Withered Leaves: A Novel. Vol. 1 (of 3)

by Rudolf von Gottschall

CHAPTER IX.

[AN ELECTION DINNER.]

The Ordensburg Kulmitten had donned a festive garb; its portal was garlanded with flowers, the servants appeared in livery, and the Jäger's plume of feathers especially attracted the hall-boys' and dairy-maids' attention when he showed himself in the doorway.

Towards noon the carriages containing the guests arrived. Wegen was the first; he had decorated himself with the cross of the Order of St. John, which also adorned Blanden's breast.

Wegen immediately rushed about like a whirlwind over the whole house! even the cook in the kitchen had to doff his white cap to him. There he was a person to be respected; he knew many secrets of the culinary art, and conversed with the cook like one who understood the dishes whose names stood upon the menus, and also those which ought to have stood there. Then he went with Olkewicz into the wine-cellar, and had bottles with the most divers labels upon them marshalled upstairs, like regiments before a battle.

"This is no ordinary dinner, good Olkewicz," said he, while deciding upon the order of battle. "To-day we aim at gaining votes, and for that purpose these here are our best coadjutors. Here sherry and Madeira, which put people into a good humour, so that they become most susceptible of farther enjoyments; there good claret--people thaw, conversation begins, the political arena is opened; opposite opinions greet one another politely, like combatants with their rapiers. There delicious Rhenish wine, Metternich'scher Johannisberger, flowers of the reaction; things become more lively already; the debate grows animated, sympathies find one another out, those of the same opinions shake hands together, opponents exchange fiery glances, and fight hand-to-hand. Political pulses beat high. Then comes Widow Cliquot, and, by magic, sheds a rosy light all around her; a conciliatory spirit prevails; people only feel that they are patriots, citizens of the Prussian Fatherland; even enemies now shake hands.

"That is the moment; when the reserve champagne bottles are uncorked, then must Blanden, too, overflow, with a right delicious, foaming, sparkling speech; then all goes merrily; enthusiastic consent; chairs are pushed aside; the election is ensured, and a few glasses of Tokay guard against any weak termination of the meeting. Well, then, here stand our auxiliaries--a gay army, with all possible caps--and in any case very numerous; that is the principal thing!

"On that point I agree with Napoleon--victories only are gained by numerical preponderance."

When Wegen returned to the reception room from the kitchen and cellar, he found that as yet Herman, of Gutsköhnen, and Sengen, of Lärchen, were the only guests present. They were the squires of small manors, to whom a frock-coat was an uncomfortable acquisition; they wore blue habiliments with steel buttons, and looked in amazement at their reflections in the great pier glasses of the Kulmitten drawing rooms. They were adherents of Blanden, whose hand they shook heartily; was the latter not a cavalier, not merely in political, but also in social respects? Doctor Kuhl felt himself especially drawn to them; their Herculean figures attracted him, as did the deficiency of a frock coat, for his own in which he had passed his doctor's examination had long since been hung in the lumber closet; in politics, also, he loved the representatives of the ancient cantons, the powerful men of the people, and commenced a conversation with them which, beginning with the yoking of oxen, ended with the democracy of the future.

"We must first elect worthy representatives like Blanden," said he, for he considered that he owed this acknowledgment to his friend, "but that is only the beginning. Our aim is a constitution, in which every member of the State can record his own vote upon every question. Can any one be actually represented? As little in politics as in love. Such a deputy seems to me like a harlequin, who is patched up out of so many voting papers; if he chatters about freely with a speaking trumpet, he is applauded and admired; yet he still merely represents his own views and his own convictions; there are many questions springing up afresh, upon which I myself may take a different view. What use is it to me? When I have once given my vote, from a political point of view, I am a squeezed out lemon, a cypher. Every man should give his own vote for his own opinion on every question; so must it be. The whole 'representation' rests upon an illusion that means, an X is made for an U. But we want no more illusions; and then the Parliamentary stable forage is more expensive than pasturage upon the democratic parish common. Well, in the first place, we must elect, so let us choose people of intellect, heart, and independence!"

Hermann with his Bardolph nose, that constant light-house in his face, expressed his entire concurrence with the Doctor by a powerful shake of the hand, while Sengen, a very thoughtful man, who made a short pause between every word, and between every thought a pause of several bars, expressed his doubts still as to whether his tenants would be capable of entertaining any opinion whatever about the welfare of the state.

In the meanwhile the Landrath had appeared a kindly old gentleman, a friend of Schönd and Auerswaldd, an enlightened, tolerant man, as far as the burning question was concerned, a supporter of the National Assembly, and much prepossessed in Blanden's favour, whose spirit he admired; he was the latter's most important ally. It is true he was not greatly beloved in the district; many landowners were displeased at the mildness of his rule, and also that at the Landrath's office, the superior court of corporal punishment, a mode of discipline used to bring up an improved race, was exercised in so inefficient a manner. With him came Baron von Fuchs, a perfect gentleman, who reminded one of the roccoco days, and distinguished himself by being utterly free from all prejudices. But he could not act with the same freedom, as he owned a wife of principles, a categorical imperative mood in petticoats.

Oberamtmann Werner of Schlohitten, entered the room noisily: he had first driven up to the sheepfold.

"You must sell me the new ram, Herr von Blanden; no refusal! I want it!"

"I do not sell my rams," replied Blanden.

"I will pay well, think it over! Besides, all respect for your sheepfold, my compliments to it! Not quite Schlohitten, upon my honour! The last touch so to say is wanting, the finer shades; but if I did not sit amidst the Schlohitten wool, I should gladly do so amidst that of Kulmitten!"

The reception room filled more and more, several elderly gentlemen with the iron cross upon their breasts appeared, at last also Herr Milbe, of Kuhlwangen, who again had not been in Kuhlwangen, but whom the note of invitation had found at the house of some intimate friend, where he had been engaged in a three days' game of ombre.

The uncomfortable mood which oppresses people's spirits before large dinners, as well as the craving of the inner man, by which the mind also is forced into an unwonted state of expectation, at first prevented all animated conversation, although the powerful organs of one or two agriculturists were thus able to assert themselves.

Dinner was served in the hall; the windows with their stained glass pictures did not allow the dazzling sunshine to penetrate, but shed a soft twilight, which so greatly enhances the enjoyments of a feast; the splendid table appointments, the bouquets of flowers in elegant vases, the tasteful arrangement of the table in the hall, which the slender pillar supported, and whose vaulted arch seemed to form the rays of a sun of stone, dispensed a sensation of comfort which unconsciously communicated itself to the guests. The stone flags of the floor, too, awoke historical recollections, for the spurs of the brave knights of the Order once upon a time clattered over these stones.

The dinner took its course almost in accordance with the programme, which that cunning Wegen had drawn up in the wine cellar; gradually minds and spirits became more lively, the gentlemen with the iron cross told of Leipzig and Waterloo, the Oberamtmann of Schlohitten of his ewes, Baron von Fuchs of a few adventures of the East Prussian haute volée. The old Landrath led the general conversation to the absorbing topic; he spoke of Schön and Stein with that warmth which for all ages has distinguished the staunch friends of their Fatherland in East Prussia; he was only interrupted by Herr Milbe's noisy explanations, who sought to prove to his neighbour, that yesterday he must positively have won a grand at ombre if he had played spadille at once and called for basta.

"Our King," said the Landrath, "is an intellectual gentleman; he is even enthusiastic about the English state of affairs, about the land of inherited wisdom, and would be very comfortable with the Parliamentary system, because he himself is a man of great eloquence and knows how to value the results of clever speeches; but his unhappy affection for a romantic view of the State's system, in which he is strengthened by pietistic advisers, prevents him fulfilling former promises about the National Assembly; he fears to destroy the nimbus of the crown, and to endanger a divine right, which is confided to his faithful keeping."

"We are no backwoodsmen here," cried Milbe, "they shall learn that in Germany; here in East Prussia there are men who know what they want. The National Assembly is the spadille with which we will win the game."

"Our King has sense," interposed Baron von Fuchs, "he has ideas which Voltaire might envy him, although no greater contrast can be conceived than that which exists between the French scoffer's views of life and those of our King, so devoted to religious romance; but spell-bound as he is by a philosophy and poetry, which represent the charm of the moonlight-enchanted nights of the middle ages, as suitable ideas for the enlightened days of the present time, yet he has a perfect appreciation of new ideas, and his decisions can be so little counted upon, that I should not be amazed if he suddenly placed himself at the head of the political movement, and bore the banner in his own hand before us all."

"Until then," said Hermann, for whose political fervour his nose, already in a state of red-heat, was the best gauge, "we will trust to our own strength."

And, at the same time, he struck the table until the glass of Johannisberger before him fell over.

Doctor Kuhl cried enthusiastically--

"That is right! This trial of our own strength pleases me! Thus may all perish that comes from Metternich!"

"Only do not pour away the child with the bath," cried Baron Fuchs. "Johannisberger is a delicious wine, even although the dove of Patmos does not fly around Johannisberg, and his revelations have always become fatal to the German people--pale messengers of death, like the riders in the Apocalypse!"

"If we talk of biblical wines," cried Kuhl, "then I prefer the 'Lachrimæ Christi.' It grows on fire-belching Vesuvius, and the future of nations only flourishes upon the volcanic ground of revolution."

"Heaven preserve us from revolutions!" cried the Landrath.

"As regards Johannisberger," said Fuchs, as he drank off his glass with gusto, "we will grant ample acknowledgment to our host's exquisite wine. But Prince Metternich may remind us of Goethe's verse--

'Ein echter deutscher Mann mag keinen Franzmann leiden
Doch seine Weine trinkt er gern!'"

"Drink, gentlemen, drink!" Wegen continually repeated his invitation, as he hastened from chair to chair. "Best of Barons, of what use are your beautiful speeches--your glass is empty! Herr Milbe of Kuhlwangen, tournez, tournez, Johannisberger is trump! Dear Doctor Kuhl do not think of 'Lachrimæ Christi' and the people's tears; taste this glorious flower of the reaction!"

Wegen did not need to urge Oberamtmann Werner, he had already done good work, and his neighbour, Sengen, listened, with sleepy resignation to the hymns in praise of sheep-breeding, which the best wool-producer in East Prussia sang in a voice becoming more and more maudlin.

"Two things we must have here--a National Assembly and better wool. A National Diet and wool market--those are the two vital arteries in political as in agricultural life. There is no truly free people without wool! The fine kinds, that is the principal matter. In what are we in advance of the Australians? We have no kangaroos, but we have no superfine sheep either. And in Silesia; do you see, Silesia is bestirring itself also; the States are bestirring themselves; there is intelligence in the province. The Breslau wool market proves that. I am a good patriot, yes I am," continued he, in a voice stifled with tears, "but if a man will be useful to his Fatherland, it does not merely depend upon how he votes, it does not merely depend upon the speeches that are made, it also depends upon the wool that is shorn. You understand me, Sengen, oh, we understand one another, brotherly heart!"

Sengen could only make his assent known by an animated shake of the head; for he, too, was so moved that his halting speech had become one great pause.

"The National Assembly would have a much better chance," said Hermann, in a loud, ringing voice, "if the Königsberg Jews did not also desire to have them."

"But, dear Hermann," said Kuhl, appeasingly, "the Promised Land they will never obtain, so that surely they must desire something else for themselves."

By the time that the champagne arrived, the general state of mind had attained that height which is usually succeeded by social chaos. It was, indeed, time for Blanden, who, until now, had taken little part in the conversation, to come forward with the political purpose that he associated with this dinner.

He rose, and immediately silence ensued--a compliment not only considered his due as host, but also on account of his personal position.

"While offering a welcome to all my guests," he began, "at the same time I take this opportunity to convey to you a wish which fills me at this present moment. In a short time, the election for the vacancy, which it has become necessary to fill up in our Provincial Diet, will take place, and I now introduce myself as a candidate to you, my guests, the most respected representatives of the district."

"Bravo! bravo!" cried the Landrath, and several gentlemen applauded also, while others, as Wegen remarked, became uneasy, and crumpled their dinner napkins under the table.

"Candid speech must be permitted; I will beg for no vote that is not given to me from free conviction; yet I know that I stand upon the same ground as all my guests. A new political epoch has dawned for Prussia; our Provincial Diets can no longer have any other aim than that of giving place to one general Prussian Diet, and this will one day be dismissed for a free constitution. Prussia must become a Constitutional State, like the advanced ones of the West; that is its vocation. It languishes beneath the contradictory fact that its internal arrangements, its organisations of defence, the regulations of its towns and districts are animated by a Liberal spirit, while the building lacks the necessary consummation. That which Stein, Schön, and Scharnhorst have begun tends to this consummation; it was the signal for supreme promises, and yet the coronation of the building has been left unfinished to the present day. The Bureaucratic Guard-room is to compensate to us for the Chamber of Parliament. The Prussian State is a torso; the educated circles of the people have become aware of it. Like a fresh breath, full of a future, it percolates through the whole nation; who could shut himself up from this vivifying breath? To become security for these recognised rights with power and determination, is the task which I have set to myself, and which I would further in the place where that word has gained a significant power for the State. Through the Provincial Diet to the National Diet is my watchword. Continued furtherance of Stein's and Scharnhorst's arrangements in the advanced spirit of the time! Then Prussia, which, until now, was only a doubtful Great Power, will occupy a position befitting it, and cast its old sword of Brennus, the sword of Frederick the Great, of Blücher and Gneisenau once more into the scale of European destinies. Released from the political followers opposed to the Austrian Chancellor of the State, it will again become the kingdom of Frederick the Great, that rests upon its own strength."

"We are all unanimous thereupon," cried Werner von Schlohitten, and a general jubilant applause proved this unanimity.

"Her von Blanden, he is our man," rang Hermann's deep bass.

"But you will permit us one question?" cried Milbe. "Questions are permitted not only in ombre, and candidates for election may be examined."

"That is my great desire," replied Blanden.

"You are in favour of a National Assembly," continued Milbe; "that is good! A National Assembly is spadille, but there is still a basta, a second trump which we wish to play out in East Prussia. Thunder and lightning! we here are in favour of healthy human understanding, and there in Berlin they want to pull the night-cap over our ears again. We believe in our good Lord, but we are told to believe in all possible miracles. Thus we should come to a nice state of codille with our politics. False piety has become the fashion; our foals are already ordered to graze in these melancholy meadows. Sapperment--we need men who do not love to grope about in such darkness; men like old Dinter, who went about in schools shedding the light of enlightenment. If all the world sits like a dummy, the game of ombre would cease. But we in Prussia still have the best games in our hand, and will not, for a longtime yet, write the world's history in a kettle; we will not be nor remain dark men."

"That we will not, that we will not!" cried all, unanimously.

"Truly not," added Blanden, with sharp emphasis.

"Well, then, Herr von Blanden," said Milbe, with great intrepidity, and the same demeanour with which he announced a dangerous game at ombre, "that is just the point. That is the evil of it!"

Baron von Fuchs pulled Milbe's coat-tail, the Landrath raised his fore-finger warningly, Wegen signed to him to stop, as he was accustomed to sign to the sentinels to cease when the latter saluted him in his lieutenant's uniform. But Milbe would not allow himself to be over-ruled.

"They say of you, Herr von Blanden, that you belong to the pious people, and, indeed, to that pious people who conducted themselves strangely in Königsberg. Thunder and lightning! it was out of the frying-pan into the fire. For anything I care, each may worship what he likes, and there have been plenty of strange saints in the world. If one man in his private chapel worships a stark-naked goddess of simply foaming meerschaum, I have nothing against it! but I should fight against it tooth and nail if such like were to become universal. I will not give my vote to the man who defends it, because he is not to my taste in religion, and similarity of taste, after all, is the principal thing, even in sacred matters."

Death-like stillness reigned around the table. Milbe's probe had touched the most vulnerable spot.

"In smoky Albertina, on the Pregel, we had a clever man, named Kant. I have read nothing of his, but I know he loved pure reason--and that, too, is my feeling; with pure want of reason I will have nothing to do. And that nourished in Königsberg," added Milbe, as he struck the table with his hand, "and it is infectious as small-pox, and our deputies shall issue an order for quarantine against it. I demand that, as truly as I am Milbe, of Kuhlwangen, and seldom in Kuhlwangen."

"It is ten years," replied Blanden, in a firm, calm voice, "since I went astray amidst those sects whose conduct I myself must now repudiate. The charm of something strange and uncommon prompted me; I was an enthusiast. Yet even in those days already I found a shoal where I had sought a haven. That lies far behind me; I have set oceans and hemispheres between myself and my past. Man errs so long as he strives. But in me every trace of enthusiasm is extinguished; my thoughts are no longer fixed upon what is mystery, will no longer seek that boundary line where the ocean, with its dark abyss, touches the sky with its bright planets. Least of all do I lean to that piety which is favoured for State reasons, and that infects the fresh life of the present with the sickly shadow of a romance long since buried. T reject the barriers of faith and conscience that are painted in the colours of the State. That which we then sought erringly was at least our own free action, an outflow of inward light; we put our whole soul into the sect of the Free Elect. It was a community of men of the same mind who were even looked askant upon by the Government. But as I am now, I stand firmly and entirely upon the ground of a Free-thinker; no sentimental extravagance has any more power over me. What Kant and his successors struggled for has become the atmosphere of my mental life, and I am ready for the most resolute defiance, like you all, if a relapse into misty credulity or fettered Government hypocrisy would destroy that which the labour of great thinkers has built up in more than half a century."

"Hem, there is something in that," said Milbe, with vigorous eulogy.

"Long live reason," cried Wegen, and the glasses were clinked merrily. Oberamtmann Werner, too, shook Blanden heartily by the hand, as he was already in a much affected mood.

"Yes, yes, these false saints are the wolves in sheep's clothing, as it says in the Bible. A good breeder of sheep must entertain especial horror of them. And I have it, I have it! Yes, brotherly heart, if you abjure it, that lamb-like pious sanctity of former days, that kissing, love-making and hypocrisy of the pious people--sweet as sugar, from the upper Haberberge--then you may still be worth something. You can represent the province capitally. You have my vote because your sheep are in good condition, and an agriculturist's intelligence is known by the fleece of his sheep. Clink glasses, brotherly heart! Only no future pious giddiness!"

The dinner company had already broken up into noisy groups. Once more the Landrath became spokesman, and by the esteem in which he was held, had been able to obtain silent hearers--

"Herr von Blanden has expressed all our sentiments; as worthy deputy from our province, he will fix his mind upon the whole. Our politics are patch-work until a general constitution forms a piece of mosaic into one organisation, and without Frederick the Great's free, tolerant spirit, our Prussia, under the hands of the virorum obscurorum, will never, never raise itself to a brilliant position. Let us return thanks to our host for having expressed an opinion which we all share, and let us empty our glasses to his health!"

The guests' favourable sentiments found this to be the most suitable mode of expression, and at the same time the election dinner came to a termination. Now good humour began to display itself undisturbedly. Some danced upon the stone flags of the old hall of the Order, while the evening sun was already flooding the dark stained glass windows with glowing fire. Baron von Fuchs stood in one corner of the room, and had assembled an extensive circle of listeners around him; for he poured out a large cornucopiæ of most interesting anecdotes which related to the nobility of the neighbouring district. There were seductions and abductions, tales of prodigality, legacy-hunting, insanity, and idiotcy; and the Baron understood how to relate all so fluently and adroitly, that the gentlemen listened with great enjoyment, as though these sad human traits existed for their amusement only. Milbe tried in vain to get a party for ombre together; even the Oberamtmann could not be roused. He already lay in a state of semi-somnolence in a cushioned chair, with blissfully transfigured features, and dreamed of golden fleeces. Doctor Kuhl, on the other hand, delighted the peasant squires with his athletic performances, by balancing the heaviest chairs upon his finger tips. Coffee was then drunk in the park, which was illuminated with lights and gay-coloured lanterns; Olkewicz had arranged everything in the best possible manner. Anyone going to the pond could see Kuhl tread water.

It was late in the evening when the guests called for their carriages.

"The feast has fulfilled my greatest expectations," said Wegen to Blanden, when the last had departed.

"And yet," replied the latter, "it lies like a nightmare upon my mind. I must for ever gaze into the hated magic mirror which every one holds before me, in order to see my distorted reflection. And if they all seem, in brightest mood, to forget that which in their hearts they cherish against me, and which obstructs the path of my desires, only some chance is needed which would awaken the past more vividly, and they would all stand against me once more. Just as it is impossible to commence life again from the beginning, so is it also impossible entirely to shake off one's past. Herculean power is wanted to cast this burden from one; I often despair of it. Well, I shall, it is to be hoped, be more successful in love than in politics. I shall hasten to bring my beloved one home."

Despite Wegen's supremely cheerful state of mind and freedom from care, Blanden could not overcome his melancholy mood on that evening. Until long after midnight, he sat on the balcony above the lake, and gazed out over the monotonous surface, and the enigma of human life rested heavily upon his soul.