Speaker 1: Chapter one of the Wonderful History of Peter Schlimil by
Speaker 1: Adelbert von Camisso, translated by Frederic H. Hedge. This is
Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Speaker 1: Read by Christoph Stengenberg. The Wonderful History of Peter Schlimil
Speaker 1: by Adelbert von Camisso, translated by Frederic H. Hedge. Chapter one.
Speaker 1: After a fortunate but for me very troublesome voyage, we
Speaker 1: finally reached the port the instant that I touched land
Speaker 1: in the boat, I loaded myself with my few effects, and,
Speaker 1: passing through the swarming people, I entered the first and
Speaker 1: most modest house, before which I saw a sign hang.
Speaker 1: I requested a room. The boots measured me with a
Speaker 1: look and conducted me into the garret. I caused fresh
Speaker 1: water to be brought and made him exactly described to
Speaker 1: me where I should find mister Thomas John. He replied
Speaker 1: to my inquiry before the north gate. The first country
Speaker 1: house on the right hand, a large new house of
Speaker 1: red and white marble with many columns. Good. It was
Speaker 1: still early in the day. I opened at once. My
Speaker 1: bundle took thence my new black cloth coat, clad myself
Speaker 1: cleanly in my best apparel, put my letter of introduction
Speaker 1: into my pocket, and immediately set out on the way
Speaker 1: to the man who was to promote my modest expectations.
Speaker 1: When I had ascended the long North street and reached
Speaker 1: the gate, I soon saw the pillars glimmer through the foliage. Here,
Speaker 1: it is then thought I. I wiped the dust from
Speaker 1: my shoes with my pocket handkerchief, put my neckcloth in order,
Speaker 1: and in God's name, rung the bell. The door flew
Speaker 1: open in the hall, I had an examination to undergo.
Speaker 1: The porter, however, permitted me to be announced, and I
Speaker 1: had the honor to be called into the park where
Speaker 1: mister John was walking with the select party. I recognized
Speaker 1: the man at once by the luster of his corpulent
Speaker 1: self complacency. He received me very well, as a Richmond
Speaker 1: receives a poor devil. Even turned toward me without turning
Speaker 1: from the rest of the company, and took the offered
Speaker 1: letter from my hand. So so from my brother. I
Speaker 1: have heard nothing from him for a long time, but
Speaker 1: he is well. There, continued he, addressing the company without
Speaker 1: waiting for an answer, and pointing with the letter to
Speaker 1: a hill. There I am going to erect the new building.
Speaker 1: He broke the seal without breaking off the conversation, which
Speaker 1: turned upon riches. He that is not a master of
Speaker 1: a million, at least, he observed, is pardon me the
Speaker 1: word a wretch? Oh? How true, I exclaimed, with a
Speaker 1: rush of overflowing feeling that pleased him. He smiled at
Speaker 1: me and said, stay here, my good friend. In a
Speaker 1: while I shall perhaps have time to tell you what
Speaker 1: I think about this. He pointed to the letter, which
Speaker 1: he then thrust into his pocket, and turned again to
Speaker 1: the company. He offered his arm to a young lady.
Speaker 1: The other gentlemen addressed themselves to other fair ones. Each
Speaker 1: found what suited him, and all proceeded toward the rose
Speaker 1: blossomed mound. I slid into the rear without troubling anyone,
Speaker 1: for no one troubled himself any further about me. The
Speaker 1: company was excess lively. There were dallians and playfulness. Trifles
Speaker 1: were sometimes discussed with an important tone, but oftener important
Speaker 1: matters with levity, and especially pleasantly flew the wit over
Speaker 1: absent friends and their circumstances. I was too strange to
Speaker 1: understand much of all this, too anxious and introverted to
Speaker 1: take an interest in such riddles. We had reached the rosary.
Speaker 1: The lovely Fanny, the bell of the day, as it appeared, would,
Speaker 1: out of obstinacy, herself break off a blooming bow. She
Speaker 1: wounded herself on a thorn, and as if from the
Speaker 1: dark roses, flowed the purple on her tender hand. This
Speaker 1: circumstance put the whole party into a flutter. English plaster
Speaker 1: was sought for. A still thin, lanky, longish Oldish man,
Speaker 1: who stood near, and whom I had not hitherto remarked,
Speaker 1: put his hand instantly into the close lying breast pocket
Speaker 1: of his old French gray taffety coat, produced thens a
Speaker 1: little pocket book, opened it, and presented to the lady,
Speaker 1: with a profound obeisance the required article. She took it,
Speaker 1: without noticing the giver, and without thanks. The wound was
Speaker 1: bound up, and we went forward over the hill, from
Speaker 1: whose back the company could enjoy the white prospect, over
Speaker 1: the green labyrinth of the park to the boundless ocean.
Speaker 1: The view was in reality vast and splendid. A light
Speaker 1: point appeared on the horizon, between the dark flood and
Speaker 1: the blue of the heaven. A telescope here, cried John,
Speaker 1: And already before the servants who appeared at the call
Speaker 1: were in motion, the gray Man, modestly bowing, had thrust
Speaker 1: his hand into his coat pocket and drawn thence a
Speaker 1: beautiful dollund and handed it to John, bringing it immediately
Speaker 1: to his eye. The latter informed the company that it
Speaker 1: was the ship which went out yesterday and was detained
Speaker 1: in view of port by contrary winds. The telescope passed
Speaker 1: from hand to hand, but not again into that of
Speaker 1: its owner. I, however, gazed in wonder at the man,
Speaker 1: and could not conceive how the great machine had come
Speaker 1: out of the narrow pocket. But this seemed to have
Speaker 1: struck no one else, and nobody troubled himself any farther
Speaker 1: about the gray man than about myself. Refreshments were handed round,
Speaker 1: the choicest fruits of every zone in the costliest vessels.
Speaker 1: Mister John did the honors with the easy grace, and
Speaker 1: the second time addressed a word to me, help yourself.
Speaker 1: You have not had the like at sea. I bowed,
Speaker 1: but he saw it not. He was already speaking with
Speaker 1: some one else. The company would fain have reclined upon
Speaker 1: the sword on the slope of the hill opposite to
Speaker 1: the outstretched landscape, had they not feared the dampness of
Speaker 1: the earth. It were divine, observed one of the party,
Speaker 1: had we but a turkey carpet to spread here. The
Speaker 1: wish was scarcely expressed when the man in the gray
Speaker 1: coat had his hand in his pocket and was busied
Speaker 1: in drawing. Thence, with a modest and even humble deportment,
Speaker 1: a rich turkey carpet interwoven with gold. The servants received
Speaker 1: it as a matter of cause, and opened it on
Speaker 1: the required spot. The company, without ceremony, took their places
Speaker 1: upon it. For myself, I looked again in amazement on
Speaker 1: the man at the pocket, at the carpet, which measured
Speaker 1: above twenty paces long and ten in breadth, and rubbed
Speaker 1: my eyes, not knowing what to think of it, especially
Speaker 1: as nobody saw anything extraordinary in it. I would fain
Speaker 1: have had some ex nation regarding the man and have
Speaker 1: asked who he was, But I knew not to whom
Speaker 1: to address myself, for I was almost more afraid of
Speaker 1: the gentleman's servants than of the served gentleman. At length,
Speaker 1: I took courage and stepped up to a young man
Speaker 1: who appeared to me to be of less consideration than
Speaker 1: the rest, and who had often stood alone. I begged
Speaker 1: him softly to tell me who the agreeable man in
Speaker 1: the graycoat. There was he there, who looks like an
Speaker 1: end of threat that has escaped out of a tailor's needle. Yes,
Speaker 1: he who stands alone. I don't know him, he replied, And,
Speaker 1: as it seemed, in order to avoid a longer conversation
Speaker 1: with me, he turned away and spoke of indifferent matters
Speaker 1: to another. The sun began now to shine more powerfully,
Speaker 1: and to inconvenience the ladies. The lovely Fanny addressed carelessly
Speaker 1: to the gray man, whom, as far as I am aware,
Speaker 1: no one had yet spoken to the trifling question whether
Speaker 1: he had not perchance also a tent by him? He
Speaker 1: answered her by an obeisance most profound, as if an
Speaker 1: unmerited honor were done him, and had already his hand
Speaker 1: in his pocket, out of which I saw come canvas, poles, cordage, ironwork,
Speaker 1: in short, everything which belongs to the most splendid pleasure tent.
Speaker 1: The young gentleman helped to expand it, and it covered
Speaker 1: the whole extent of the carpet, and nobody found anything
Speaker 1: remarkable in it. I had already become uneasy, nay horrified
Speaker 1: at heart, but how completely so, as at the very
Speaker 1: next wish expressed I saw him yet pull out of
Speaker 1: his pocket three roadsters. I tell THEE, three beautiful, great
Speaker 1: black horses with saddle and caparison. Bethink THEE, for God's sake,
Speaker 1: three saddled horses, still out of the same pocket, from
Speaker 1: which already a pocket book, a telescope, an embroidered carpet,
Speaker 1: twenty paces long and ten broad, a pleasure tent of
Speaker 1: equal dimensions, and all the requisite poles and irons had
Speaker 1: come forth. If I did not protest to THEE that
Speaker 1: I saw it myself with my own eyes, thou couldst
Speaker 1: not possibly believe it. Embarrassed and obsequious as the man
Speaker 1: himself appeared to be, little as was the attention which
Speaker 1: had been bestowed upon him, Yet to me his grisly aspect,
Speaker 1: from which I could not turn my eyes became so
Speaker 1: fearful that I could bear it no longer. I resolved
Speaker 1: to steal away from the company which from the insignificant
Speaker 1: part I played in it seemed to me an easy affair.
Speaker 1: I proposed to myself to return to the city to
Speaker 1: try my luck again on the morrow with mister John,
Speaker 1: and if I could muster the necessary courage to question
Speaker 1: him about the singular gray man. Had I only had
Speaker 1: the good fortune to escape so well. I had already
Speaker 1: actually succeeded in stealing through the rosary, and in descending
Speaker 1: the hill, found myself on a piece of lawn. When
Speaker 1: fearing to be encountered in crossing the grass out of
Speaker 1: the path, I cast an inquiring glance round me. What
Speaker 1: was my terror to behold the man in the gray
Speaker 1: coat behind me and making toward me. In the next moment,
Speaker 1: he took off his hat before me and bowed so
Speaker 1: low as no one had ever yet done to me.
Speaker 1: There was no doubt but that he wished to address me,
Speaker 1: and without being rude, I could not prevent it. I
Speaker 1: also took off my hat, bowed also, and stood there
Speaker 1: in the sun with bare head, as if rooted to
Speaker 1: the ground. I stared at him full of terror, and
Speaker 1: was like a bird which is served and has fascinated.
Speaker 1: He himself appeared very much embarrassed, he raised not his
Speaker 1: eyes again both repeatedly, drew nearer and addressed me with
Speaker 1: a soft, tremulous voice, almost in a tone of supplication.
Speaker 1: May I hope, sir, that you will pardon my boldness
Speaker 1: in venturing in so unusual a manner to approach you,
Speaker 1: But I would ask a favor, permit me most condescendingly.
Speaker 1: But in God's name, exclaimed I, in my trepidation. What
Speaker 1: can I do for a man who we both started and,
Speaker 1: as I believe, reddened. After a moment's silence, he again
Speaker 1: resumed during the short time that I had the happiness
Speaker 1: to find myself near you. I have, sir, many times.
Speaker 1: Allow me to say it to you, really contemplated with
Speaker 1: inexpressible admiration, the beautiful, beautiful shadow, which, as it were,
Speaker 1: with a certain noble disdain, and without yourself remarking it,
Speaker 1: you cast from you in the sunshine, the noble shadow
Speaker 1: at your feet. There, pardon me the bold supposition, but
Speaker 1: possibly you might not be indisposed to make the shadow
Speaker 1: over to me. He was silent, and the mill wheel
Speaker 1: seemed to whirl around in my head. What was I
Speaker 1: to make of this singular proposition to sell my own shadow.
Speaker 1: He must be mad, thought I, and with an altered
Speaker 1: tone which was more assimilated to that of his own humility,
Speaker 1: I answered, thus, ha, ha, good friend, have not you
Speaker 1: then enough of your own shadow? I take this for
Speaker 1: a business of a very singular sort, he hastily interrupted me.
Speaker 1: I have many things in my pocket, which, sir, might
Speaker 1: not appear worthless to you, And for this inestimable shadow,
Speaker 1: I hold the very highest price too small. It struck
Speaker 1: cold through me again, as I was reminded of the pocket.
Speaker 1: I knew not how I could have called him good friend.
Speaker 1: I resumed the conversation and sought, if possible, to set
Speaker 1: all right again by excessive politeness. But sir, pardon your
Speaker 1: most humble servant, I do not understand your meaning. How
Speaker 1: indeed could my shadow? He interrupted me. I beg your permission,
Speaker 1: only here on the spot, to be allowed to take
Speaker 1: up this noble shadow and put it in my pocket.
Speaker 1: How I shall do that? Be my care? On the
Speaker 1: other hand, as a testimony of my grateful acknowledgment to you,
Speaker 1: I give you the choice of all the treasures which
Speaker 1: I carry in my pocket, the genuine spring root, the
Speaker 1: mandrake root, the change penny, the rob dollar, the napkin
Speaker 1: of Rowland's page, a mandrake man at your own prime.
Speaker 1: But these probably don't interest you. Rather, Fortunatus wishing cap,
Speaker 1: newly and stoutly repaired, and a lucky bag such as
Speaker 1: he had, the lucky purse of Fortunatus, I exclaimed, interrupting him.
Speaker 1: And great as my anxiety was, with that one word,
Speaker 1: he had taken my whole mind captive. A dizziness seized me,
Speaker 1: and double du cards seemed to glitter before my eyes. Ahnd, sir,
Speaker 1: will you do me the favor to view and to
Speaker 1: make trial of this purse. He thrust his hand into
Speaker 1: his pocket and drew out a tolerably large, well sued
Speaker 1: purse of stout cordorn leather with two strong strings, and
Speaker 1: handed it to me. I plunged my hand into it
Speaker 1: and drew out ten gold pieces, and again ten, and
Speaker 1: again ten, and again ten. I extended him eagerly, my
Speaker 1: hand agreed. The business is done. For the purse, you
Speaker 1: have my shadow, He closed with me, kneeled instantly down
Speaker 1: before me, and I beheld him with an admirable dexterity,
Speaker 1: gently loosen my shadow from top to toe from the grass,
Speaker 1: lift it up, roll it together, fold it, and finally
Speaker 1: pocket it. He arose, made me another obeisance, and retreated
Speaker 1: toward the rosary. I fancied that I heard him there
Speaker 1: softly laughing to himself. But I held the purse fast
Speaker 1: by the strings. All round me lay the clear sunshine,
Speaker 1: and within me was yet no power of reflection. End
Speaker 1: of chapter one Chapter two of The Wonderful History of
Speaker 1: Peter Schlimil by Adelbert von Camisso translated by Frederick H. Hedge.
Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter two.
Speaker 1: At length, I came to myself and hastened to quit
Speaker 1: the place where I had nothing more to expect. In
Speaker 1: the first place, I filled my pockets with gold. Then
Speaker 1: I secured the strings of the purse fast round my neck,
Speaker 1: and concealed the purse itself in my bosom. I passed
Speaker 1: unobserved out of the park, reached the highway, and took
Speaker 1: the road to the city. As sunk in thought, I
Speaker 1: approached the gate, I heard a cry behind me, Young gentlemen, Eh,
Speaker 1: young gentlemen, hear you. I looked round. An old woman
Speaker 1: called after me. Do take care, sir, you have lost
Speaker 1: your shadow. Thank you, good mother. I threw her a
Speaker 1: gold piece for her well meant information, and stopped under
Speaker 1: the tree at the city gate. I was compelled to
Speaker 1: hear again from the sentinel, where has the gentleman left
Speaker 1: his shadow? And immediately again from some women Jesus Maria,
Speaker 1: the poor fellow has no shadow? That began to irritate me,
Speaker 1: and I became especially careful not to walk in the sun.
Speaker 1: This could not, however, be accomplished everywhere, for instance, over
Speaker 1: the broad street which a next must cross. Actually, as
Speaker 1: mischief would have it, at the very moment that the
Speaker 1: boys came out of school, a cursed hunchbacked rogue I
Speaker 1: see him, yet spied out instantly that I had no shadow.
Speaker 1: He proclaimed the fact with a loud outcry to the
Speaker 1: whole assembled literary street youth of the suburb, who began
Speaker 1: forthwith to criticize me and to pelt me with mud.
Speaker 1: Decent people are accustomed to take their shadows with them
Speaker 1: when they go into the sunshine. To defend myself from them,
Speaker 1: I threw whole handfuls of gold amongst them, and sprang
Speaker 1: into a hackney coach, which some compassionate soul procured for me.
Speaker 1: As soon as I found myself alone in the rolling carriage,
Speaker 1: I began to weep bitterly. The presentiment must already have
Speaker 1: arisen in me, that far as gold on earth transcends
Speaker 1: in estimation, merit and virtue, so much higher than gold
Speaker 1: itself is the shadow valued. And as I had earlier
Speaker 1: sacrificed wealth to conscience, I had now thrown away the
Speaker 1: shadow for mere gold. What in the world could and
Speaker 1: would become of me? I was still greatly discomposed. As
Speaker 1: the carriage stopped before my old inn. I was horrified
Speaker 1: that the bare idea of entering that wretched cock loft.
Speaker 1: I ordered my things to be brought down, received my
Speaker 1: miserable bundle with contempt, threw down some gold pieces, and
Speaker 1: ordered the coachman to drive to the most fashionable hotel.
Speaker 1: The house faced the north, and I had not the
Speaker 1: sun to fear. I dismissed the driver with gold, caused
Speaker 1: the best front rooms to be assigned to me, and
Speaker 1: shut myself up in them as quickly as I could.
Speaker 1: What thinketh do I now began, Oh, my dear Camissau.
Speaker 1: To confess it even to thee makes me blush. I
Speaker 1: drew the unlucky purse from my bosom, and with a
Speaker 1: kind of rage which like a rushing conflagration, grew in
Speaker 1: me with a self increasing growth, I extracted gold, and gold,
Speaker 1: and gold and even more gold, and strewed it on
Speaker 1: the floor, and strode amongst it, and made it ring again,
Speaker 1: and feeding my poor heart on the splendor, and the
Speaker 1: sound flung continually more metal to metal, till in my
Speaker 1: weariness I sank down on the rich heap, and rioting thereon,
Speaker 1: rolled and reveled upon it. So passed the day. The
Speaker 1: evening I opened not my door. The night found me
Speaker 1: lying on my gold, and then sleep overcame me. I
Speaker 1: dreamt of THEE. I seemed to stand behind the glass
Speaker 1: door of thy little room, and to see THEE sitting
Speaker 1: there at thy work table, between a skeleton and a
Speaker 1: bundle of dried plants. Before THEE lay open, holla, humboled,
Speaker 1: and linaus on thy sofa, a volume of Gerte and
Speaker 1: the magic ring. I regarded THEE long and everything in
Speaker 1: thy room, and then THEE again. Thou didst not move,
Speaker 1: Thou drewest no breath, Thou wert dead. I awoke. It
Speaker 1: appeared still to be very early. My watch stood. I
Speaker 1: was sore all over, and hurry too. I had taken
Speaker 1: nothing since the morning before. I pushed from me with
Speaker 1: loathing and indignation. The gold on which I had before
Speaker 1: sated my foolish heart. In my vexation, I knew not
Speaker 1: what I should do with it. It must not lie there.
Speaker 1: I tried whether the purse would swallow it again, but no,
Speaker 1: none of my windows opened upon the sea. I found
Speaker 1: myself compelled laboriously to drag it to a great cupboard,
Speaker 1: which stood in a cabinet, and there to pilot. I
Speaker 1: left only some handfuls of it lying. When I had
Speaker 1: finished the work, I threw myself, exhausted into an easy chair,
Speaker 1: and waited for the stirring of the people in the house.
Speaker 1: As soon as possible. I ordered food to be brought,
Speaker 1: and the landlord to come to me. I fixed, in
Speaker 1: consultation with this man the future arrangements of my house.
Speaker 1: He recommended for the servant at my person a certain Bendle,
Speaker 1: whose honest and intelligent physiognomy immediately captivated me. He it
Speaker 1: was whose attachment has since accompanied me consolingly through the
Speaker 1: wretchedness of life, and has helped me to support my
Speaker 1: gloomy lot. I spent the whole day in my room
Speaker 1: among masterless servants, shoemakers, tailors, and tradespeople. I fitted myself
Speaker 1: out and purchased besides a great many jewels and valuables,
Speaker 1: for the sake of getting rid of some of the
Speaker 1: vast heap of hoarded up gold. But it seemed to
Speaker 1: me as if it were impossible to diminish it. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, I brooded over my situation in the most
Speaker 1: agonizing doubts. I dared not venture a step out of
Speaker 1: my doors, and at evening I caused forty wax lights
Speaker 1: to be lit in my room. Before I issued from
Speaker 1: the shade. I thought with horror on the terrible scene
Speaker 1: with the schoolboys. Yet I resolved much courage, as it
Speaker 1: demanded once more to make a trial of public opinion.
Speaker 1: The nights were then moonlight. Late in the evening, I
Speaker 1: threw on a white cloak, pressed my head over my eyes,
Speaker 1: and stole, trembling like a criminal, out of the house.
Speaker 1: I stepped first out of the shade in whose protection
Speaker 1: I had arrived so far in a remote square, into
Speaker 1: the full moonlight, determined to learn my fate. Out of
Speaker 1: the mouths of the passers. By spare me, dear friend,
Speaker 1: the painful repetition of all that I had to endure.
Speaker 1: The women often testified the deepest compassion with which I
Speaker 1: inspired them, declarations which no less transpierced me than the
Speaker 1: mockery of the youth and the proud contempt of the men,
Speaker 1: especially of those fat, well fetched fellows, who themselves cast
Speaker 1: a broad shadow. A lovely and sweet girl, who, as
Speaker 1: it seemed, accompanied her parents, while these discreetly only looked
Speaker 1: before their feet, turned by chance her flashing eyes upon me.
Speaker 1: She was obviously terrified. She observed my want of a shadow,
Speaker 1: let fall her veil over her beautiful countenance, and dropping
Speaker 1: her head, passed in silence. I could bear it no longer.
Speaker 1: Briny streams started from my eyes and cut to the heart.
Speaker 1: I staggered back into the shade. I was obliged to
Speaker 1: support myself against the houses, to steady my steps, and
Speaker 1: wearily and lad reached my dwelling. I spent a sleepless night.
Speaker 1: The next morning. It was my first care to have
Speaker 1: the man in the great coat everywhere sought after. Possibly
Speaker 1: I might succeed in finding him again, And how joyful
Speaker 1: if he repented of the foolish bargain as heartily as
Speaker 1: I did. I ordered Bendel to me, for he appeared
Speaker 1: to possess dress and tuct. I described to him exactly
Speaker 1: the man in whose possession lay a treasure without which
Speaker 1: my life was only a misery. I told him the time,
Speaker 1: the place in which I had seen him, I described
Speaker 1: to him all who had been present, and added moreover
Speaker 1: this token he should particularly inquire after a dolon's telescope,
Speaker 1: after a gold interwoven Turkish carpet, after a splendid pleasure tent,
Speaker 1: and finally after the black chargers, whose story we knew
Speaker 1: not how was connected with that of the mysterious man,
Speaker 1: who seemed of no consideration amongst them, and whose appearance
Speaker 1: had destroyed the quiet and happiness of my life. When
Speaker 1: I had done speaking, I fetched out gold such a
Speaker 1: load that I was scarcely able to carry it, and
Speaker 1: added there to precious stones and jewels for a far
Speaker 1: greater value. Bendel said, I these level many ways, and
Speaker 1: make easy many things which appeared quite impossible. Don't be
Speaker 1: stingy with it, as I am not, but go and
Speaker 1: rejoice thy master, with the intelligence on which his only
Speaker 1: hope depends he went. He returned late and sorrowful. None
Speaker 1: of the people of mister John, none of his guests,
Speaker 1: and he had spoken with all, were able in the
Speaker 1: remotest degree to recollect the men in the gray coat.
Speaker 1: The new telescope was there, and no one knew whence
Speaker 1: it had come. The carpet the tent were still there,
Speaker 1: spread and pitched on the self same hill. The servants
Speaker 1: boasted of the affluence of their master, and no one
Speaker 1: knew whence these new valuables had come to him. He
Speaker 1: himself took his pleasure in them, and did not trouble himself,
Speaker 1: because he did not know whence he had them. The
Speaker 1: young gentlemen had the horses which they had ridden in
Speaker 1: their stables, and they praised the liberality of mister John,
Speaker 1: who on that day made them a present of them.
Speaker 1: Thus much was clear from the circumstantial relation of Bendal,
Speaker 1: whose active zeal and able proceeding, although with such fruitless result,
Speaker 1: received from me their merited commendation. I gloomily motioned him
Speaker 1: to leave me alone. I have began he again given
Speaker 1: my master an account of the matter which was most
Speaker 1: important to him. I have yet a message to deliver,
Speaker 1: which a person gave me, whom I met at the
Speaker 1: door as I went out on the business in which
Speaker 1: I have been so unfortunate. The very words of the
Speaker 1: man were these, tell mister Peter Schlemer, he will not
Speaker 1: see me here again, as I am going oversea, and
Speaker 1: a favorable wind calls me at this moment to the harbor.
Speaker 1: But in a year and a day I will have
Speaker 1: the honor to seek him myself, and then to propose
Speaker 1: to him another and probably to him agreeable transaction. Present
Speaker 1: my most humble compliments to him, and assure him of
Speaker 1: my thanks. I asked him who he was, but he
Speaker 1: replied that your honor knew him already. What was the
Speaker 1: man's appearance? Cried I, filled with foreboding, and Bendel sketched
Speaker 1: me the man in the gray coat, trade by trade,
Speaker 1: word for word, as he had accurately described in his
Speaker 1: former relation, the man after whom he had inquired. Unhappy one,
Speaker 1: I exclaimed, wringing my hands, that was the very man.
Speaker 1: And there fell, as it were, scales from his eyes.
Speaker 1: Yes it was he, it was, positively, cried he in horror,
Speaker 1: and I blind and imbecile wretch have not recognized, have
Speaker 1: not recognized them, and have betrayed my master. He broke
Speaker 1: out into violent weeping, heaped the bitterest reproaches on himself,
Speaker 1: and the despair in which he was inspired even me
Speaker 1: with compassion. I spoke comfort to him, assured him repeatedly
Speaker 1: that I entertained not the slightest doubt of his fidelity,
Speaker 1: and sent him instantly to the port, if possible, to
Speaker 1: follow the traces of the singular man. But in the morning,
Speaker 1: a great number of ships, which the contrary winds had
Speaker 1: detained in the harbor, had run out bound to different
Speaker 1: climbs and different shorts, and the gray Man had vanished,
Speaker 1: as tracelessly as a dream. End of chapter two Chapter
Speaker 1: three of The Wonderful History of Peter Schlimil by Adelbert
Speaker 1: fon camisso translated by Frederic H. Heth. This Liberox recording
Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Chapter three of What a
Speaker 1: vail are wings to him who is fast bound in
Speaker 1: iron Fetus, He is compelled only the more fearfully to despair.
Speaker 1: I lay, like Faffner by his treasure, far from every constellation,
Speaker 1: starving in the midst of my gold. But my heart
Speaker 1: was not in it. On the contrary, I cursed it
Speaker 1: because I saw myself through it, cut off from all life.
Speaker 1: Brooding over my gloomy secret alone, I trembled before the
Speaker 1: meanest of my servants, whom, at the same time I
Speaker 1: was forced to envy, for he had a shadow he
Speaker 1: might show himself in the sun. I wore away days
Speaker 1: and nights and solitary sorrow in my chamber, and anguish
Speaker 1: gnawed at my heart. There was another who pined away
Speaker 1: before my eyes. My faithful Bendle never ceased to torture
Speaker 1: himself with silent reproaches that he had betrayed the trust
Speaker 1: reposed in him by his master, and had not recognized
Speaker 1: him after whom he was despatched, and with whom he
Speaker 1: must believe that my sorrowful fate was intimately interwoven. I
Speaker 1: could not lay the fault to his charge. I recognized,
Speaker 1: in the event the mysterious nature of the unknown, that
Speaker 1: I might leave nothing untried. I one time sent Bendel
Speaker 1: with a valuable, brilliant ring to the most celebrated painter
Speaker 1: of the city, and begged that he would pay me
Speaker 1: a visit. He came. I ordered my people to retire
Speaker 1: closed the door, seated myself by the man, and after
Speaker 1: praised his art, I came with a heavy heart to
Speaker 1: the business, causing him before that to promise the strictest secrecy.
Speaker 1: Mister professor, I said, could not you think you paint
Speaker 1: a false shadow for one who, by the most unlucky
Speaker 1: chance in the world, has become deprived of his own
Speaker 1: You mean a personal shadow? That is precisely my meaning,
Speaker 1: But continued he through what awkwardness, through what negligence, could
Speaker 1: he then lose his proper shadow? How it happened, replied
Speaker 1: I is now of very little consequence. But thus far,
Speaker 1: I may say, added I lying shamelessly to him in Russia,
Speaker 1: whither he made a journey last winter in an extraordinary cold,
Speaker 1: His shadow froze so fast to the ground that he could,
Speaker 1: by no means lose it again. The false shadow that
Speaker 1: I could paint him, replied the Professor, would only be
Speaker 1: such a one as by the slightest movement he might
Speaker 1: lose again, Especially a person who, as appears by urilation,
Speaker 1: has so little adhesion to his own native shadow. He
Speaker 1: who has no shadow, Let him keep out of the sunshine.
Speaker 1: That is the safest and most sensible thing for him.
Speaker 1: He arose and withdrew, casting at me a trans piercing
Speaker 1: glance which mine could not support. I sunk back in
Speaker 1: my seat and covered my face with my hands. Thus
Speaker 1: Bendal found me. As he at length entered. He saw
Speaker 1: the grief of his master, and was desirous, silently and
Speaker 1: reverently to withdraw. I looked up. I succumbed under the
Speaker 1: burden of my trouble. I must communicate it, Bendel, cried I. Bendel,
Speaker 1: though only one who seized my affliction and respectest it,
Speaker 1: seekest not to pry into it, but appearest silently and
Speaker 1: kindly to sympathize. Come to me, Bendel, and be the
Speaker 1: nearest to my heart. I have not locked from thee
Speaker 1: the treasure of my gold, neither will I lock from
Speaker 1: THEE the treasure of my grief. Bendel, forsake me not, Bendel,
Speaker 1: Thou beholdest me rich liberal kind. Thou imaginest that the
Speaker 1: world ought to honor me, and thou seest me fly
Speaker 1: the world and hide myself from it. Bendel, the world
Speaker 1: has passed judgment and cast me from it. And perhaps
Speaker 1: thou too wilt turn from me. When thou knowest my
Speaker 1: fearful secret. Bendel, I am rich, liberal kind, But O God,
Speaker 1: I have no shadow. No shadow, cried the good youth
Speaker 1: with horror, and the bright tears gushed from his eyes.
Speaker 1: Woe is me that I was born to serve a
Speaker 1: shadow as master. He was silent, and I held my
Speaker 1: face buried in my hands. Bendle, added I at length, tremblingly.
Speaker 1: No hast thou my confidence, and no counst thou betray it.
Speaker 1: Go forth and testify against me. He appeared to be
Speaker 1: in a heavy conflict with himself. At length, he flung
Speaker 1: himself before me and seized my hand, which he bathed
Speaker 1: with his tears. No exclaimed he think the world as
Speaker 1: it will. I cannot and will not, on account of
Speaker 1: a shadow, abandon my kind. Master. I will act justly
Speaker 1: and not with policy. I will continue with you, lend
Speaker 1: you my shadow, help you when I can, and when
Speaker 1: I cannot, weep with you. I fell on his neck,
Speaker 1: astonished at such unusual sentiment, for I was convinced that
Speaker 1: he did it not for gold. From that time, my
Speaker 1: fate and my mode of life were in some degree changed.
Speaker 1: It is indescribable how pro Evidently Bendel continued to conceal
Speaker 1: my defect. He was everywhere before me and with me,
Speaker 1: foreseeing everything, hitting on contrivances, and where unforeseen danger threatened,
Speaker 1: covering me quickly with his shadow, since he was taller
Speaker 1: and bulkier than I. Thus I ventured myself again among men,
Speaker 1: and begun to play a part in the world I
Speaker 1: was obliged. It is true to assume many peculiarities and humors,
Speaker 1: but such become the rich, And so long as the
Speaker 1: truth continued to be concealed, I enjoyed all the honor
Speaker 1: and respect which were paid to my wealth. I looked
Speaker 1: more calmly forward to the promised visit of the mysterious
Speaker 1: Unknown at the end of the year, and the day
Speaker 1: I felt, indeed that I must not remain long in
Speaker 1: a place where I had once been seen without a shadow,
Speaker 1: and where I might easily be betrayed. Perhaps I yet
Speaker 1: thought too much of the manner in which I had
Speaker 1: introduced myself to Thomas John, and it was a mortifying recollection.
Speaker 1: I would, therefore hear merely make an experiment to present
Speaker 1: myself with more ease and self reliance elsewhere. But that
Speaker 1: now occurred, which held me a long time, riveted to
Speaker 1: my vanity, For there it is in the man that
Speaker 1: the unchor bites the firmest ground. Even the lovely Fanny,
Speaker 1: whom I, in this place again encountered, honored me with
Speaker 1: some notice, without recollecting ever to have seen me before.
Speaker 1: For I now had wit and sense. As I spoke,
Speaker 1: people listened, and I could not, for the life of
Speaker 1: me comprehend myself how I had arrived at the art
Speaker 1: of maintaining and engrossing so easily the conversation, The impression
Speaker 1: which I perceived that I had made on the fair
Speaker 1: one made of me just what she desired, a fool,
Speaker 1: And I thenceforward followed her through shade and twilight way
Speaker 1: wherever I could. I was only so far vain that
Speaker 1: I wished to make her vain of myself, and found
Speaker 1: it impossible, even with the very best intentions, to force
Speaker 1: the intoxication from my head to my heart. But why
Speaker 1: repeat to thee the absolutely every day story at length,
Speaker 1: though thyself has often related it to me of other
Speaker 1: honorable people, to the old well known play in which
Speaker 1: I good naturally undertook a worn out part, there came
Speaker 1: in truth to her and me and everybody unexpectedly a
Speaker 1: most peculiarly thought out catastrophe, as according to my wont
Speaker 1: I had assembled on a beautiful evening a party in
Speaker 1: a garden. I wandered with the lady arm in arm,
Speaker 1: at some distance from the other guests, and exerted myself
Speaker 1: to strike out pretty speeches for her. She cast her
Speaker 1: eyes down modestly and returned gently the pressure of my hand,
Speaker 1: when suddenly the moon broke through the clouds behind us,
Speaker 1: and she saw only her own shadow thrown forward before her.
Speaker 1: She started and glanced wildly at me, then again on
Speaker 1: the earth, seeking my shadow with her eyes, and what
Speaker 1: passed within her painted itself so singularly on her countenance
Speaker 1: that I should have burst into a loud laugh, if
Speaker 1: it had not itself run ice cold over my back.
Speaker 1: I let her fall from my arms in a swoon,
Speaker 1: shot like an arrow through the terrified guests, reached the door,
Speaker 1: flung myself into the first chairs which I saw on
Speaker 1: the stand, and drove back to the city, where, this time,
Speaker 1: to my cost, I had left the circumspect bundle. He
Speaker 1: was terrified as he saw me. One word revealed to him.
Speaker 1: All post horses were immediately fetched. I took only one
Speaker 1: of my people with me, an arrant knave called Rascal,
Speaker 1: who had contrived to make himself necessary to me by
Speaker 1: his cleverness, and who could suspect nothing of today's occurrence.
Speaker 1: That night I left upward of thirty miles behind me.
Speaker 1: Bendel remained behind me to discharge my establishment, to pay money,
Speaker 1: and to bring me what I most required. When he
Speaker 1: overtook me next day, I threw myself into his arms
Speaker 1: and swore to him never again to run into the
Speaker 1: like folly, but in future, to be more cautious. We
Speaker 1: continued our journey without pause over the frontiers and the mountains,
Speaker 1: and it was not till we began to descend, and
Speaker 1: had placed those lofty bulkwards between us and our former,
Speaker 1: unlucky abode, that I allowed myself to be persuaded to
Speaker 1: rest from the fatigues I had undergone in a neighboring
Speaker 1: and little frequented bathing place. End of chapter three, Chapter
Speaker 1: four of The Wonderful History of Peter Schlimel by Adelbert
Speaker 1: von Camissel, translated by Frederic H. Hedge. This LibriVox recording
Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Chapter four, I must pass
Speaker 1: in my relation hastily over a time in which how
Speaker 1: gladly would I linger? Could I but conjure up the
Speaker 1: living spirit of it with the recollection? But the color
Speaker 1: which vivified it, and alone can vivify it again, is
Speaker 1: extinguished in me. And when I seek in my bosom,
Speaker 1: what then so mightily animated it? The grief and the joy,
Speaker 1: the innocent illusion? Then do I vainly smite a rock
Speaker 1: in which no living spring now dwells, and the God
Speaker 1: is departed from me? How changed does this past time
Speaker 1: now appear to me? I would act in the watering
Speaker 1: place a heroic character ill studied, and myself a novice
Speaker 1: on the boards, and my gaze was lured from my
Speaker 1: part by a pair of blue eyes. The parents, deluded
Speaker 1: by the play, offer everything only to make the business
Speaker 1: quickly secure, and the poor farce closes in mockery. And
Speaker 1: that is all all that presents itself now to me,
Speaker 1: so absurd and commonplace. And yet it is terrible that
Speaker 1: that can thus appear to me, which then so richly,
Speaker 1: so luxuriantly swelled my bosom. Mina as I wept at
Speaker 1: losing thee, so weep by still to have lost thee
Speaker 1: also in myself. Am I then become so old? Oh
Speaker 1: melancholy reason, Oh, but for one pulsation of that time,
Speaker 1: one moment of that illusion. But no alone on the
Speaker 1: high waste sea of thy bitter flood, and long out
Speaker 1: of the last cup of Champagne, the alphin has vanished.
Speaker 1: I had sent forward Bendel with some purses of gold
Speaker 1: to procure for me in the little town a dwelling
Speaker 1: adapted to my needs. He had there scattered about much money,
Speaker 1: and expressed himself somewhat indefinitely, respecting the distinguished stranger whom
Speaker 1: he served for I would not be named, and that
Speaker 1: filled the good people with extraordinary fancies. As soon as
Speaker 1: my house was ready, Bendal returned to conduct me thither.
Speaker 1: We set out about three miles from the place, on
Speaker 1: a sunny plain. Our progress was obstructed by a gay
Speaker 1: festal throng. The carriage stopped. Music, sound of bells, discharge
Speaker 1: of cannon were heard aloud, vivat rent the air. Before
Speaker 1: the door of the carriage appeared, clad in white, a
Speaker 1: troop of damsels of extraordinary beauty, but who were eclipsed
Speaker 1: by one in particular as the star of night. By
Speaker 1: the sun. She stepped forth from the midst of her sisters.
Speaker 1: The tall and delicate figure kneeled blushing before me, and
Speaker 1: presented to me on a silken cushion, a garland woven
Speaker 1: of laurel, olive branches and roses. While she uttered some
Speaker 1: words about majesty, veneration, and love, which I did not understand,
Speaker 1: but whose bewitching silver tone intoxicated in my ear and heart.
Speaker 1: It seemed as if the heavenly apparition had some time
Speaker 1: previously passed before me. The chorus struck in and sung
Speaker 1: the praises of a good king and the happiness of
Speaker 1: his people. And this scene, my dear friend, in the
Speaker 1: face of the sun. She kneeled still only two paces
Speaker 1: from me, and I without a shadow, could not spring
Speaker 1: over the gulf, could not also fall on the knee
Speaker 1: before the angel. Oh what would I then have given
Speaker 1: for a shadow? I was compelled to hide my shame,
Speaker 1: my anguish, my despair deep in the bottom of my carriage.
Speaker 1: At length, bendal recollected himself on my behalf. He leaped
Speaker 1: out of the carriage on the other side. I called
Speaker 1: him back and gave him out of my jewel case.
Speaker 1: Which lay at hand a splendid diamond crown, which had
Speaker 1: been made to adorn the brows of the lovely fanny.
Speaker 1: He stepped forward and spoke in the name of his master,
Speaker 1: who could not and would not receive such tokens of homage.
Speaker 1: There must be some mistake, but the people of the
Speaker 1: city should be thanked for their good will. As he
Speaker 1: said this, he took up the proffered wreath and laid
Speaker 1: the brilliant coronet in its place. He then respectfully extended
Speaker 1: his hand to the lovely maiden that she might arise,
Speaker 1: and dismissed with a sign clergy, magistrates, and all the deputations.
Speaker 1: No one else was allowed to approach. He ordered the
Speaker 1: throng to divide and make way for the horses. Sprang
Speaker 1: again into the carriage, and on we went, at full gallop,
Speaker 1: through a festive archway, foliage and flowers, toward the city.
Speaker 1: The discharges of cannon continued. The carriage stopped before my house.
Speaker 1: I sprang hastily in at the door, dividing the crowd
Speaker 1: which the desire to see me had collected. The mob
Speaker 1: hurad under my window, and I let double ducats rein
Speaker 1: out of it. In the evening the city was voluntarily illuminated.
Speaker 1: And yet I did not at all know what all
Speaker 1: this could mean, and who I was supposed to be.
Speaker 1: I sent out Rascal to make inquiry. He brought word
Speaker 1: to this effect that the people had received reliable intelligence
Speaker 1: that the good King of Prussia traveled through the country
Speaker 1: under the name of Account, that my adjutant had been recognized,
Speaker 1: thus betraying himself and me. And finally, how great the
Speaker 1: joy was as they became certain that they really had
Speaker 1: me in the place they now tis true, saw clearly
Speaker 1: that I evidently desired to maintain the strictest incognito. And
Speaker 1: how very wrong it had been to attempt so importunately
Speaker 1: to lift the veil. But I had resented it so graciously,
Speaker 1: so kindly I should certainly pardon their good heartedness. The
Speaker 1: thing appeared so amusing to the rogue that he did
Speaker 1: his best by reproving words to strengthen for the present
Speaker 1: the good folk in their belief. He gave a very
Speaker 1: comical report of all this to me, and as he
Speaker 1: found that it diverted me, he made a joke to
Speaker 1: me of his own wickedness. Shall I confess it? It
Speaker 1: flattered me even by such means to be taken for
Speaker 1: that honored head. I commanded a feast to be prepared
Speaker 1: for the evening of the next day, beneath the trees
Speaker 1: which overshadowed the open space before my house, and the
Speaker 1: whole city to be invited to it. The mysterious power
Speaker 1: of my purse, the exertions of Bendel, and the inventiveness
Speaker 1: of Rascal succeeded in triumphing over time itself. It is
Speaker 1: really astonishing how richly and beautifully everything was arranged in
Speaker 1: those few hours. The splendor and abundance which exhibited themselves,
Speaker 1: and the ingenious lighting up so admirably contrived that I
Speaker 1: felt myself quite secure, left me nothing to desire. I
Speaker 1: could not but praise my servants. The evening grew dark,
Speaker 1: the guests appeared and were presented to me. Nothing more
Speaker 1: was said about majesty. I was styled with deep reverence
Speaker 1: and obeissance. Count what was to be done. I allowed
Speaker 1: the title to stand, and remained from that hour, Count Peter,
Speaker 1: in the midst of festive multitudes, my soul yearned alone.
Speaker 1: After one she entered late, she was and wore the crown.
Speaker 1: She followed modestly her parents, and seemed not to know
Speaker 1: that she was the loveliest of all. They were presented
Speaker 1: to me as mister forest master, lady and their daughter.
Speaker 1: I found many agreeable and obliging things to say to
Speaker 1: the old people. Before the daughter, I stood like a
Speaker 1: rebuked boy and could not bring out one word. I
Speaker 1: begged her at length, with a faltering tone, to honor
Speaker 1: this feast by assuming the office whose insignia she grazed.
Speaker 1: She entreated, with blushes and a moving look to be excused,
Speaker 1: but blushing still more than herself in her presence, I
Speaker 1: paid her as her first subject my homage with a
Speaker 1: most profound respect, and the hint of the count became
Speaker 1: to all the guests a command which every one, with
Speaker 1: emulous joy hastened to obey. Majesty, innocence, and grace presided
Speaker 1: an alliance with beauty over a rapturous feast. Mina's happy
Speaker 1: parents believed their child thus exalted only in honor of them.
Speaker 1: I myself was in an indescribable intoxication. I caused all
Speaker 1: the jewels which yet remit, of those which I had
Speaker 1: formerly purchased, in order to get rid of burthensome gold
Speaker 1: or the pearls or the precious stones to be laid
Speaker 1: in two covered dishes and at the table in the
Speaker 1: name of the Queen, to be distributed round to her
Speaker 1: companions and to all the ladies. Gold in the meantime
Speaker 1: was incessantly strewed over the encompassing robes among the exulting people.
Speaker 1: Bendel the next morning revealed to me in confidence that
Speaker 1: the suspicion which he had long entertained of Rascal's honesty,
Speaker 1: was now become certainty that he had yesterday embezzled whole
Speaker 1: purses of gold. Let us permit, replied, I, the poor
Speaker 1: scoundrel to enjoy the petty plunder I spent willingly on everybody,
Speaker 1: why not on him? Yesterday? He and all the fresh
Speaker 1: people you have brought me served me honestly. They helped
Speaker 1: me joyfully to celebrate the joyful feast. There was no
Speaker 1: further mention of it. Rascal remained the first of my servants,
Speaker 1: but Bendel was my friend and my confidant. The latter
Speaker 1: was accustomed to regard my wealth as inexhaustible, and he
Speaker 1: pried not after its sources. Entering into my humor, he
Speaker 1: assisted me rather to discover opportunities to exercise it and
Speaker 1: to spend my gold of that unknown one, that pale sneak.
Speaker 1: He knew only this, that I could alone, through him,
Speaker 1: be absolved from the curse which weighed on me, and
Speaker 1: that I feared him, on whom my sole hope reposed
Speaker 1: that for the rest I was convinced that he could
Speaker 1: discover me anywhere I him nowhere, and that, therefore, awaiting
Speaker 1: the promised day, I abandoned every vain inquiry. The magnificence
Speaker 1: of my feast and my behavior at it held at
Speaker 1: first the credulous inhabitants of the city firmly to their
Speaker 1: preconcceived opinion. True. It was soon stated in the newspapers
Speaker 1: that the whole story of the journey of the King
Speaker 1: of Prussia had been a mere groundless rumor. But a king,
Speaker 1: I know, was, and must, spite of everything, a king remain,
Speaker 1: and truly one of the most rich and royal who
Speaker 1: had ever existed. Only people did not rightly know what king.
Speaker 1: The world has never had reason to complain of the
Speaker 1: scarcity of monarchs, at least in our time. The good people,
Speaker 1: who had never seen any of them, pitched with equal correctness,
Speaker 1: first on one, and then on another count Peter still
Speaker 1: remained who he was. At one time appeared among the
Speaker 1: guests at the bath, a tradesman who had made himself
Speaker 1: bankrupt in order to enrich himself, and who enjoyed universal esteem,
Speaker 1: and had a broad, though somewhat pale shadow. The property
Speaker 1: which he had scraped together he resolved to lay out
Speaker 1: in ostentation, and it even occurred to him to enter
Speaker 1: into rivalry with me. I had recourse to my purse,
Speaker 1: and soon brought the poor devil to such a pass, that,
Speaker 1: in order to save his credit, he was obliged to
Speaker 1: become bankrupt a second time, and hasten over the frontier.
Speaker 1: Thus I got rid of him. In this neighborhood I
Speaker 1: made many idlers and good for nothing fellows, with all
Speaker 1: the rows, splendor and expenditure by which I made all
Speaker 1: succumb to me. I still in my own house, lived
Speaker 1: very simply and retired. I had established the strictest circumspection.
Speaker 1: As a rule. No one except Bendel, under any pretense whatever,
Speaker 1: was allowed to enter the rooms which I inhabited. So
Speaker 1: long as the sun shone, I kept myself shut up there.
Speaker 1: And it was said the Countess employed with his cabinet.
Speaker 1: With this employment, numerous couriers stood in connection whom I,
Speaker 1: for every trifle sent out and received, I received company
Speaker 1: in the evening only under my trees or in my hall,
Speaker 1: arranged and lighted according to Bendle's plan. When I went out,
Speaker 1: on which occasions it was necessary that I should be
Speaker 1: constantly watched by the argus eyes of Bendel. It was
Speaker 1: only to the forester's garden for the sake of one alone.
Speaker 1: For my love was the innermost heart of my life. Oh,
Speaker 1: my good camisso I will hope that thou hast not
Speaker 1: yet forgotten what love is. I leave much unmentioned here
Speaker 1: to thee. Mina was really an amiable, kind, good child.
Speaker 1: I had taken her whole imagination captive. She could not,
Speaker 1: in her humility, conceive how she could be worthy that
Speaker 1: I should alone have fixed my regard on her. And
Speaker 1: she returned love for love with all the youthful power
Speaker 1: of an innocent heart. She loved like a woman, offering
Speaker 1: herself wholly up self forgetting, living, holy and solely for
Speaker 1: him who was her life, regardless if she herself perished.
Speaker 1: That is to say, she really loved. But I, oh
Speaker 1: what terrible hours, terrible and yet worthy that I should
Speaker 1: wish them back again? Have I often wept on Bendal's bosom,
Speaker 1: when after the first unconscious intoxication, I recollected myself, looked
Speaker 1: sharply into myself, I without a shadow, with knavish selfishness,
Speaker 1: destroying this angel, this pure soul which I had deceived
Speaker 1: and stolen. Then did I resolve to reveal myself to her?
Speaker 1: Then did I swear with a most passionate oath to
Speaker 1: tear myself from her and to fly? Then did I
Speaker 1: burst out into tears and concert with Bendel howe in
Speaker 1: the evening I should visit her in the forester's garden.
Speaker 1: At other times I flattered myself with great expectations from
Speaker 1: their rapidly approaching view of the gray Man, and wept again.
Speaker 1: When I had, in vain tried to believe in it.
Speaker 1: I had calculated the day on which I expected again
Speaker 1: to see the fearful One, For he had said in
Speaker 1: a year and a day, and I believed his word.
Speaker 1: The parents, good honorable old people who loved their only
Speaker 1: child extremely, were amazed at the connection as it already stood,
Speaker 1: and they knew not what to do in it. Earlier
Speaker 1: they could not have believed that Count Peter could think
Speaker 1: only of their child, But now he really loved her
Speaker 1: and was beloved again. The mother was probably vain enough
Speaker 1: to believe in the probability of a union and to
Speaker 1: seek for it. The sound masculine understanding of the father
Speaker 1: did not give way to such overstretched imaginations. Both were
Speaker 1: persuaded of the purity of my love. They could do
Speaker 1: nothing more than pray for their child. I have laid
Speaker 1: my hand on a letter from Mina of this date,
Speaker 1: which I still retain. Yes, this is her own writing.
Speaker 1: I transcribe it for THEE. I am a weak, silly
Speaker 1: maiden and cannot believe that my beloved because I love
Speaker 1: him dearly dearly, will make the poor girl unhappy. Ah,
Speaker 1: Thou art so kind, so inexpressibly kind, But do not
Speaker 1: misunderstand me. Thou shalt sacrifice nothing for me, desire to
Speaker 1: sacrifice nothing for me? O God, I should hate myself
Speaker 1: if thou didst No, thou hast made me immeasurably happy.
Speaker 1: Hast taught me to love thee away. I know my
Speaker 1: own fate. Count Peter belongs not to me. He belongs
Speaker 1: to the world. I will be proud when I hear
Speaker 1: that was he, and that was he again, and that
Speaker 1: has he accomplished. There they have worshiped him, and there
Speaker 1: they have defied him. See when I think of this,
Speaker 1: then am I angry with THEE that with a simple child,
Speaker 1: Thou canst forget thy highest destiny away, or the thought
Speaker 1: will make me miserable. I, oh who through THEE, am
Speaker 1: so happy, so blessed? Have I not woven too an
Speaker 1: olive branch and a rose put into thy life, as
Speaker 1: into the wreath which I was allowed to present to THEE?
Speaker 1: I have THEE in my heart, my beloved, fear not
Speaker 1: to leave me. I will die, oh so happy, so
Speaker 1: ineffably happy through THEE. Thou canst imagine how the words
Speaker 1: must cut through my heart. I explained to her that
Speaker 1: I was not what people believed me, that I was
Speaker 1: only a rich but infinitely miserable man, That a curse
Speaker 1: rested on me, which must be the only secret between us,
Speaker 1: since I was not yet without hope, that I should
Speaker 1: be solved, that this was the poison of my days.
Speaker 1: That I might drag her down with me into the gulf.
Speaker 1: She who was the sole light to sole happiness, the
Speaker 1: sole heart of my life. Then wept she again because
Speaker 1: I was unhappy. Ah, she was so loving, so kind
Speaker 1: to spare me, but one tear she and with what transport,
Speaker 1: would have sacrificed herself without reserve. She was, however, far
Speaker 1: from rightly comprehending my words. She conceived in me some
Speaker 1: prince on whom had fallen a heavy ban, some high
Speaker 1: and honored head, and her imagination, amidst heroic pictures, limbed
Speaker 1: forth her lover gloriously. Once I said to her, Mina,
Speaker 1: the last day in the next month may change my
Speaker 1: fate and decide it. If not, I must die, for
Speaker 1: I will not make thee unhappy. Weeping, she hid her
Speaker 1: head in my bosom. If thy fortune changes, let me
Speaker 1: know that thou art happy, I have no claim on
Speaker 1: thee art Thou wretched. Bind me to thy wretchedness that
Speaker 1: I may help thee to bear it. Maiden, Maiden, take
Speaker 1: it back that quick word, that foolish word which escaped
Speaker 1: thy lips. And knowest thou this wretchedness, knowest thou this curse,
Speaker 1: knowest who thy lover what he seized, Though not that
Speaker 1: I convulsively shrink together and have a secret from thee.
Speaker 1: She fell sobbing to my feet, and repeated with oath
Speaker 1: her entreaty. I announced to the forest master, who entered,
Speaker 1: that it was my intention, on the first of the
Speaker 1: approaching month, to solicit the hand of his daughter. I
Speaker 1: fixed precisely this time, because in the interim many things
Speaker 1: might occur which might influence my fortunes. But I insisted
Speaker 1: that I was unchangeable in my love to his daughter.
Speaker 1: The good man was quite startled as he heard such
Speaker 1: words out of the mouth of Count Peter. He fell
Speaker 1: on my neck and again became quite ashamed to have
Speaker 1: thus forgotten him. Then he began to doubt, to weigh,
Speaker 1: and to inquire. He spoke of dowry, security, and the
Speaker 1: future of his beloved child. I thanked him for reminding
Speaker 1: me of these things. I told him that I desired
Speaker 1: to settle down in this neighborhood where I seemed to
Speaker 1: be beloved, and to lead a care free life. I
Speaker 1: begged him to purchase the finest estates that the country
Speaker 1: had to offer in the name of his daughter, and
Speaker 1: to charge the cost to me. A father could in
Speaker 1: such matter best serve a lover. It gave him enough
Speaker 1: to do, for everywhere a stranger was before him, and
Speaker 1: he could only purchase for about a million my Thus
Speaker 1: employing him was at the bottom an innocent scheme to
Speaker 1: remove him to a distance. And I had employed him
Speaker 1: similarly before, for I must confess that he was rather wearisome.
Speaker 1: The good Mother was, on the contrary, somewhat deaf and
Speaker 1: not like him. Jealous of the honor of entertaining the count,
Speaker 1: the mother joined us. The happy people pressed me to
Speaker 1: stay longer with them. That evening, I dared not remain
Speaker 1: another minute. I saw already the rising moon glimmer on
Speaker 1: the horizon. My time was up. The next evening, I
Speaker 1: went again to the forester's garden. I had thrown my
Speaker 1: cloak over my shoulders and pulled my hat over my eyes.
Speaker 1: I advanced to Mina. As she looked up and beheld me,
Speaker 1: she gave an involuntary start, and there stood again, clear
Speaker 1: before my soul, the apparition of that terrible night. When
Speaker 1: I showled myself in the moonlight without a shadow, it
Speaker 1: was actually she. But had she also recognized me again?
Speaker 1: She was silent and thoughtful. On my bosom lay a
Speaker 1: hundred way pressure. I arose from my seat. She threw
Speaker 1: herself silently, weeping on my bosom I went. I now
Speaker 1: found her often in tears. It grew darker and darker
Speaker 1: in my soul. The parents swam only in supreme felicity.
Speaker 1: The faith day passed on, sad and sullen as a thundercloud.
Speaker 1: The eve of the day was come. I could scarcely breathe.
Speaker 1: I had, in precaution, filled several chests with gold. I
Speaker 1: watched the midnight hour approach it struck. I now sat
Speaker 1: my eye fixed on the fingers of the clock, counting
Speaker 1: the seconds, the minutes, like dagger strokes, at every noise
Speaker 1: which arose. I started up. The day broke, The leaden
Speaker 1: hours crowded one upon another. It was noon, evening night.
Speaker 1: As the clock fingers sped on, hope withered. It struck
Speaker 1: eleven and nothing appeared. The last minutes of the last
Speaker 1: hour fell, and nothing appeared. It struck the first stroke,
Speaker 1: the last stroke of the twelfth hour, and I sank,
Speaker 1: hopeless and in boundless tears upon my bed. On the
Speaker 1: morrow I should forever shadowless, solicit the hand of my beloved.
Speaker 1: Toward morning, an anxious sleep pressed down my eyelids. End
Speaker 1: of chapter four, Chapter five of the Wonderful History of
Speaker 1: Peter Schlimihl by Adelbert Fon Camissau, translated by Frederick H. Hedge.
Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter five.
Speaker 1: It was still early morning when voices which were raised
Speaker 1: in my antechamber in violent dispute, awoke me. I listened
Speaker 1: Kendal forbade entrance. Rascal swore high and hotly that he
Speaker 1: would receive no commands from his equal, and insisted on
Speaker 1: forcing his way into my room. The good Bendle warned
Speaker 1: him that such words came they to my ear, would
Speaker 1: turn him out of his most advantageous service. Rascal threatened
Speaker 1: to lay hands on him if he any longer obstructed
Speaker 1: his entrance. I had half dressed myself. I flung the
Speaker 1: door wrathfully open and advanced to Rascal what wants though villain?
Speaker 1: He stepped two strides backward and replied, quite coolly, the
Speaker 1: request you most humbly count for once to allow me
Speaker 1: to see your shadow. The sunshines at this moment so
Speaker 1: beautifully in the court. I was struck as with thunder.
Speaker 1: It was some time before I could recover my speech.
Speaker 1: How can a servant toward his master. He interrupted, did
Speaker 1: very calmly my speech. A servant may be a very
Speaker 1: honorable man and not be willing to serve as shadow.
Speaker 1: As master, I demand my discharge. It was necessary to
Speaker 1: try other chords. But honest, dear rascal, who has put
Speaker 1: that unlucky idea into your head? How const thou believe?
Speaker 1: He proceeded in the same tone, people will assert that
Speaker 1: you have no shadow, And in short, ye show me
Speaker 1: your shadow, or give me my discharge. Bendel, pale and trembling,
Speaker 1: but more discreet than I gave me a sign. I
Speaker 1: sought refuge in the all silencing gold, but that too
Speaker 1: had lost its power. He threw it at my feet
Speaker 1: from a shadow as men. I accept nothing. He turned
Speaker 1: his back upon me and went most deliberately out of
Speaker 1: the room, with his hat upon his head and whistling
Speaker 1: a tune. I stood there with Bendel as one turned
Speaker 1: to stone, thoughtless, motionless, gazing after him, heavily sighing, and
Speaker 1: with death in my heart. I prepared myself at last
Speaker 1: to redeem my promise, and, like a criminal before his judge,
Speaker 1: to appear in the forest master's garden. I alighted in
Speaker 1: the dark arbor, which was named after me, and where
Speaker 1: they would be sure also this time to await me.
Speaker 1: The mother met me carefree and joyous. Mina sat there,
Speaker 1: pale and lovely as the first snow, which often in
Speaker 1: the autumn kisses the last flowers and then instantly dissolves
Speaker 1: into bitter water. The forest master went agitatedly to and
Speaker 1: fro a written paper in his hand, and appeared to
Speaker 1: force down many things in himself, which painted themselves with
Speaker 1: rapidly alternating flushes and paleness on his otherwise immovable countenance.
Speaker 1: He came up to me as I entered, and with
Speaker 1: frequently choked words, begged to speak with me alone. The
Speaker 1: path in which he invited me to follow him led
Speaker 1: us toward an open, sunny part of the garden. I
Speaker 1: sank speechless on a seat, and then followed a long
Speaker 1: silence which even the good mother dared not interrupt. The
Speaker 1: forest master raged continually with unequal steps to and fro
Speaker 1: in the arbor, and, suddenly halting before me, glanced on
Speaker 1: the paper which he held, and demanded of me with
Speaker 1: a searching look. May not count a certain Peter schleme,
Speaker 1: You'll be not quite unknown to you. I was silent,
Speaker 1: a man of superior character and singular attainments. He paused
Speaker 1: for an answer, And suppose I were the same man
Speaker 1: who added, he vehemently has by some means lost his shadow. Oh,
Speaker 1: my foreboding, My foreboding, exclaimed Mina. Yes, I have long
Speaker 1: known it. He has no shadow. And she flung herself
Speaker 1: into the arms of her mother, who terrified clasped her convulsively,
Speaker 1: and upbraided her that, to her own hurt, she had
Speaker 1: kept to herself such a secret. But she, like Arethusa,
Speaker 1: was changed into a fountain of tears, which, at the
Speaker 1: sound of my voice flowed still more copiously, and at
Speaker 1: my approach, burst forth in torrents. And you again grimly
Speaker 1: began the forest master. And you, with unparalleled impudence, have
Speaker 1: made no scruple to deceive these and myself. And you
Speaker 1: give out that you love her whom you brought into
Speaker 1: this predicament. See there how she weeps and rise. Oh horrible, horrible,
Speaker 1: I had to such a degree lost my composure that,
Speaker 1: talking like one crazed, I began, after all, my shadow
Speaker 1: is nothing but a shadow. One can do very well
Speaker 1: without that, and it is not worth while to make
Speaker 1: such a riot about it. But I felt so sharply
Speaker 1: the baselessness of what I was saying that I stopped
Speaker 1: of myself without disdaining me an answer. And I then added,
Speaker 1: what one has lost at one time may be found
Speaker 1: again at another. He fiercely rebuked me. Confess to me, sir,
Speaker 1: confess to me, how became you deprived of your shadow?
Speaker 1: I was compelled again to lie. A rude fellow one
Speaker 1: day trod so heavily on my shadow that you rent
Speaker 1: a great hole in it. I have only sent it
Speaker 1: to be mended, for money can do much, and I
Speaker 1: was to have received it back yesterday. Good, sir, very good,
Speaker 1: replied the forest master. You solicit my daughter's hand. Others
Speaker 1: do the same. I have as her father to care
Speaker 1: for her. I give you three days in which you
Speaker 1: may seek for a shadow. If you appear before me
Speaker 1: within these three days with a good, well fitting shadow,
Speaker 1: you shall be welcome to me. But on the fourth day,
Speaker 1: I tell you plainly, my daughter is the wife of another.
Speaker 1: I would yet attempt to speak a word to Mina,
Speaker 1: but she clung sobbing violently, only closer to her mother's breast,
Speaker 1: who silently motioned me to withdraw I reeled away, and
Speaker 1: the world seemed to close itself behind me. Escaped from
Speaker 1: Bendal's affectionate oversight, I traversed in erring cares, woods and fields.
Speaker 1: The perspiration of my agony dropped from my brow. A
Speaker 1: hollow groaning convulsed my bosom. Madness raged within me. I
Speaker 1: know not how long this had continued. When on a
Speaker 1: sunny heath, I felt myself plucked by the sleeve. I
Speaker 1: stood still and looked round. It was the man in
Speaker 1: the gray coat, who seemed to have run himself quite
Speaker 1: out of breath in pursuit of me. He immediately began.
Speaker 1: I had announced myself for to day, but you could
Speaker 1: not wait the time. There is nothing amiss, however, yet
Speaker 1: you consider the matter, receive your shadder again in exchange
Speaker 1: which is at your service, and turn immediately back. You
Speaker 1: shall be welcome in the forest master's garden. The whole
Speaker 1: has been only a joke. Rascal who has betrayed you,
Speaker 1: and who seeks the hand of your bride. I will
Speaker 1: take charge of the fellow is ripe. I stood there,
Speaker 1: as if in a dream, announced for to day. I
Speaker 1: counted over again the time he was right. I had
Speaker 1: constantly miscalculated a day. I saw it with the right
Speaker 1: hand in my bosom for my purse. He guessed my
Speaker 1: meaning and stepped two paces backwards. No count, that isn't
Speaker 1: two good hands keep you that? I stared at him
Speaker 1: with eyes of inquiring wonder, and he proceeded. I request
Speaker 1: only a trifle as memento, you be so good as
Speaker 1: to set your name to this paper. On the parchment
Speaker 1: stood the words, by virtue of this my signature, I
Speaker 1: make over my soul to the holder of this, after
Speaker 1: its natural separation from the body. I gazed with speechless amazement,
Speaker 1: alternately at the writing and the gray unknown. Meanwhile, with
Speaker 1: a new cut quill, he had taken up a drop
Speaker 1: of blood which flowed from a fresh thorn scratch on
Speaker 1: my hand, and presented it to me. Who are you?
Speaker 1: After all? At length I asked him, what does it matter?
Speaker 1: He replied, and is it not plainly written on me?
Speaker 1: A poor devil, A sort of learned man and doctor, who,
Speaker 1: in return for precious odds, receives from his friend's things,
Speaker 1: and for himself has no other amusement on earth but
Speaker 1: to make his little experiments. But however, sign to the
Speaker 1: right there Peter Schlemiel. I shook my head and said,
Speaker 1: pardon me, sir, I do not sign that. No, replied
Speaker 1: he in a maze. And why not? It seems to
Speaker 1: me to a certain degree serious to stake my soul
Speaker 1: on a shadow, so so repeated he serious, and he
Speaker 1: laughed almost in my face. And if I might venture
Speaker 1: to ask, what sort of a thing is that soul
Speaker 1: of yours? Have you ever seen it? And what do
Speaker 1: you think of doing with it? When you are dead?
Speaker 1: Be glad that you have found an amateur who, in
Speaker 1: your lifetime is willing to pay you for the bequest
Speaker 1: of this x, of this galvanic power or polarized activity,
Speaker 1: or whatever this silly thing may be, with something actual,
Speaker 1: that is to say, with your real shadow, through which
Speaker 1: you may arrive at the hand of your beloved and
Speaker 1: at the accomplishment of all your desires. Will you rather
Speaker 1: push forth and deliver up that poor young creature to
Speaker 1: that low bred scoundrel rascal. No, you must witness that
Speaker 1: with your own eyes. Here I lent you the magic cap.
Speaker 1: He drew it from his pocket, and we will proceed
Speaker 1: unseen to the forester's garden. I must confess that I
Speaker 1: was excessively ashamed of being derided by this man, I
Speaker 1: detested him from the bottom of my heart, and I
Speaker 1: believe that this personal antipathy withheld me more than principle
Speaker 1: or prejudice from purchasing my shadow, essential as it was
Speaker 1: by the required signature. The thought also was intolerable to
Speaker 1: me of making the excursion which he proposed in his company.
Speaker 1: To see this abhurrid sneak, this mocking cobalt step between
Speaker 1: me and my beloved, too torn and bleeding hearts, revolted
Speaker 1: my innermost feeling. I regarded what was past as predestined
Speaker 1: and my wretchedness as unchangeable. And turning to the man,
Speaker 1: I said to him, Sir, I have sold you my
Speaker 1: shadow for this in itself most excellent purse, and I
Speaker 1: have sufficiently repented of it. If the bargain can be
Speaker 1: broken off, then in God's name. He shook his head
Speaker 1: and made a very gloomy face, I continued, I will
Speaker 1: then sell you nothing further of mine, even for this
Speaker 1: offered price of my shadow, and therefore I shall sign
Speaker 1: nothing from this. You may understand that the muffling up
Speaker 1: to which you invite me must be much more amusing,
Speaker 1: for you than for me. Excuse me therefore, and as
Speaker 1: it cannot now be otherwise, let us part. It grieves me,
Speaker 1: Miss Schleiml, that you obstinately decline the business which I
Speaker 1: proposed to you as a friend. Perhaps another time I
Speaker 1: may be more fortunate till our speedy meeting again, Apropos,
Speaker 1: permit me yet to show you that the things which
Speaker 1: I purchase, I by no means suffer to grow moldy,
Speaker 1: but honorably preserve, and that they are well taken care
Speaker 1: of by me. With that, he drew my shadow out
Speaker 1: of his pocket, and, with a dexterous throw, unfolding it
Speaker 1: on the heath, spread it out on the sunny side
Speaker 1: of his feet, so that he walked between two attendant shadows,
Speaker 1: his own and mine. For mine must equally obey him
Speaker 1: and accommodate itself to and follow all his movements. When
Speaker 1: I once saw my poor shadow again after so long
Speaker 1: an absence, and beheld it degraded to so vile a service,
Speaker 1: whilst I, on its account, was in such unspeakable trouble,
Speaker 1: my heart broke and began bitterly to weep. The detested
Speaker 1: wretch swaggered with plunders snatched from me, and impudently renewed
Speaker 1: his proposal. You can yet have it a stroke of
Speaker 1: the pen, and you snatched there, with the poor, unhappy mina,
Speaker 1: from the claws of the villain into the arms of
Speaker 1: the most honored count As observed only a stroke of
Speaker 1: the pen. My tears burst forth with fresh impetuosity. But
Speaker 1: I turned away and motioned to him to withdraw himself. Bendal,
Speaker 1: who filled with anxiety, had traced me to this spot
Speaker 1: at this moment, arrived. When the kind good soul found
Speaker 1: me weeping and saw my shadow, which could not be
Speaker 1: mistaken in the power of the mysterious gray man, he
Speaker 1: immediately resolved, was it even by force to restore to
Speaker 1: me the possession of my property? And as he did
Speaker 1: not understand how to deal with such a tender thing,
Speaker 1: he immediately assaulted the man with words, and without much asking,
Speaker 1: ordered him bluntly to return my property to me. Instead
Speaker 1: of an answer, he turned his back to the innocent
Speaker 1: young fellow and went but Bendel up with his buckthorn cudgel,
Speaker 1: which he carried, and following on his heels, without mercy,
Speaker 1: and with reiterated commands to give up the shadow made
Speaker 1: him feel the full force of his vigorous arm. He
Speaker 1: as accustomed to such handling, ducked his head, rounded his shoulders,
Speaker 1: and with silent and deliberate steps, pursued his way over
Speaker 1: the heath. At once, going off with my shadow and
Speaker 1: my faithful servant. I long heard the heavy sounds roll
Speaker 1: over the waist till they were finally lost in the distance.
Speaker 1: I was alone, as before, with my misery. End of
Speaker 1: chapter five Chapter six of The Wonderful History of Peter
Speaker 1: Schlemehl by Adelbert fon camisso translated by Frederick H. Hedge.
Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter six.
Speaker 1: Left alone on the wild heath, I gave free current
Speaker 1: to my countless tears, relieving my heart from an ineffably
Speaker 1: weary weight. But I saw no bound, no outlet, no
Speaker 1: end to my intolerable misery. And I drank besides with
Speaker 1: savage thirst of the fresh poison which the unknown had
Speaker 1: poured into my wounds. When I called the image of
Speaker 1: Mina before my soul, and the dear sweet form appeared,
Speaker 1: pale and in tears as I saw her last in
Speaker 1: my shame. Then stepped, impudent and mocking rascals shadow between
Speaker 1: her and me. I covered my face and fled through
Speaker 1: the wild. Yet the hideous apparition left me not but
Speaker 1: pursued me in my flight till I sank breathless on
Speaker 1: the ground and moistened it with a fresh torrent of tears.
Speaker 1: And all for a shadow, and this shadow, a penstroke
Speaker 1: could have obtained for me. I thought over the strange proposition,
Speaker 1: and my refusal, all was chaos in me. I had
Speaker 1: no longer either discernment or faculty of comprehension. The day
Speaker 1: went along, I stilled my hunger with wild fruits, my
Speaker 1: thirst in the nearest mountain stream. The night fell, I
Speaker 1: lay down beneath a tree. The damp morning awoke me
Speaker 1: out of a heavy sleep, in which I heard myself
Speaker 1: rattle in the throat, as in death. Bendal must have
Speaker 1: lost all trace of me, and it rejoiced me to
Speaker 1: think so I would not return again amongst men before
Speaker 1: whom I fled in terror, like the timid game of
Speaker 1: the mountains. Thus I lived through three weary days. On
Speaker 1: the fourth morning, I found myself on a sandy plain
Speaker 1: bright with the sun, and set on a rock in
Speaker 1: its beams For I loved now to enjoy its long
Speaker 1: withheld countenance. I silently fed my heart with its despair.
Speaker 1: A light rustle startled me ready for flight. I threw
Speaker 1: round me a hurried glance. I saw no one, but
Speaker 1: in the sunny sand, there glided past me a human shadow,
Speaker 1: not unlike my own, which, wandering there alone, seemed to
Speaker 1: have escaped from its possessor. There awoke in me a
Speaker 1: mighty yearning shadow, said, I dost thou seek thy master,
Speaker 1: I will be he? And I sprang forward to seize it.
Speaker 1: I thought that if I succeeded in treading on it
Speaker 1: so that its feet touched mine, it probably would remain
Speaker 1: hanging there, and in time accommodated itself to me. The shadow,
Speaker 1: on my moving fled before me, and I was compelled
Speaker 1: to begin a strenuous chase of the light fugitive, for
Speaker 1: which the thought of rescuing myself from my fearful condition
Speaker 1: could alone have endowed me with a requisite vigor. It
Speaker 1: flew toward a wood at a great distance, in which
Speaker 1: I must, of necessity have lost it. I perceived this
Speaker 1: a horror, convulsed my heart. Inflamed My desire added wings
Speaker 1: to my speed I gained evidently on the shadow. I
Speaker 1: came continually nearer. I must certainly reach it. Suddenly it
Speaker 1: stopped and turned toward me, like a lion on its prey.
Speaker 1: I shot with a mighty spring forward to make seizure
Speaker 1: of it, and dashed unexpectedly against a hard and bodily object. Invisibly,
Speaker 1: I received the most unprecedented blows on the ribs that
Speaker 1: mortal men probably ever received. The effect of the terror
Speaker 1: in me was convulsively to close my arms and firmly
Speaker 1: to inclose that which stood unseen before me. In the
Speaker 1: rapid transaction, I plunged forward to the ground. But backward
Speaker 1: and under me was a man whom I had embraced,
Speaker 1: and who now first became visible. The whole occurrence then
Speaker 1: became very naturally explicable to me. The man must have
Speaker 1: carried the invisible bird's nest, which renders him who holds it,
Speaker 1: but not his shadow imperceptible, and had now cast it away.
Speaker 1: I glanced round, soon discovered the shadow of the invisible
Speaker 1: nest itself, leaped up and toward it, and did not
Speaker 1: miss the precious prize. Invisible and shadowless. I held the
Speaker 1: nest in my hand. The man swiftly springing up, gazing
Speaker 1: round instantly after his fortunate conqueror descried on the white
Speaker 1: sunny plain, neither him nor his shadow, for which he
Speaker 1: sought with especial avidity. For that I was myself entirely shadowless.
Speaker 1: He had no leisure to remark, nor could he imagine
Speaker 1: such a thing. Having convinced himself that every trace had vanished,
Speaker 1: he turned his hand against himself and tore his hair
Speaker 1: in great despair. To me, however, the acquired treasure had
Speaker 1: given the power and desire to mix again amongst men,
Speaker 1: I did not want for self satisfying palliatives for my
Speaker 1: base robbery, or rather I had not need of them,
Speaker 1: And to escape from every thought of the kind, I
Speaker 1: hastened away, not even looking round at the unhappy one,
Speaker 1: whose deploring voice I long heard resounding behind me. Thus
Speaker 1: at least appeared to me the circumstances at the time.
Speaker 1: I was on fire to proceed to the forester's garden,
Speaker 1: and there myself to discern the truth of what the
Speaker 1: detested one had told me. I knew not, however, where
Speaker 1: I was. I climbed in the next hill in order
Speaker 1: to look round over the country and perceived from its
Speaker 1: summit the near city and the forester's garden lying at
Speaker 1: my feet. My heart beat violently, and tears of another
Speaker 1: kind than what I had till now shed rushed into
Speaker 1: my eyes. I should see her again. Anxious desire hastened
Speaker 1: my steps. Down the most direct path, I passed unseen
Speaker 1: some peasants who came out of the city. They were
Speaker 1: talking of me, of Rascal and the forest master. I
Speaker 1: would hear nothing, I hurried past. I entered the garden,
Speaker 1: all the tremor of expectation in my bosom. I seemed
Speaker 1: to hear laughter near me. I shuddered, threw a rapid
Speaker 1: glance round me, but could discover nobody. I advanced farther.
Speaker 1: I seemed to perceive as sound as of man's steps
Speaker 1: near me, but there was nothing to be seen. I
Speaker 1: believed myself deceived by my ear. It was yet early
Speaker 1: no one in Count Peter's arbor, the garden still empty.
Speaker 1: I traversed the well known paths. I penetrated to the
Speaker 1: very front of the dwelling. The same noise more distinctly
Speaker 1: followed me. I seated myself with an agonized heart, on
Speaker 1: a bench which stood in the sunny space before the
Speaker 1: house door. It seemed as if I had heard the
Speaker 1: unseen Cobbalt laughing in mockery, seat himself near me. The
Speaker 1: key turned in the door, it opened, and the forest
Speaker 1: master issued forth with papers in his hand. A mist
Speaker 1: seemed to envelope my head. I looked up and horror.
Speaker 1: The man in the gray coat sat by me, gazing
Speaker 1: on me with a satanic leer. He had drawn his
Speaker 1: magic cup at once over his head and mine at
Speaker 1: his feet. Lay his and my shadow peaceably by each other.
Speaker 1: He played negligently with the well known parchment which he
Speaker 1: held in his hand, And as the forest master busied
Speaker 1: with his documents and to and fro in the shadow
Speaker 1: of the arbor, he stooped familiarily to my ear and
Speaker 1: whispered in it these words. So then you have notwithstanding
Speaker 1: accepted my invitation, and here sit we for once two
Speaker 1: heads under one cap. All right, all right, but now
Speaker 1: give me my bird's nest again. You have no further
Speaker 1: need of it, and are too honest the men to
Speaker 1: wish to withhold it from me. But there needs no thanks.
Speaker 1: I assure you that I have lent it to you
Speaker 1: with the most hearty, good will. He took it unceremoniously
Speaker 1: out of my hand, put it in his pocket, and
Speaker 1: laughed at me again, And that so loud that the
Speaker 1: forest master himself looked round at the noise. I sat
Speaker 1: there as if changed to stone. But you must admit,
Speaker 1: continued he, that such a cap is much more convenient.
Speaker 1: It covers not only your person, but your shadow at
Speaker 1: the same time, and as many others as you have
Speaker 1: a mind to take with you. See you again to day.
Speaker 1: I conduct two of them. He laughed again. Mark this schleimeel.
Speaker 1: What we at first won't do with a good will,
Speaker 1: that will we in the end be compelled to. I
Speaker 1: still fancy you will buy that thing from me, take
Speaker 1: back the bride, for it is yet time, and we
Speaker 1: leave Rascal dangling on the gallows, an easy thing for us,
Speaker 1: so long as robest to be had here you, I
Speaker 1: will give you also my cap into the bargain. The
Speaker 1: mother came forth, and the conversation began. Oh goes it
Speaker 1: with me? Now, she weeps, silly child. It cannot be altered,
Speaker 1: certainly not, but to give her to another so soon,
Speaker 1: Oh man, thou art cruel to thy own child. No mother,
Speaker 1: that though quite mistakest when she, even before she has
Speaker 1: wept out her childish tears, finds herself the wife of
Speaker 1: a very rich and honorable man. She will awake, comforted
Speaker 1: out of a trouble as out of a dream, and
Speaker 1: thank God and us that shalt thou see God. Granted
Speaker 1: she possesses now indeed a very respectable property. But after
Speaker 1: the stir that this unlucky affair with the adventurer has made,
Speaker 1: canst thou believe that a partner so suitable as mister
Speaker 1: Rascal could be readily found for her? Dost thou know
Speaker 1: what a fortune mister Rascal possesses. He has paid six
Speaker 1: millions for estates here in the country, free from all debts.
Speaker 1: I have had the title deeds in my own hands.
Speaker 1: He it was who everywhere had the start of me.
Speaker 1: And besides this has in his possession bills of Thomas
Speaker 1: John for about three and a half millions. He must
Speaker 1: have stolen enormously. What talk is that? Again? He has
Speaker 1: wisely saved what would otherwise have been lavished away a
Speaker 1: man that has worn livery stupid. He has, however, an
Speaker 1: unblemished shadow. Thou art right, But the man in the
Speaker 1: great coat laughed and looked at me. The door opened,
Speaker 1: and Mina came forth. She supported herself on the arm
Speaker 1: of a chamber maid, sign and tears rolling down her
Speaker 1: lovely pale cheeks. She seated herself on a stool which
Speaker 1: was placed for her under the lime trees, and her
Speaker 1: father took a chair by her. He tenderly took her
Speaker 1: hand and addressed her with tender words, while she began
Speaker 1: violently to weep. Though art, my good dear child, and
Speaker 1: thou wilt be reasonable, will not wish to distress thy
Speaker 1: old father, who seeks only thy happiness. I can well
Speaker 1: conceive it, dear heart, that it has sadly shaken thee
Speaker 1: Thou art wonderfully escaped from thy misfortunes. Before we discovered
Speaker 1: the scandalous imposition, Thou hadst loved this unworthy one greatly.
Speaker 1: See I know it, and upbright thee not for it,
Speaker 1: I myself, dear child, also loved him so long as
Speaker 1: I looked upon him as a great gentleman. But now
Speaker 1: thou seest how different all has turned out? What every
Speaker 1: poodle has his own shadow? And should my dear child
Speaker 1: have a husband? No, thou thinkest indeed know more about him. Listen, Mina,
Speaker 1: Now a man solicits thy hand, who does not shun
Speaker 1: the sunshine, an honorable man who truly is no prince,
Speaker 1: but who possesses ten millions, ten times more than though,
Speaker 1: a man who will make my dear child happy. Answer me,
Speaker 1: not make no opposition, be my good, dutiful daughter. Let
Speaker 1: thy loving father care for thee and dry thy tears.
Speaker 1: Promise me to give thy hand to mister Rascal. Say
Speaker 1: wilt thou promise me this? She answered, with a faint voice.
Speaker 1: I have no will nor wish for upon earth happen
Speaker 1: with me white my father will. At this moment, mister
Speaker 1: Rascal was announced and stepped impudently into the circle. Mina
Speaker 1: lay in a swoon. My detested companion glanced angrily at
Speaker 1: me and whispered in hurried words, and that can you endure?
Speaker 1: What then flows instead of blood in your veins? He
Speaker 1: scratched with a hasty movement, a slight wound in my hand.
Speaker 1: Blood flowed, and he continued, actually red blood. So signed.
Speaker 1: Then I had the parchment and the pen in my hand.
Speaker 1: End of chapter six Chapter seven of the Wonderful History
Speaker 1: of Peter Schlemil by Adelbert von Camissau translate by Frederick H. Hedge.
Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter seven.
Speaker 1: My wish, Dear Commissal, is merely to submit myself to
Speaker 1: thy judgment, not to endeavor to bias it. I have
Speaker 1: long passed the severest sentence on myself, for I have
Speaker 1: nourished the tormenting worm in my heart. It hovered during
Speaker 1: this solemn moment of my life, incessantly before my soul,
Speaker 1: and I could only lift my eyes to it with
Speaker 1: a doubting glance, with humility and contrition. Dear friend, he
Speaker 1: who in levity only sets his foot out of the
Speaker 1: right road, is unawares conducted into other paths which draw
Speaker 1: him downward and ever downward. He then sees in vain
Speaker 1: the guiding stars glitter in heaven. There remains to him
Speaker 1: no choice. He must dissent, unpausingly the declivity and become
Speaker 1: a voluntary sacrifice to Nemesis. After the hasty false step
Speaker 1: which had laid the curs upon me, I had, sinning
Speaker 1: through love, forced myself into the fortunes of another being.
Speaker 1: And what remained for me but that where I had
Speaker 1: sowed destruction, where speedy salvation was demanded of me, I
Speaker 1: should blindly rush forward to the rescue for the last
Speaker 1: I was struck. Think not so meanly of me, my Adelbert,
Speaker 1: as to imagine that I should have regarded any price
Speaker 1: that was demanded as too high, that I should have
Speaker 1: begrudged anything that was mine even more than my gold. No, Adelbert,
Speaker 1: but my soul was possessed with the most unconquerable hatred
Speaker 1: of this mysterious sneaker Along crooked paths. I might do
Speaker 1: him injustice, but every degree of association with him revolved me.
Speaker 1: And here stepped forth, as so frequently in my life,
Speaker 1: and as in general, so often in the history of
Speaker 1: the world, an event instead of an action. Since then
Speaker 1: I have achieved reconciliation with myself. I have learned, in
Speaker 1: the first place, to reverence necessity, and what is more
Speaker 1: than the action performed, the event accomplished her propriety. Then
Speaker 1: I have learned to venerate this necessity as a wise providence,
Speaker 1: which lives through that great collective machine in which we
Speaker 1: officiate simply as co operating impelling and impelled wields. What
Speaker 1: shall be must be, what should be happened, and not
Speaker 1: without that providence, which I ultimately learned to reverence in
Speaker 1: my own fate and in the fate of those on
Speaker 1: whom mine thus impinged. I know not whether I shall
Speaker 1: ascribe it to the excile of my soul under the
Speaker 1: impulse of such mighty sensations, or to the exhaustion of
Speaker 1: my physical strength, which, during the last days such unwonted
Speaker 1: privations had enfeebled, or whether finally to the desolating commotion
Speaker 1: which the presence of this gray fiend excited in my
Speaker 1: whole nature. Be that as it may. As I was
Speaker 1: on the point of signing, I fell into a deep
Speaker 1: swoon and lay a long time as in the arms
Speaker 1: of death. Stamping of feet and curses were the first
Speaker 1: sounds which struck my ear. As I returned to consciousness,
Speaker 1: I opened my eyes. It was dark. My detested attendant
Speaker 1: was busied scolding me. Is not that to behave like
Speaker 1: an old woman? Up with you, man, and complete off
Speaker 1: hand what you have resolved on if you have not
Speaker 1: taken another thought and had rather blubber. I raised myself
Speaker 1: with difficulty from the ground and gazed in silence around.
Speaker 1: It was late in the evening. Festive music resounded from
Speaker 1: the brightly illuminated Forester's house. Various groups of people wandered
Speaker 1: through the garden walks. One couple came near in conversation
Speaker 1: and seated themselves on the bench which I had just quitted.
Speaker 1: They talked of the union this morning solemnized between the
Speaker 1: rich mister Rascal and the daughter of the house. So
Speaker 1: then it had taken place. I tore the magic cap
Speaker 1: of the already vanished unknown from my head and hastened
Speaker 1: in brooding silence toward the garden gate, plunging myself into
Speaker 1: the deepest night of the thicket, and striking along the
Speaker 1: path past Count Peter's arbor. But invisibly my tormenting spirit
Speaker 1: accompanied me, pursuing me with keenest reproaches. These are now
Speaker 1: one's thanks for the pains which one has taken to
Speaker 1: support monsieur who has weak nerves through the long precious day.
Speaker 1: And one shall act the fool in the play. Good
Speaker 1: mister wronghead, fly you from me if you please, but
Speaker 1: we are nevertheless inseparable. You have my gold and I
Speaker 1: your shadow, and this will allow us no repose. Did
Speaker 1: anybody ever hear of a shadow forsaking its master yours?
Speaker 1: Draws me after you, till you take it back again graciously,
Speaker 1: and I get rid of it what you have hesitated
Speaker 1: to do out of fresh pleasure, Will you, only too late,
Speaker 1: be compelled to seek through new weariness and disgust. One
Speaker 1: cannot escape one's fate, he continued, speaking in the same tone.
Speaker 1: I fled in vain. He relaxed, not, but ever present,
Speaker 1: mockingly talked of gold and shadow. I could come to
Speaker 1: no single thought of my own. I struck through empty
Speaker 1: streets toward my house. When I stood before it and
Speaker 1: gazed at it, I could scarcely recognize it. No light
Speaker 1: shone through the dashed in windows, the doors were closed,
Speaker 1: no throng of servants was moving therein there was a
Speaker 1: laugh near me. Ah, so goes it. But you'll probably
Speaker 1: find your Bendle at home, For he was the other
Speaker 1: day providently sent back, so weary that he has most
Speaker 1: likely kept his bed since he laughed again, he will
Speaker 1: have a story to tell. Well. Then, for the present,
Speaker 1: good night we meet again speedily. I had rung the
Speaker 1: bell repeatedly, light appeared. Bendle demanded from within, who rung?
Speaker 1: When the good man recognized my voice, he could scarcely
Speaker 1: restrain his joy. The door flew open, and we stood,
Speaker 1: weeping in each other's arms. I found him greatly changed,
Speaker 1: weak and ill, but for me my hair had come
Speaker 1: quite gray. He conducted me through the desolated rooms to
Speaker 1: an inner apartment which had been spared. He brought food
Speaker 1: and wine, and we seated ourselves, and he again began
Speaker 1: to weep. He related to me that he the other
Speaker 1: day had cudgeled the great clad men whom he had
Speaker 1: encountered with my shadow, so long and so far, that
Speaker 1: he had lost all trace of me, and had sunk
Speaker 1: to the earth in utter fatigue. That after this, as
Speaker 1: he could not find me, he returned home whither Presently,
Speaker 1: the mob, at Rascal's instigation, came rushing in fury, dashed
Speaker 1: in the windows, and gave full play to their lust
Speaker 1: of demolition. Thus did they to their benefactor. The servants
Speaker 1: had fled various ways. The police had ordered me, as
Speaker 1: a suspicious person, to quit the city, and had allowed
Speaker 1: only four and twenty hours in which to evacuate their
Speaker 1: jurisdiction to that which are already He knew of Rascal's
Speaker 1: affluence and marriage. He had yet much to add this scoundrel,
Speaker 1: from whom all had proceeded that had been done against me,
Speaker 1: must from the beginning have been in possession of my secret.
Speaker 1: It appeared that, attracted by gold, he had contrived to
Speaker 1: thrust himself upon me, and at the very first had
Speaker 1: procured a key to the gold cupboard, where he had
Speaker 1: laid the foundation of that fortune, whose augmentation he could
Speaker 1: now afford to despise. All this, Bendle narrated to me
Speaker 1: with abundant tears, and then wept for joy that he
Speaker 1: again beheld me, again had me, and that after he
Speaker 1: had long doubted whither this misfortune might have led me,
Speaker 1: he saw me bear it so calmly and collectedly. For
Speaker 1: such an aspect had despair now assumed in me. My
Speaker 1: misery stood before me, in its enormity and unchangeableness. I
Speaker 1: had wept my last tear. Not another cry could be
Speaker 1: extorted from my heart. I presented to my fate my
Speaker 1: bare head with chill indifference. Bendel, I said, thou knowest
Speaker 1: my lot, not without earlier blame, has my heavy punishment
Speaker 1: befallen me. Though innocent man shallt no longer bind thy
Speaker 1: destiny to mine. I do not desire it. I leave
Speaker 1: this very night, saddle, mere horse, I ride alone. Thou
Speaker 1: remainest it is my will here still must remain some
Speaker 1: chests of gold that retain, though, But I will alone
Speaker 1: wander unsteadily through the world. But if ever a happier
Speaker 1: hour should smile upon me, and fortune look at me
Speaker 1: with reconciled eyes, then will I remember THEE. For I
Speaker 1: have wept upon thy firmly, faithful bosom, in heavy and
Speaker 1: agonizing hours, with a broken heart. Was this honest man
Speaker 1: man compelled to obey this last command of his master,
Speaker 1: at which his soul shrunk with terror. I was deaf
Speaker 1: to his prayers, to his representations, blind to his tears.
Speaker 1: He brought me out my steed once more. I pressed
Speaker 1: the weeping men to my bosom, sprang into the saddle,
Speaker 1: and under the shroud of night, hastened from the grave
Speaker 1: of my existence, regardless which way my horse conducted me,
Speaker 1: since I had longer on earth, no aim, no wish,
Speaker 1: no hope. End of chapter seven Chapter eight of The
Speaker 1: Wonderful History of Peter Schlemiel by Adelbert von Camissaou, translated
Speaker 1: by Frederick H. Hedge. This LibriVox recording is in the
Speaker 1: public domain. Chapter eight A pedestrian soon joined me, who begged,
Speaker 1: after he had walked for some time by the side
Speaker 1: of my horse, that as we went the same way,
Speaker 1: he might be allowed to lay a cloak, which he
Speaker 1: carried on the steed behind me. I permitted it in silence.
Speaker 1: He thanked me with easy politeness for the trifling service,
Speaker 1: praised my horse, and thence took occasion to extol the
Speaker 1: happiness and power of the rich, and let himself, I
Speaker 1: know not how, fall into a kind of monolog in
Speaker 1: which he had me now merely for a listener. He
Speaker 1: unfolded his views of life and of the world, and
Speaker 1: came very soon upon metaphysics, whose task is to discover
Speaker 1: the word that should solve all riddles. He stated his
Speaker 1: thesis with great clearness, and proceeded onward to the proofs.
Speaker 1: Thou knowest, my friend, that I have clearly discovered, since
Speaker 1: I have run through the schools of the philosophers, that
Speaker 1: I have by no means a turn for philosophical speculations,
Speaker 1: and that I have totally renounced for myself this field.
Speaker 1: Since then I have left many things to themselves, abandoned
Speaker 1: the desire to know and to comprehend many things and
Speaker 1: as though thy self advised me have trusting to my
Speaker 1: common sense, followed as far as I was able the
Speaker 1: voice within me in my own way. Now, this rhetorician
Speaker 1: seemed to me to raise with great talent a firmly
Speaker 1: constructed fabric, which was at once self based and self supported,
Speaker 1: and stood as by an innate necessity. I missed in
Speaker 1: it completely, however, what most of all I was desirous
Speaker 1: to find, and so it became for me merely a
Speaker 1: work of art whose elegant, compactness and completeness served to
Speaker 1: charm the eye. Only. Nevertheless, I listened willing le to
Speaker 1: the eloquent man who drew my attention from my grief
Speaker 1: to him, And I would have gladly yielded myself wholly
Speaker 1: up to him, had he captivated my heart as much
Speaker 1: as my understanding. Meanwhile, the time had passed, and unobserved,
Speaker 1: the dawn had already enlightened the heaven. I was horrified
Speaker 1: as I looked up suddenly and saw the glory of
Speaker 1: colors unfold itself in the east, which announced the approach
Speaker 1: of the sun. While at this hour in which the
Speaker 1: shadows ostentatiously display themselves in their greatest extent. There was
Speaker 1: no protection from it, no refuge in the open country
Speaker 1: to be discret and I was not alone. I cast
Speaker 1: a glance at my companion and was again terror stricken.
Speaker 1: It was no other than the man in the gray coat.
Speaker 1: He smiled at my alarm and went on without allowing
Speaker 1: me a single word. Let However, as is the way
Speaker 1: of the world, our mutual advantage for a while, unitus,
Speaker 1: it is all in good time for separating the road
Speaker 1: here along the mountain range, though you have not yet
Speaker 1: thought of it, is nevertheless the only one into which
Speaker 1: you could logically have struck down into the valley you
Speaker 1: cannot venture, and still less will you desire to return
Speaker 1: again over the heights whenceday came. And this also happens
Speaker 1: to be my way. I see that you already turn
Speaker 1: pale before the rising sun. I will, for the time
Speaker 1: we keep company, lend you your shadow, and you, in
Speaker 1: exchange tolerate me in your society. You have no longer
Speaker 1: your bndle with you. I will do you good service.
Speaker 1: You do not like me, and I am sorry for it,
Speaker 1: But notwithstanding, you can make use of me. The devil
Speaker 1: is not so black as he is painted yesterday you
Speaker 1: vexed me. It is true. I will not upbraid you
Speaker 1: with it today, and I have already shortened the way
Speaker 1: hitherfore you that you must admit, only just take your
Speaker 1: shadow again. A while on trial, the sun had ascended,
Speaker 1: people appeared on the road. I accepted, though with internal repugnance,
Speaker 1: the proposal. Smiling, he let my shadow glide to the ground,
Speaker 1: which immediately took its place on that of the horse,
Speaker 1: and trotted gaily by my side. I was in the
Speaker 1: stranger's state of mind. I rode past a group of
Speaker 1: country people, who made way for a man of consequence,
Speaker 1: reverently and with bad heads. I rode on and gazed
Speaker 1: with greedy eyes and a palpitating heart on this my
Speaker 1: quandrum shadow, which I had now borrowed from a stranger, Yes,
Speaker 1: from an enemy. The man went carelessly near me and
Speaker 1: even whistled a tune. He on foot, I on horseback.
Speaker 1: A dizziness seized me. The temptation was too great. I
Speaker 1: suddenly turned the reins, clapped spurs to the horse, and
Speaker 1: struck at full speed into a side path. But I
Speaker 1: carried not off the shadow, which at the turning glided
Speaker 1: from the horse and awaited its lawful possessor on the
Speaker 1: high road. I was compelled with shame to turn back.
Speaker 1: The man in the gray coat. When he had calmly
Speaker 1: finished his tune, laughed at me, set the shadow right
Speaker 1: again for me, and informed me that it would hang
Speaker 1: fast and remain with me only when I was disposed
Speaker 1: to become the rightful proprietor. I hold you continuity fast
Speaker 1: by the shadow, and you cannot escape me. A rich
Speaker 1: man like you needs a shadow. It cannot be otherwise,
Speaker 1: and you only are to blame that you did not
Speaker 1: perceive that. Sooner, I continued my journey on the same road.
Speaker 1: The comforts and the splendor of life again surrounded me.
Speaker 1: I could move about free and conveniently, since I possessed
Speaker 1: a shadow, although only a borrowed one, and I everywhere
Speaker 1: inspired the respect which riches command. But I carried death
Speaker 1: in my heart. My strange companion, who gave himself out
Speaker 1: as the unworthy servant of the richest man in the world,
Speaker 1: possessed an extraordinary professional readiness, prompt and clever beyond comparison,
Speaker 1: the very model of a valet for a rich man.
Speaker 1: But he stirred not from my side perpetually debating with me,
Speaker 1: and ever manifesting his confidence that, at length, were it
Speaker 1: only to be rid of him, I would resolve to
Speaker 1: settle the affair of the shadow. He had become as
Speaker 1: burdensome to me as he was hateful, I was even
Speaker 1: in fear of him. He had made me dependent on him.
Speaker 1: He held me after he had conducted me back into
Speaker 1: the glory of the world from which I had fled.
Speaker 1: I was almost obliged to tolerate his eloquence, and felt
Speaker 1: that he was in the ight. A rich man must
Speaker 1: have a shadow, And as I desired to command the
Speaker 1: rank which he had contrived again to make necessary to me,
Speaker 1: I saw but one issue by this. However, I stood fast,
Speaker 1: after having sacrificed my love, after my life had been blighted,
Speaker 1: I would never sign away my soul to this creature.
Speaker 1: For all the shadows in the world, I knew not
Speaker 1: how it would end. We set one day before a
Speaker 1: cave which the strangers who frequent these mountains are accustomed
Speaker 1: to visit. When he is there, the rush of subterranean
Speaker 1: strings roaring up from immeasurable depth, and the stone cast
Speaker 1: in seemed in its resounding fall to find no bottom.
Speaker 1: He painted to me, as he often did, with a
Speaker 1: vivid power of imagination, and in the lustrous charms of
Speaker 1: the most brilliant colors, the most carefully finished pictures of
Speaker 1: what I might achieve in the world by virtue of
Speaker 1: my purse. If I had but once again my shadow
Speaker 1: in my possession, With my elbows resting on my knees,
Speaker 1: I kept my face concealed in my hands and listened
Speaker 1: to the false one. My heart divided between his seduction
Speaker 1: and my own strong will. I could no longer stand
Speaker 1: such an inward conflict, and the deciding strife began. You appear, sir,
Speaker 1: to forget that I have indeed allowed you, upon certain conditions,
Speaker 1: to remain in my company, but that I have reserved
Speaker 1: my perfect freedom. If you commanded I pack up, he
Speaker 1: was accustomed to this menace, I was silent. He begun
Speaker 1: immediately to roll up my shadow. I turned pale, but
Speaker 1: I let it proceed. There followed a long pause. He
Speaker 1: first broke it. You cannot bear me, sir, I know it.
Speaker 1: Yet why do you hate me? Is it because you
Speaker 1: attacked me on the highway and sought to deprive me
Speaker 1: by violence of my bird's nest or. Is it because
Speaker 1: you have endeavored in a thievish manner to cheat me
Speaker 1: out of my property, the shadow which was entrusted to
Speaker 1: you entirely on your honor. I, for my part, do
Speaker 1: not hate you. In spite of all this. I find
Speaker 1: it quite natural that you should seek to avail yourself
Speaker 1: of all your advantages, cunning and power. Neither do I
Speaker 1: object to your very strict principles and to your fancy
Speaker 1: to think like honesty itself. In fact, I think not
Speaker 1: so strictly as you. I merely act as you think.
Speaker 1: Or have I at any time pressed my finger on
Speaker 1: your throat in order to bring to me your most
Speaker 1: precious soul, for which I have a fancy. Have I,
Speaker 1: on the account of my bartered purse, let a servant
Speaker 1: lose on you? Have I sought to swindle you out
Speaker 1: of it? I had nothing to oppose to this, and
Speaker 1: he proceeded. Very good, sir, very good. You cannot endure me.
Speaker 1: I know that very well, and am by no means
Speaker 1: angry with you for it. We must part. That is clear,
Speaker 1: and in fact you begin to be very wearisome to me.
Speaker 1: In order then to rid you of my continued shame
Speaker 1: inspiring presence. I counsel you once more to purchase this
Speaker 1: thing from me. I extended to him the purse at
Speaker 1: that price. No, I sighed deeply, and added, be it so, then,
Speaker 1: I insist, sir, that we part, and that you no
Speaker 1: longer obstruct my path in the world, which it is
Speaker 1: to be hoped, has room enough in it for us both.
Speaker 1: He smiled and replied, I go, sir, but first let
Speaker 1: me instruct you how you may ring for me. When
Speaker 1: you desire to see again your most devoted servant. You
Speaker 1: have only to shake your purse so that the eternal
Speaker 1: gold pieces therein jingle. The sound will instantly attract me.
Speaker 1: Everyone thinks of his own advantage in this world. You
Speaker 1: see that I at the same time, am thoughtful of yours,
Speaker 1: since I revealed to you a new power. Oh this purse.
Speaker 1: Had the muff already devoured your shadow, that would still
Speaker 1: constitute a strong bond between us. Enough, you have me
Speaker 1: in your gold, should you have any commands, even when
Speaker 1: far off for your servant, you know that I can
Speaker 1: show myself very active in the service of my friends
Speaker 1: and the rich stent particularly well with me. You have
Speaker 1: seen it yourself only a shadow, Sir, allow me to
Speaker 1: tell you that never again, except on one soul condition
Speaker 1: forms of the past time swept before my soul. I
Speaker 1: demanded hastily, had you a signature from mister John? He
Speaker 1: smiled with so good a friend. It was by no
Speaker 1: means means necessary. Where is he? By God? I wish
Speaker 1: to know it? He hesitatingly plunged his hand into his
Speaker 1: pocket and dragged thence by the hair appeared Thomas John's
Speaker 1: gastly disfigured form, and the blue death lips moved themselves
Speaker 1: with heavy words gusto judicio d judica tusum justo judicio
Speaker 1: d condemnatus sum. I shudered with horror, and dashing the
Speaker 1: ringing purse into the abyss, I spoke to him the
Speaker 1: last words, I adjure thee horrible one, in the name
Speaker 1: of God, take thyself hens, and never again show thyself
Speaker 1: in my sight. He arose gloomily and instantly vanished behind
Speaker 1: the masses of rock which bounded this wild overground spot.
Speaker 1: And Chapter eight chapter nine of the Wonderful History of
Speaker 1: Peter Schlimel by Adelbert fon camisso translated by Frederick H. Hedge.
Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter nine.
Speaker 1: I sat there without shadow and without money, but a
Speaker 1: heavy weight was taken from her bosom. I was calm.
Speaker 1: Had I not also lost my love? Or had I,
Speaker 1: in that loss felt myself free from blame. I believed
Speaker 1: that I should have been happy, but I knew not
Speaker 1: what I should do. I examined my pockets. I found
Speaker 1: yet several gold pieces there. I counted them and laughed.
Speaker 1: I had my horses below at the inn. I was
Speaker 1: ashamed of returning thither. I must at least wait till
Speaker 1: the sun was gone down. It stood yet high in
Speaker 1: the heavens. I laid myself down in the shade of
Speaker 1: the nearest trees, and calmly fell asleep. Lovely shapes blended
Speaker 1: themselves before me in charming dance into a pleasing dream.
Speaker 1: Mina with a flower wreath in her hair floated by
Speaker 1: me and smiled kindly upon me. The noble Bendle also
Speaker 1: was crowned with flowers, and went past with a friendly greeting.
Speaker 1: I saw many besides, and I believe thee too comes.
Speaker 1: In the distant throng, a bright light appeared, but no
Speaker 1: one had a shadow, And what was stranger. It had
Speaker 1: by no means a bad effect. Flowers and songs, love
Speaker 1: and joy under grooves of palm. I could neither hold
Speaker 1: fast nor interpret the moving, lightly floating, lovable forms. But
Speaker 1: I knew that I dreamed such a dream with joy,
Speaker 1: and was careful to avoid waking. I was already awake,
Speaker 1: but still kept my eyes closed in order to retain
Speaker 1: the fading apparition longer before my soul. I finally opened
Speaker 1: my eyes. The sun stood still high in the heavens,
Speaker 1: but in the east I had slept through the night.
Speaker 1: I took it for a sign that I should not
Speaker 1: return to the inn. I gave up readily, as lost
Speaker 1: what I yet possessed there, and determined to strike on
Speaker 1: foot into a branch road which led along the wood
Speaker 1: grown feet of the mountains, leaving it to fate to
Speaker 1: fulfill what it had yet in store for me. I
Speaker 1: looked not behind me, and thought not even of applying
Speaker 1: to Brindle, whom I left rich behind me, and which
Speaker 1: I could readily have done. I considered the new character
Speaker 1: which I should support in the world. My dress was
Speaker 1: very modest. I had on an old black polonaise, which
Speaker 1: I had already worn in Berlin, and which I know
Speaker 1: not how had first come again into my hands for
Speaker 1: this journey. I had also a traveling cap on my head,
Speaker 1: a pair of old booths on my feet. I arose
Speaker 1: and cut me on the spot a knotty stick as
Speaker 1: a memorial, and pursued my wandering. I met in the
Speaker 1: wood an old peasant who friendly greeted me, and with
Speaker 1: whom I entered into conversation. I inquired, like an inquisitive traveler,
Speaker 1: first the way, then about the country and its inhabitants,
Speaker 1: the productions of the mountains, and many such things. He
Speaker 1: answered my question sensibly and loquaciously. We came to the
Speaker 1: bed of a mountain torrent, which had spread its devastations
Speaker 1: over a wide tract of the forest. I shuddered involuntarily
Speaker 1: at the sun bright space, and allowed the countryman to
Speaker 1: go first. But in the midst of this dangerous spot,
Speaker 1: he stood still and turned to will relate to me
Speaker 1: the history of this desolation. He saw immediately my defect,
Speaker 1: and paused in the midst of his discourse. But how
Speaker 1: does that happen? The gentleman has actually no shadow alas Alas,
Speaker 1: replied I, sighing, During a long and severe illness. My hair, nails,
Speaker 1: and shadow fell off. See father, at my age, my hair,
Speaker 1: which is renewed again, is quite white, the nails very short,
Speaker 1: and the shadow that will not grow again. Aye aye,
Speaker 1: responded the old man, shaking his head. No shadow, that
Speaker 1: is bad. That was a bad illness that the gentleman had.
Speaker 1: But he did not continue his narrative, and at the
Speaker 1: next cross way, which presented itself, left me without saying
Speaker 1: a word. Bitter tears trembled anew upon my cheeks, and
Speaker 1: my cheerfulness was gone. I sued my way with a
Speaker 1: sorrowful heart, and sought no further the society of men.
Speaker 1: I kept myself in the darkest wood. It was many
Speaker 1: a time compelled in order to pass over a space
Speaker 1: where the sun shone, to wait for whole hours lest
Speaker 1: some human eye should forbid me the transit. In the evening,
Speaker 1: I sought shelter in the villages. I went particularly in
Speaker 1: quest of a mine in the mountains, where I hoped
Speaker 1: to get work under the earth. Since besides that, my
Speaker 1: present situation made it imperative that I should provide for
Speaker 1: my support. I had discovered that the most active labor
Speaker 1: alone could protect me from my own annihilating thoughts. A
Speaker 1: few rainy days advanced me well on the way, but
Speaker 1: at the expense of my boots, whose souls had been
Speaker 1: calculated for Count Peter and not for the pedestrian laborer.
Speaker 1: I was already barefoot and had to procure a pair
Speaker 1: of new boots. The next morning. I transacted this business
Speaker 1: with much gravity, in a village where o'wake was being held,
Speaker 1: and wherein a booth old and new boots were sold.
Speaker 1: I selected and bargained long. I was forced to deny
Speaker 1: myself a new pair, which I would gladly have had,
Speaker 1: for the extravagant price frightened me. I therefore contented myself
Speaker 1: with an old pair, which were yet good and strong,
Speaker 1: and which the handsome blonde haired boy who kept the
Speaker 1: stall for present cash payment, handed to me with a
Speaker 1: friendly smile and wished me good luck on my journey.
Speaker 1: I put them on at once and left the place
Speaker 1: by the northern gate. I was deeply absorbed in my
Speaker 1: thoughts and scarcely saw where I set my feet, for
Speaker 1: I was pondering on the mine which I hoped to
Speaker 1: reach by evening, where I hardly knew how I should
Speaker 1: introduce myself. I had not advanced two hundred strides when
Speaker 1: I observed that I had gone out of the way.
Speaker 1: I therefore looked round me, and found myself in a
Speaker 1: wild and ancient forest, where the axe appeared never to
Speaker 1: have been wielded. I still pressed forward a few steps,
Speaker 1: and beheld myself in the midst of desert rocks, which
Speaker 1: were overgrown only with moss and leashes, and between which
Speaker 1: lay fields of snow and ice. The air was intensely cold.
Speaker 1: I looked round. The wood had vanished behind me. I
Speaker 1: took a few strides more, and around me reigned the
Speaker 1: silence of death. The ice, whereon I stood boundlessly extended itself,
Speaker 1: and on it rested a thick, heavy fog. The sun
Speaker 1: stood blood red on the edge of the horizon. The
Speaker 1: cold was insupportable. I knew not what had happened to me.
Speaker 1: The benumbing frost compelled me to hasten my steps. I
Speaker 1: heard only the roar of distant waters. Step, and I
Speaker 1: was on the icy margin of an ocean. Innumerable herds
Speaker 1: of seals plunged rushing before me in the flood. I
Speaker 1: pursued this shore. I saw naked rocks, land birch and
Speaker 1: pine forests. I now advanced for a few minutes. Right onward,
Speaker 1: it became stifling hot. I looked around. I stood amongst
Speaker 1: beautifully cultivated rice fields and beneath mulberry trees. I seated
Speaker 1: myself in their shade. I looked at my watch. I
Speaker 1: had left the market town only a quarter of an
Speaker 1: hour before. I fancied that I dreamed. I bit my
Speaker 1: tongue to awake myself, but I was really awake. I
Speaker 1: closed my eyes in order to collect my thoughts. I
Speaker 1: heard before me singular accents pronounced through the nose. I
Speaker 1: looked up. Two Chinese, unmistakable from their asiatic physiognomy, if indeed,
Speaker 1: I could have given no credit to their costume, addressed
Speaker 1: me in their speech with the accustomed salutations of their country.
Speaker 1: I arose and stepped two paces backward. I saw them
Speaker 1: no more. The landscape was totally changed, trees and forests
Speaker 1: instead of rice fields. I contemplated these trees and the
Speaker 1: plants which bloomed around me, which I recognized as the
Speaker 1: growth of southeastern Asia. I wished to approach one of
Speaker 1: these trees. One step and again, always changed. I marched
Speaker 1: now like a recruit who is drilled and strode slowly
Speaker 1: and with measured steps. Wonderfully diversified lands, rivers, meadows, mountain chains, steps,
Speaker 1: deserts of sand unrolled themselves before my astonished eyes. There
Speaker 1: was no doubt of it. I had seven league boots
Speaker 1: on my feet. Of Chapter nine, Chapter ten of The
Speaker 1: Wonderful History of Peter Schlimil by Adalbert von Camisso translated
Speaker 1: by Frederick H. Hedge. This LibriVox recording is in the
Speaker 1: public domain. Chapter ten. I fell in speechless adoration on
Speaker 1: my knees and shed tears of thankfulness, for suddenly my
Speaker 1: future stood clear before my soul. For earlier offense, thrust
Speaker 1: out from the society of men, I was cast for
Speaker 1: compensation upon nature, which I ever loved. The earth was
Speaker 1: given me as a rich garden study for the object
Speaker 1: and strength of my life, and science for its goal.
Speaker 1: It was no resolution which I adopted. I only have since,
Speaker 1: with severe, unremitted diligence, striven faithfully to represent what then
Speaker 1: stood clear and perfect before my eye. And my satisfaction
Speaker 1: has depended on the agreement of the representation with the original.
Speaker 1: I roused myself in order, without delay, and with a
Speaker 1: hasty survey to take possession of the field where I
Speaker 1: should Hereafter reap, I stood on the heights of Tibet,
Speaker 1: and the sun, which had risen upon me only a
Speaker 1: few hours before, now already stooped to the evening sky.
Speaker 1: I wandered over Asia from east to west, overtaking him
Speaker 1: in his course, and entered Africa. I gazed about me
Speaker 1: with eager curiosity as I repeatedly traversed it in all directions,
Speaker 1: as I surveyed the ancient pyramids and temples. In passing
Speaker 1: through Egypt, I descried in the desert, not far from
Speaker 1: hundred gated Thebes, the caves where the Christian anchorages once dwelled.
Speaker 1: It was suddenly firm and clear in me, here is
Speaker 1: thy home. I selected one of the most concealed, which
Speaker 1: was at the same time spacious, convenient, and inaccessible to
Speaker 1: the jackals, for my future abode, and again went forward.
Speaker 1: I passed at the Pillars of Hercules over to Europe,
Speaker 1: and when I reviewed the southern and northern provinces, I
Speaker 1: crossed from northern Asia over the polar glaciers to Greenland
Speaker 1: and America. Traversed both parts of that continent and the winter,
Speaker 1: which already rained in the south, drove me speedily back
Speaker 1: northward from Cape Horn. I terred a while till it
Speaker 1: was day in Eastern Asia, and after some repose, continued
Speaker 1: my wandering. I traced through both Americas the mountain chain,
Speaker 1: which constitutes the highest known acclivities on our globe. I
Speaker 1: stalked slowly and cautiously from Summit to Summit, now over
Speaker 1: flaming volcanoes, now snow crowned peaks, often breathing with difficulty.
Speaker 1: When reaching Mount Saint Elias, I sprang across bearing straits
Speaker 1: to Asia. I followed the western shores in their manifold windings,
Speaker 1: and examined with especial care to ascertain which of the
Speaker 1: islands were accessible to me. From the peninsula of Malacca,
Speaker 1: my boots carried me to Sumatra, Java, Bali, and Lamboc.
Speaker 1: I attempted, often with danger and always in vain, a
Speaker 1: northwest passage over the lesser islets and rocks with which
Speaker 1: the sea is studded, to Borneo and the other islands
Speaker 1: of this archipelago. I was compelled to abandon the hope
Speaker 1: at length. I seated myself on the extreme portion of
Speaker 1: Lamboc and gazing toward the south and east. Where As
Speaker 1: at the fast closed bars of my prison, that I
Speaker 1: had so soon discovered my limits. New Holland, so extraordinary
Speaker 1: and so essentially necessary to the comprehension of the Earth
Speaker 1: and its sun woven garment, the vegetable and the animal world,
Speaker 1: with the South Sea and its zoophythe islands, was interdicted
Speaker 1: to me. And thus at the very outset, all that
Speaker 1: I should gather and build up was destined to remain
Speaker 1: a mere fragment. Oh, my Idlebert, what after all are
Speaker 1: the endeavors of men? Often did I, in the severest
Speaker 1: winter of the Southern Hemisphere, endeavor, passing the polar glaciers westward,
Speaker 1: to leave behind me those two hundred strides out from
Speaker 1: Cape Horn, which sundered me, probably from Van Diemen's Land
Speaker 1: at New Holland, regardless of my return or whether this
Speaker 1: dismal region should close upon me, as my coffin lid,
Speaker 1: making desperate leaps from ice drift to ice drift, and
Speaker 1: bidding defiance to the cold and the sea in vain.
Speaker 1: I never reached New Holland, but every time I came
Speaker 1: back to Lamboc, seated myself on its farthest peak, and
Speaker 1: wept again, with my face turned toward the south and east,
Speaker 1: as at the fast closed baths of my prison. I
Speaker 1: tore myself at length from the spot and returned with
Speaker 1: a sorrowful heart into inner Asia. I traversed that farther
Speaker 1: pursuing the morning dawn westward, and came yet in the
Speaker 1: night to my proposed home in the the bays, which
Speaker 1: I had touched upon in the afternoon of the day before.
Speaker 1: As soon as I was somewhat rested, and when it
Speaker 1: was day again in Europe, I made it my first
Speaker 1: care to procure everything which I wanted. First of all,
Speaker 1: stop shoes, for I had experienced how inconvenient it was
Speaker 1: when I wished to examine near objects, not to be
Speaker 1: able to slacken my stride except by pulling off my boots.
Speaker 1: A pair of slippers drawn over them had completely the
Speaker 1: effect which I anticipated, and later I always carried two pairs,
Speaker 1: since I sometimes threw them from my feet without having
Speaker 1: time to pick them up again when lions, men or
Speaker 1: hyenas startled me from my botanizing. My very excellent watch
Speaker 1: was for the short duration of my passage a capital chronometer.
Speaker 1: Besides this I needed a sextand some scientific instruments and books.
Speaker 1: To procure all this, I made several anxious journeys to
Speaker 1: London and Paris, which, auspiciously for me a mist just
Speaker 1: then overshadowed. As the remains of my enchanted gold was
Speaker 1: now exhausted. I easily accomplished the payment by gathering African eyes,
Speaker 1: in which however, I was obliged to select only the
Speaker 1: smallest tusks as not too heavy for me. I was
Speaker 1: soon furnished and equipped with all these, and commenced immediately
Speaker 1: as private philosopher, my new cause of life. I roamed
Speaker 1: about the earth, now determining the altitudes of mountains, now
Speaker 1: the temperature of its springs and the air. Now contemplating
Speaker 1: the animal, now inquiring into the vegetable tribes. I hastened
Speaker 1: from the equator to the pole, from one world to
Speaker 1: the other, comparing facts with facts. The eggs of the
Speaker 1: African ostrich or the northern sea fowl, and fruits, especially
Speaker 1: of the tropical palms and bananas, were even my ordinary food.
Speaker 1: In lieu of happiness, I had tobacco, and of human society,
Speaker 1: and the ties of love. One faithful poodle which guarded
Speaker 1: my cane in the bays, and when I returned home
Speaker 1: with fresh treasures, sprang joyfully toward me and gave me
Speaker 1: still a human feeling that I was not alone on
Speaker 1: the earth. An adventure was yet destined to conduct me
Speaker 1: back among mankind. End of chapter ten. Chapter eleven of
Speaker 1: The Wonderful History of Peter Schlimil by Adelbert von Camisso,
Speaker 1: translated by Frederick H. Hedge. This LibriVox recording is in
Speaker 1: the public domain. Chapter eleven. As I once scotched my
Speaker 1: boots on the shores of the North and gathered lichens
Speaker 1: and seaweed, an ice bear came unawares upon me around
Speaker 1: the corner of a rock. Flinging off my slippers, I
Speaker 1: would step over to an opposite island, to which a
Speaker 1: naked crag which protruded midway from the waves, offered mere passage.
Speaker 1: I stepped with one foot firmly on the rock and
Speaker 1: plunged over on the other side into the sea. One
Speaker 1: of my slippers, having unobserved, remained fast on the foot.
Speaker 1: The excessive cold seized on me. I with difficulty rescued
Speaker 1: my life from this danger, and the moment I reached land,
Speaker 1: I ran with the utmost speed to the Libyan desert
Speaker 1: in order to dry myself in the sun. But as
Speaker 1: I was here exposed, it burned me so furiously on
Speaker 1: the head that I staggered back again, very ill, toward
Speaker 1: the north. I sought to relieve myself by rapid motion,
Speaker 1: and ran with swift, uncertain steps, from west to east,
Speaker 1: from east to west. I found myself now in the day,
Speaker 1: now in the night, now in summer, now in the
Speaker 1: winter's cold. I know not how long I thus reeled
Speaker 1: about on the earth. A burning fever glowed in my
Speaker 1: veins with deepest distress. I felt my senses forsaking me,
Speaker 1: as mischief would have it in my incautious career. I
Speaker 1: now trod on someone's foot. I must have heard him.
Speaker 1: I received a heavy blow and fell to the ground.
Speaker 1: When I again returned to consciousness, I lay comfortably in
Speaker 1: a good bed, which stood amongst many other beds in
Speaker 1: a handsome hall. Someone sat at my head. People went
Speaker 1: through the hall from one bed to another. They came
Speaker 1: to mine and spoke together about me. They styled me
Speaker 1: number twelve, and on the wall at my feet stood Yes, certainly,
Speaker 1: it was no delusion, I could distinctly read on a
Speaker 1: black table of marble, in great golden letters, quite correctly
Speaker 1: written my name, Peter Schlemiel. The tablet beneath my name
Speaker 1: were two other rows of letters, but I was too
Speaker 1: weak to put them together. I again closed my eyes.
Speaker 1: I heard something of which the subject was Peter Schlemier,
Speaker 1: read aloud and articulately, but I could not collect the sense.
Speaker 1: I saw a friendly man and a very lovely woman
Speaker 1: in black dress appear at my bedside. The forms were
Speaker 1: not strange to me, and yet I could not recognize them.
Speaker 1: Some time went on, and I recovered my strength. I
Speaker 1: was called number twelve, and number twelve on account of
Speaker 1: his long beard passed for a jew, on which account, however,
Speaker 1: he was not at all the less carefully treated. That
Speaker 1: he had no shadow, appeared to have been unobserved. My boots,
Speaker 1: as I was assured, were with all that I had
Speaker 1: brought hither in good keeping in order to be restored
Speaker 1: to me on my recovery. The place in which I
Speaker 1: lay was called the Schlimlium. What was daily read aloud
Speaker 1: concerning Peter Schlemel was an exhortation to pray for him
Speaker 1: as the founder and benefactor of this institution. The friendly
Speaker 1: man whom I had seen by my bed was Bendel.
Speaker 1: The lovely woman was Mina. I recovered unrecognized in the
Speaker 1: schli Melium, and learned yet further that I was in
Speaker 1: Bendel's native city, where, with the remains of my otherwise
Speaker 1: unblessed gold, he had in my name founded this hospital,
Speaker 1: where the unhappy blessed me and himself maintained its superintendence.
Speaker 1: Mina was a widow, an unhappy criminal process had cost
Speaker 1: mister Rascal his life and her the greater part of
Speaker 1: her property. Her parents were no more. She lived here
Speaker 1: as a peer's widow and practiced works of mercy. Once
Speaker 1: she conversed with mister Bendle at the bedside of a
Speaker 1: number twelve, Why, noble lady, will you so often expose
Speaker 1: yourself to the bad atmosphere which prevails here? Does fate
Speaker 1: then deal so hardly with you that you wish to die? Now,
Speaker 1: mister Bendle, since I have dreamt out my long dream
Speaker 1: and have awoke in myself, all is well with me.
Speaker 1: Since then I crave not and fear not death. Since
Speaker 1: then I reflect calmly on the past and the future,
Speaker 1: is it not also with the still inward happiness that
Speaker 1: you know, in so devout a manner, serve your master
Speaker 1: and friend. Thank God, Yes, noble lady, but we have
Speaker 1: seen wonderful things. We have unwarily drunk much good and
Speaker 1: bitter woes out of the full cup. Now it is empty,
Speaker 1: and we may believe that the whole has been only
Speaker 1: a trial, and armed with wise discernment, away the real beginning.
Speaker 1: The real beginning is of another fashion, and we wish
Speaker 1: not back the first jugglery, and are on the whole
Speaker 1: glad such as it was, to have lived through it.
Speaker 1: I feel also within me a confidence that it must
Speaker 1: now be better than formerly with our old friend. Within
Speaker 1: me too, replied the lovely widow, and then passed on.
Speaker 1: The conversation left a deep impression upon me. But I
Speaker 1: was undecided in myself whether I should make myself known
Speaker 1: or depart, Hence unrecognized, I took my resolve. I requested
Speaker 1: paper and pencil and wrote these words, It is indeed
Speaker 1: better with your old friend now than formerly, And if
Speaker 1: he does penance, it is the penance of reconciliation. Hereupon
Speaker 1: I desired to dress myself as I found myself stronger.
Speaker 1: The key of the small wardrobe, which stood near my bed,
Speaker 1: was brought, and I found therein all that belonged to me.
Speaker 1: I put on my clothes, suspended my botanical case, in
Speaker 1: which I rejoiced still to find my northern leshes around
Speaker 1: my black polonaise, drew on my boots, laid the written
Speaker 1: paper on my bed, and as the door opened, I
Speaker 1: was already far on the way to the Thebais. As
Speaker 1: I took the way along the Syrian coast on which I,
Speaker 1: for the last time, had wandered from home, I perceived
Speaker 1: my poor Figaro coming toward me. This excellent poodle, which
Speaker 1: had long expected his master at home, steamed to desire
Speaker 1: to trace him out. I stood still and called to him.
Speaker 1: He sprung, barking toward me with a thousand moving assurances
Speaker 1: of his inmost and most extravagant joy. I took him
Speaker 1: up under my arm, for in truth he could not
Speaker 1: follow me, and brought him with me home again. I
Speaker 1: found all in its old order, and returned gradually as
Speaker 1: my strength was recruited to my former employment and mode
Speaker 1: of life, except that I kept myself for a whole
Speaker 1: year out of the to me wholly insupportable polar cold.
Speaker 1: And thus, my dear camisso I live to this day.
Speaker 1: My boots are no worse for the wear as that
Speaker 1: very learned work of the celebrated Tiechius de Rebus Gestis
Speaker 1: Polytzili at first led me to fear. Their force remains
Speaker 1: unimpaired by strength only decays. Yet I have the comfort
Speaker 1: to have exerted it in a continuous and not fruitless
Speaker 1: pursuit of one object. I have, so far as my
Speaker 1: boots could carry me, become more fundamentally acquainted than any
Speaker 1: man before me with the Earth, its shape, its elevations,
Speaker 1: its temperatures, the changes of its atmosphere, the exhibitions of
Speaker 1: its magnetic power, and the life upon it, especially in
Speaker 1: the vegetable world. The facts I have recorded with the
Speaker 1: greatest possible exactness and in perspicuous order in several works,
Speaker 1: and stated my deductions and views briefly in several treatises.
Speaker 1: I have settled the geography of the interior of Africa
Speaker 1: and of the northern polar regions, of the interior of
Speaker 1: Asia and its eastern shores. My Historia Stirpium Plantarum Utrioske
Speaker 1: orbis stands as a grand fragment of the Flora universales terree,
Speaker 1: and as a branch of my systema nature. I believe
Speaker 1: that I have therein not merely augmented, at a moderate
Speaker 1: calculation the amount of known species more than one third,
Speaker 1: but have done something for the natural system and for
Speaker 1: the geography of Plass. I shall labor diligently at my fauna.
Speaker 1: I shall take care that before my death my works
Speaker 1: shall be deposited in the Berlin University and thee my
Speaker 1: dear camisso have I selected as the preserver of my
Speaker 1: singular history, which, perhaps, when I have vanished from the earth,
Speaker 1: may afford valuable instruction to many of its inhabitants. But though,
Speaker 1: my friend, if thou wilt live among men, learn before
Speaker 1: all things to reverence the shadow and then the gold
Speaker 1: wishest thou to live only for theirself and for their
Speaker 1: better self. Oh, then thou needest no counsel. End of
Speaker 1: chapter eleven, end of The Wonderful History of Peter Schlimel
Speaker 1: by Adelbert Fon Camisso, translated by Frederick H. H.