nor 
 to be exhibited to the public as a curiosity of natural history, 
 least of all by you who have always seen me in a false light 
 — if indeed a mammoth like you can see anything in the 
 right light. If I am to have my portrait taken, it shall be 
 by your wife, who ought to be ashamed, by the way, to neg- 
 lect her noble art so, out of mere idolatry of you and of her 
 children — or else by Oscar. Apropos, will you not include 
 in your book a thorough analysis of all Oscar's paintings, or 
 at least of his chief works, and thus cover yourself with ridi- 
 cule, as you really know nothing whatever about art ? or will 
 
6go ' Hammer and Anvil. 
 
 you not set forth in detail all that Kurt has accomplished in 
 our railroad undertakings, and his inventions in various de- 
 partments of machinery, and so, as he is modesty itself, 
 cover him with a garment of confusion ? Or will you not 
 denounce Benno to the government because his agricultural 
 school at Zehrendorf which grows and flourishes so quietly, 
 is a formidable rival to the official country institutes ? " 
 
 " Scold away, doctor : you have not an idea how admira- 
 bly all you say fits into my last chapter. I should like to 
 let you have the last word there, as everywhere else." 
 
 " That was all that was wanting ! " cried the doctor in 
 wrath, and ran out of the door, the last of our guests. 
 
 -This scene happened yesterday evening, and I said to 
 Paula, " Was it not a happy idea to leave the last word to my 
 best, oldest, dearest friend, to whom I owed more than I 
 could ever find woids to say." 
 
 " I could never know which was to be the last touch in my 
 pictures until I had given it," said Paula : " perhaps it will 
 be the same way with your book." 
 
 To-day, thinking it over in the early dawn, I find that 
 Paula was right. I feel that I must close, and yet have the 
 feeling that I must not stop yet ; that I have forgotten or 
 omitted something, I know not what ; that I owe the reader, 
 despite my solemn disallowance erewhile, information on a 
 multitude of points. 
 
 For example, how it happens that I am sitting at my 
 writing table " in the early dawn," after having, as it 
 seems, a little company of friends with me yesterday even- 
 ing : have I then been writing all night until morning over- 
 took me ? 
 
 Nothing of the sort. The early dawn, that is to say, four 
 o'clock in winter, and in midsummer, as now, often two 
 o'clock, has for years found me in my office, reading, calcula- 
 ting, drawing, and now, since I have had this book on hand, 
 for the most part writing. I have all my life been a good 
 sleeper, so far that my sleep is very profound and mostly 
 dreamless : but I have long accustomed myself to do with 
 half the sleep that others find indispensable. The Doctor 
 says I have too large a heart, like most big good-natured 
 fellows of rather limited intelligence and with broad shoul- 
 ders, whom nature has marked out for carrying burdens and 
 
Hammer and Anvil. 691 
 
 playing the part of anvil ; but he smiles when he says so, and 
 I do not know if he be speaking in earnest or in jest. 
 
 I have been just now standing at the open window, after 
 extinguishing the lamp by which I have been writing. In 
 the perfectly cloudless, light-green, July sky stood the sickle 
 of the waning moon, but the stars had all faded from sight. 
 Over my window, just under the eaves, sat a swallow, and 
 sang, rocking her little head from side to side and looking 
 towards the east where the sun would presently rise. I have 
 never heard a sweeter song, and even now while I write its 
 melody fills my whole soul. P>om one of the tall chimneys 
 of the factory, whose main building turns its front towards 
 the villa, arose a column of dense smoke springing slender 
 and straight as a pine-shaft high into the clear air. There 
 is a great casting to be made to-day, and Klaus has had his 
 furnaces lighted early. 
 
 I see this picture, as I have endeavored to describe it, 
 often and often in the early morning, and it always inspires 
 me with cheerfulness and joy, and with a thankful heart I 
 greet the rising sun. 
 
 There resounds a well-known sound, a welcome clangor — 
 the first blow of the hammer on the anvil ; the day which 
 the swallow announced is here. Farewell, my friend ; we 
 will both go to our work. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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