"'No one knows, although all pretend to.'
"'How! have you heard of them?'
"'When I was apprenticed to the master cordwainer, I heard much of them in the city.'
"'They talk of them? Do the people know about them?'
"'I heard of them then, and of all the things I heard, few are worthy of being remembered:—A poor workman in our shop hurt his hand so severely that they were about to cut it off. He was the only support of a large family that he loved, and for whom he worked. He came one day with his hand bound up, and looked sadly at us as we worked saying, "You are fortunate in having your hands free. I think I will soon have to go to the hospital, and my old mother must beg to keep my little brothers and sisters from starving." A collection was proposed, but we were all poor, and I, though my parents were rich, had so little money that we could not help our fellow-workman. All having emptied their pockets, attempted to suggest something to get Franz out of his difficulties. None would do anything; he had knocked at many doors and had been driven away. The king, they say, is very rich, his father having left him much money; but he uses it in enlisting his soldiers. It was war time, too, and our king was away. All were afraid of want, and the poor suffered terribly, so that Franz could not find sufficient aid from kind hearts. The lad never received a shilling. Just then, a young man in the shop said, "I know what I should do, if I were in your place. But perhaps you are afraid? I am afraid of nothing," said Franz. "What must I do? Ask aid from the Invisibles." Franz appeared to understand the matter, for he shook his head with an air of dislike, and said nothing. Some young men asked what they meant; and the response on all sides was, "You do not know the Invisibles? any one may know that, you children! The Invisibles are people who are never seen, but who act. They do all things, both good and bad. No one knows where they live, yet they are everywhere. It is said they are found in the four quarters of the globe. They murder many travellers, yet assist others in their contests with brigands, according as the travellers seem to them to deserve punishment or protection. They are the instigators of all revolutions, go to all courts, direct all affairs, decide on war and peace, liberate prisoners, assist the unfortunate, punish criminals, make kings to tremble on their thrones! They are the cause of all that is good and bad on earth. Sometimes it is said they err, but their intention is good; and, besides, who can say that a great misfortune to-day may not be a great happiness to-morrow?'"
"'We heard all this with great astonishment and admiration,' said Gottlieb, and I heard enough to be able to tell you all laboring men, and the poor and ignorant, think of the Invisibles. Some said they were wicked people, devoted to the devil, who endows them with his power, who gives them the gift of secret science, the power to tempt men by the attraction of riches and honor, the faculty of knowing the future, of making gold, of resuscitating the dead, of curing the sick, of making the old young, of keeping the living from death, for they have discovered the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life. Others say they are religious and beneficent men, who have united their fortunes to assist those in need, and who hold communion to redress crime and reward virtue. In our shop every one made his remark. "It is the old order of the Templars," said one. "They are now called Free-Masons" said another. "No," said a third, "they are Herrnhuters of Zinzindorf, or Moravians, the old brothers of the Union, the ancient orphans of Mount Tabor: old Bohemia is always erect, and secretly menaces the other powers of Europe. It wishes to make the world republican.'"
"'Others said they were only a handful of sorcerers, pupils and followers of Paracelsus, Boehm, Swedenborg, and now of Schœffer the lemonade-man, (that is a good guess,) who, by miracles and infernal machinations, wish to govern the world and destroy empires. The majority came to the conclusion that it was the old tribunal of the Free-Judges, which never was dissolved in Germany, and which, after having acted in the dark for many centuries, began to revive and make its iron arm, its sword of fire, and its golden balance to be felt.
"'Franz was unwilling to address them, for it is said those who accept their benefits are bound through life to them, to the peril of their soul and the danger of their kindred. Necessity, however, triumphed over fear. One of our comrades, the one who had given him the advice, and who was suspected of being affiliated with the Invisibles, though he denied it, told him in secret how to make the signal of distress. What this was we never knew. Some said that it was a cabalistic mark written over his door in blood: others that he went at midnight to a mound between two roads, and that a black cavalier came to him as he stood at the foot of a cross. Some say that he merely wrote a letter which he placed in the hollow of an old weeping willow at the gate of the cemetery. It is certain that he received aid; that his family waited until he was well and did not beg; that he was treated by a skillful surgeon, who cured him. Of the Invisibles he said nothing, except that he would bless them as long as he lived.'
"'But what do you, Gottlieb, who know more than the men in your shop, think of the Invisibles? are they sectarians, charlatans, or impostors?'
"Here Gottlieb, who had spoken very reasonably, fell into his habitual wanderings, and I could gather nothing but that they were beings really invisible, impalpable, and, like God and his angels, unappreciable to our senses, except when, to communicate with men, they assumed finite forms."