"If you return to him, no. But who forces you?"
"Mamma, for God's sake!" shrieked Hartmut, terrified. But the encircling arms did not release him, and the hot, passionate whisper again reached his ear:
"What frightens you so at the thought? You will only go with your mother, who loves you devotedly, and who will henceforth live for you alone. You have told me repeatedly that you hate the vocation which is forced upon you, that you languish with longing for freedom. There is no choice there for you; when you return your father will keep you irrevocably in the fetters. If he knew that you would die of them, he would not let you free."
She had no need to tell that to her son; he knew it better than she did. Only an hour ago he had seen the full inflexibility of his father, his hard "You shall learn to obey and bow your will."
His voice was almost smothered in bitterness as he answered: "Nevertheless, I must return. I have given my word to be back at Burgsdorf in two hours."
"Really," said Zalika, sharply and sarcastically; "I thought so. Usually you are nothing but a boy, whose every step is prescribed; whose every moment counted out; who ought not even to have his own thoughts; but as soon as the retaining of you is concerned, you are given the independence of a man. Very well; now show that you are not only grown in words, but that you can also act like a man. A forced promise has no value. Tear asunder this invincible chain with which they want to bind you and make yourself free."
"No--no," murmured Hartmut, with a renewed attempt to free himself. But he did not succeed. He only turned his face and looked with fixed eyes out into the night, into the desolate, silent forest darkness and over yonder where the will-o'-the-wisp still carried on its ghostly dance.
Those quivering, tremulous flames appeared now everywhere; seeming to seek and flee from each other, they floated over the ground, disappearing or dissolving in the ocean of fog, only to reappear again and again. There was something ghastly yet fascinating in this spectre-like play; the demoniac charm of the depths which that treacherous mire concealed.
"Come with me, my Hartmut," implored Zalika, now in those sweet, coaxing tones which were so effectively at hers as well as at her son's command. "I have foreseen everything and prepared for it. I knew that a day like this had to come. My carriage awaits me half an hour's distance from here. It will take us to the next station, and before anybody at Burgsdorf thinks you will not return, the train will have carried us into the far country. There are freedom, light and happiness. I will lead you out into the great distant world, and after you know that, you will breathe with relief and shout like a redeemed man. I myself know how one released feels. I too have borne that chain which I riveted myself in foolish error, but I would have broken it in the first year but for you. Oh, it is sweet, this freedom. You will feel it, too."
She knew only too well how to succeed. Freedom, life, light! These words found a thousand-fold echo in the heart of the young man, whose passionate thirst for freedom had been so far suppressed. This promised life shone with a magic splendor like a beacon before him. He needed only to stretch forth his hand and it was his.