Aunt Lisbeth was a great proficient in the art, and had taught Margarita. The little lady learnt it, with many other gruesome matters, in the Palatine of Bohemias family. She usually talked of the spectres of Hollenbogenblitz Castle in the passing of the threads. Those were dismal spectres in Bohemia, smelling of murder and the charnel-breath of midnight. They uttered noises that wintered the blood, and revealed sights that stiffened hair three feet long; ay, and kept it stiff!
Margarita placed herself on a settle by the low-arched window, and Aunt Lisbeth sat facing her. An evening sun blazoned the buttresses of the Cathedral, and shadowed the workframes of the peaceful couple to a temperate light. Margarita unrolled a sampler sheathed with twists of divers coloured threads, and was soon busy silver-threading Siegfrieds helm and horns.
I told you of the steward, poor Kraut, did I not, child? inquired Aunt Lisbeth, quietly clearing her throat.
Many times! said Margarita, and went on humming over her knee
Her love was a Baron,
A Baron so bold;
She loved him for love,
He loved her for gold.
He must see for himself, and be satisfied, continued Aunt Lisbeth; and Holy Thomas to warn him for an example! Poor Kraut!
Poor Kraut! echoed Margarita.
The King loved wine, and the Knight loved wine,
And they loved the summer weather:
They might have loved each other well,
But for one they loved together.
You may say, poor Kraut, child! said Aunt Lisbeth. Well! his face was before that as red as this dragons jaw, and ever after he went about as white as a pullets egg. That was something wonderful! That was it! chimed Margarita.
O the King he loved his lawful wife,
The Knight a lawless lady:
And ten on one-made ringing strife,
Beneath the forest shady.
Fifty to one, child! said Aunt Lisbeth: You forget the story. They made Kraut sit with them at the jabbering feast, the only mortal there. The walls were full of eye-sockets without eyes, but phosphorus instead, burning blue and damp.
Not to-night, aunty dear! It frightens me so, pleaded Margarita, for she saw the dolor coming.
Night! when its broad mid-day, thou timid one! Good heaven take pity on such as thou! The dish was seven feet in length by four broad. Kraut measured it with his eye, and never forgot it. Not he! When the dish-cover was lifted, there he saw himself lying, boiled!
I did not feel uncomfortable then, Kraut told us. It seemed natural.
His face, as it lay there, he says, was quite calm, only a little wrinkled, and piggish-looking-like. There was the mole on his chin, and the pucker under his left eyelid. Well! the Baron carved. All the guests were greedy for a piece of him. Some cried out for breast; some for toes. It was shuddering cold to sit and hear that! The Baroness said, Cheek!
Ah! shrieked Margarita, that can I not bear! I will not hear it, aunt; I will not!
Cheek! Aunt Lisbeth reiterated, nodding to the floor.
Margarita put her fingers to her ears.
Still, Kraut says, even then he felt nothing odd. Of course he was horrified to be sitting with spectres as you and I should be; but the first tremble of it was over. He had plunged into the bath of horrors, and there he was. I ve heard that you must pronounce the names of the Virgin and Trinity, sprinkling water round you all the while for three minutes; and if you do this without interruption, everything shall disappear. So they say. Oh! dear heaven of mercy! says Kraut, what I felt when the Baron laid his long hunting-knife across my left cheek!
Here Aunt Lisbeth lifted her eyes to dote upon Margaritas fright. She was very displeased to find her niece, with elbows on the window-sill and hands round her head, quietly gazing into the street.
She said severely, Where did you learn that song you were last singing, Margarita? Speak, thou girl!
Margarita laughed.
The thrush, and the lark, and the blackbird,
They taught me how to sing:
And O that the hawk would lend his eye,
And the eagle lend his wing.
I will not hear these shameless songs, exclaimed Aunt Lisbeth.
For I would view the lands they view,
And be where they have been:
It is not enough to be singing
For ever in dells unseen!
A voice was heard applauding her. Good! right good! Carol again, Gretelchen! my birdie!
Margarita turned, and beheld her father in the doorway. She tripped toward him, and heartily gave him their kiss of meeting. Gottlieb glanced at the helm of Siegfried.
Guessed the work was going well; you sing so lightsomely to-day, Grete! Very pretty! And thats Drachenfels? Bones of the Virgins! what a bold fellow was Siegfried, and a lucky, to have the neatest lass in Deutschland in love with him. Well, we must marry her to Siegfried after all, I believe! Aha? or somebody as good as Siegfried. So chirrup on, my darling!
Aunt Lisbeth does not approve of my songs, replied Margarita, untwisting some silver threads.
Do thy fathers command, girl! said Aunt Lisbeth.
And doing his command,
Should I do a thing of ill,
Id rather die to his lovely face,
Than wanton at his will.
Therethere, said Aunt Lisbeth, straining out her fingers; you see, Gottlieb, what over-indulgence brings her to. Not another girl in blessed Rhineland, and Bohemia to boot, dared say such words!thanI cant repeat them!dont ask me!Shes becoming a Frankish girl!
What ballads that? said Gottlieb, smiling.
The Ballad of Holy Ottilia; and her lover was sold to darkness. And she loved himloved him
As you love Siegfried, you little one?
More, my father; for she saw Winkried, and I never saw Siegfried. Ah! if I had seen Siegfried! Never mind. She loved him; but she loved Virtue more. And Virtue is the child of God, and the good God forgave her for loving Winkried, the Devils son, because she loved Virtue more, and He rescued her as she was being dragged downdowndown, and was half fainting with the smell of brimstonerescued her and had her carried into His Glory, head and feet, on the wings of angels, before all men, as a hope to little maidens.
And when I thought that I was lost
I found that I was saved,
And I was borne through blessed clouds,
Where the banners of bliss were waved.
And so you think you, too, may fall in, love with Devils sons, girl? was Aunt Lisbeths comment.
Do look at Lisbeths Dragon, little Heart! its so like! said Margarita to her father.
Old Gottlieb twitted his hose, and chuckled.
Shes my girl! that may be seen, said he, patting her, and wheezed up from his chair to waddle across to the Dragon. But Aunt Lisbeth tartly turned the Dragon to the wall.
Old Gottlieb twitted his hose, and chuckled.
Shes my girl! that may be seen, said he, patting her, and wheezed up from his chair to waddle across to the Dragon. But Aunt Lisbeth tartly turned the Dragon to the wall.
It is not yet finished, Gottlieb, and must not be looked at, she interposed. I will call for wood, and see to a fire: these evenings of Spring wax cold: and away whimpered Aunt Lisbeth.
Margarita sang:
I with my playmates,
In riot and disorder,
Were gathering herb and blossom
Along the forest border.
Thy mothers song, child of my heart! said Gottlieb; but vex not good Lisbeth: she loves thee!
And do you think she loves me?
And will you say tis true?
O, and will she have me,
When I come up to woo?
Thou leaping doe! thou chattering pie! said Gottlieb.
She shall have ribbons and trinkets,
And shine like a morn of May,
When we are off to the little hill-church,
Our flowery bridal way.
That she shall; and something more! cried Gottlieb. But, hark thee, Gretelchen; the Kaiser will be here in three days. Thou dear one! had I not stored and hoarded all for thee, I should now have my feet on a hearthstone where even he might warm his boot. So get thy best dresses and jewels in order, and look thyself; proud as any in the land. A simple burghers daughter now, Grete; but so shalt thou not end, my butterfly, or theres neither worth nor wit in Gottlieb Groschen!
Three days! Margarita exclaimed; and the helm not finished, and the tapestry-pieces not sewed and joined, and the water not shaded off.Oh! I must work night and day.
Child! Ill have no working at night! Your rosy cheeks will soon be sucked out by oil-light, and you look no better than poor tallow Court beautiesto say nothing of the danger. This old house saw Charles the Great embracing the chief magistrate of his liege city yonder. Some swear he slept in it. He did not sneeze at smaller chambers than our Kaisers abide. No gold ceilings with cornice carvings, but plain wooden beams.
Know that the men of great renown,
Were men of simple needs:
Bare to the Lord they laid them down,
And slept on mighty deeds.
God wot, theres no emptying thy store of ballads, Grete: so much shall be said of thee. Yes; times are changeing: Were growing degenerate. Look at the men of Linz now to what they were! Would they have let the lads of Andernach float down cabbage-stalks to them without a shy back? And why? All because they funk that brigand-beast Werner, who gets redemption from Laach, hard by his hold, whenever he commits a crime worth paying for. As for me, my timber and stuffs must come down stream, and are too good for the nixen under Rhine, or think you I would acknowledge him with a toll, the hell-dog? Thunder and lightning! if old scores could be rubbed out on his hide!
Gottlieb whirled a thong-lashing arm in air, and groaned of law and justice. What were they coming to!
Margarita softened the theme with a verse:
And tho to sting his enemy,
Is sweetness to the angry bee,
The angry bee must busy be,
Ere sweet of sweetness hiveth he.
The arch thrill of his daughters voice tickled Gottlieb. Thats it, birdie! You and the proverb are right. I dont know which is best,
Better hive
And keep alive
Than vengeance wake
With that you take.
A clatter in the cathedral square brought Gottlieb on his legs to the window. It was a company of horsemen sparkling in harness. One trumpeter rode at the side of the troop, and in front a standard-bearer, matted down the chest with ochre beard, displayed aloft to the good citizens of Cologne, three brown hawks, with birds in their beaks, on an azure stardotted field.
Holy Cross! exclaimed Gottlieb, low in his throat; the arms of Werner! Where got he money to mount his men? Why, this is daring all Cologne in our very teeth! Fend that he visit me now! Ruin smokes in that ruffians track. I ve felt hot and cold by turns all day.
The horsemen came jingling carelessly along the street in scattered twos and threes, laughing together, and singling out the maidens at the gable-shadowed windows with hawking eyes. The good citizens of Cologne did not look on them favourably. Some showed their backs and gruffly banged their doors: others scowled and pocketed their fists: not a few slunk into the side alleys like well-licked curs, and scurried off with forebent knees. They were in truth ferocious-looking fellows these trusty servants of the robber Baron Werner, of Werners Eck, behind Andernach. Leather, steel, and dust, clad them from head to foot; big and black as bears; wolf-eyed, fox-nosed. They glistened bravely in the falling beams of the sun, and Margarita thrust her fair braided yellow head a little forward over her fathers shoulder to catch the whole length of the grim cavalcade. One of the troop was not long in discerning the young beauty. He pointed her boldly out to a comrade, who approved his appetite, and referred her to a third. The rest followed lead, and Margarita was as one spell-struck when she became aware that all those hungry eyes were preying on hers. Old Gottlieb was too full of his own fears to think for her, and when he drew in his head rather suddenly, it was with a dismal foreboding that Werners destination in Cologne was direct to the house of Gottlieb Groschen, for purposes only too well to be divined.
Devils breeches! muttered Gottlieb; look again, Grete, and see if that hell-troop stop the way outside.
Margaritas cheeks were overflowing with the offended rose.
I will not look at them again, father.
Gottlieb stared, and then patted her.
I would I were a man, father!
Gottlieb smiled, and stroked his beard.
Oh! how I burn!
And the girl shivered visibly.
Grete! mind to be as much of a woman as you can, and soon such raff as this you may sweep away, like cobwebs, and no harm done.
He was startled by a violent thumping at the streetdoor, and as brazen a blast as if the dead were being summoned. Aunt Lisbeth entered, and flitted duskily round the room, crying:
We are lost: they are upon us! better death with a bodkin! Never shall it be said of me; never! the monsters!
Then admonishing them to lock, bar, bolt, and block up every room in the house, Aunt Lisbeth perched herself on the edge of a chair, and reversed the habits of the screech-owl, by being silent when stationary.
Theres nothing to fear for you, Lisbeth, said Gottlieb, with discourteous emphasis.
Gottlieb! do you remember what happened at the siege of Mainz? and poor Marthe Herbstblum, who had hoped to die as she was; and Dame Altknopfchen, and Frau Kaltblut, and the old baker, Hans Topfs sister, all of them as holy as abbesses, and that did not save them! and nothing will from such godless devourers.
Gottlieb was gone, having often before heard mention of the calamity experienced by these fated women.