Part 14 (2/2)
”You might have that power, Countess. Not by your arguments, but by your eyes. You know that _one_ loving glance would not only lift me from the earth but into heaven, and then you could do with me what you would.”
”You have forfeited the loving glance! Perhaps it might have _rewarded_ your a.s.sent, but it would never _purchase_ it, I scorn bribed judges, for I am sure of my cause!”
”Countess, pardon my frankness: it is a pity that you have so much intellect.”
”Why?”
”Because it leads you into sophistical by-ways; your tendency to mysticism gives an apparently logical foundation and thereby strengthens you the more in this dangerous course. A more simple, temperate judgment would _guard_ you from it.”
”Well, Prince--” she looked at him pityingly, contemptuously--”may Heaven preserve me from _such_ a judgment as well as from all who may seek to supply its place to me. Excuse me for this evening. I should like to devote an hour to these worthy people and soothe my nerves--I have been too much excited by the scenes we have witnessed. Goodnight, Prince!”
Prince Emil turned pale. ”Good-night, Countess. Perhaps to-morrow you will be somewhat more humane in this cat and mouse game; to-day I am sent home with a bleeding wound.” With lips firmly compressed, he bowed his farewell and left the garden. Madeleine looked after him: ”He is angry. I cannot help him, he deserved it. Oh, foolish man, who deemed yourself so clever! Do you suppose this glowing heart desires no other revelations than those of pure reason? Do you imagine that the arguments of all the philosophical systems of humanity could offer it that for which it longs? Shall I find it? Heaven knows! But one thing is certain, I shall no longer seek it in _you_.”
The sound of moans and low sobs came from the chamber above the countess' room. It was Josepha. Countess Wildenau pa.s.sed through the little trap-door and entered it. The girl was kneeling beside the bed, with her face buried in the pillows, to shut out the thunder of the cannon and the sound of the bells, which summoned the actors in the sacred Play from which she alone, the sinner, the outcast, was shut out.
Mary Magdalene, too, had sinned and erred, yet she had been suffered to remain near the Lord. She was permitted to touch His divine body and to wipe His feet with her hair! But _she_ was not allowed to render this service to His _image_! She grasped the ma.s.s of wonderful silken locks which fell in loosened ma.s.ses over her shoulders. What did she care for this beautiful hair now? She would fain cut it off and throw it into the Ammer or, better still, bury it in the earth, the earth on which the Pa.s.sion Theatre stood. With a hasty movement, she s.n.a.t.c.hed a pair of shears which lay beside the bed, and just as the countess' foot touched the threshold, a sharp, cutting sound was heard and the most beautiful red hair that ever adorned a girl's head fell like a dying flame at her feet. ”Josepha, what are you doing?” cried the countess, ”Oh, what a pity to lose that magnificent hair!”
”What do I care for it?” sobbed Josepha, ”It can never be seen in the Play! When the performance is over, I will slip into the theatre before we leave and bury it under the stage, where the cross stands. There I will leave it, there it shall stay, since I am no longer able to make it serve Him.” She threw herself into the countess' arms and hid her tear-stained face upon her bosom. Alas, she was not even allowed to appear among the populace, she alone was banished from the cross, yet she knew that the _real_ Saviour would have suffered her to be at His feet as well as Mary Magdalene.
”Console yourself, Josepha, your belief does not deceive you. The real Christ would not have punished you so cruelly. Men are always more severe than G.o.d. Whence should they obtain divine magnanimity, they are so petty. They are like a servant who is arrogant and avaricious for his master because he does not understand his wishes and turns from the door the poor whom his master would gladly have welcomed and refreshed.” She kissed the young girl's brow. ”Be calm, Josepha, gather up your hair, you shall bury it to-morrow in the earth which is so dear to you. I promise that I will think of you when the other Magdalene appears; your shadow shall stand between her and me, so that I shall see you alone! Will this be a slight consolation to you?”
Josepha, for the first time, looked up into the countess' eyes with a smile. ”Yes, it is a comfort. Ah, you are so kind, you take pity on me while all reproach and condemn me.”
”Oh, Josepha! If people judged thus, which of us would be warranted in casting the first stone at you?” The countess uttered the words with deep earnestness, and thoughtfully left the room.
CHAPTER VII.
THE Pa.s.sION PLAY.
Day was dawning. The first rays of the morning sun, ever broader and brighter, were darting through the air, whose blue waves surged and quivered under the flaming couisers of the ascending G.o.d of day.
Aphrodite seemed to have bathed and left her veil in the foam of the wild mountain stream into which the penitent Magdalene had tried to throw herself. Apollo in graceful sport, had gathered the little white clouds to conceal the G.o.ddess and they waved and fluttered merrily in the morning breeze around the rus.h.i.+ng chariot. Then, as if the thundering hoof-beats of the fiery chargers had echoed from the vaulted arch of the firmament, the solemn roar of cannon announced the approach of the _other_ G.o.d, the poor, una.s.suming, scourged divinity in His beggar-garb. The radiant charioteer above curbed his impatient steeds and gazed down from his serene height upon the conflict, the torturing, silent conflict of suffering upon the b.l.o.o.d.y battlefield of the timorous earth. Smiling, he shook his divine head, for he could not understand the cause of all this. Why should a G.o.d impose upon Himself such misery and humiliation! But he knows that He was a more powerful G.o.d, for _he_ was forced to fly from the zenith when the former rose from His grave.--So thought Helios, glancing over at the gentle G.o.ddess Selene, whose wan face, paling in his presence, was turned full toward the earth. She could not bear to behold the harrowing spectacle, she was the divinity of peace and slumber, so, averting her mild countenance, she bade Helios farewell and floated away to happier realms.
Blest G.o.ds, ye who sit throned in eternal beauty, eternal peace; ye who are untouched by the grief and suffering of the human race, who descend to earth merely to taste the joys of mortals when it pleases ye to add them to your divine delights, look down upon the G.o.ds whom sorrowing humanity, laden with the primeval curse, summoned from his heaven to aid, where none of ye aided, to give what none of ye gave, _the heart's blood of love!_ Gaze from your selfish pleasures, ye gay h.e.l.lenic deities, behold from your Valhalla, grim divinities of the Nors.e.m.e.n, look hither, ye dull, stupid idols of ancient India, hither where, from love for the human race, a G.o.d bleeds upon the martyr's cross--behold and turn pale! For when the monstrous deed is done, and the night has pa.s.sed. He will cast aside His humble garb and s.h.i.+ne in His divine glory. Ye will then be nothing but the rainbow which s.h.i.+mmers in changeful hues above His head! ”Excelsior!” echoes a voice through the pure morning-sky and: ”Gloria in excelsis, Deo!” peals from the church, as the priests chant the early ma.s.s.
An hour later the prince stopped before the door in a carriage to convey the countess to the Pa.s.sion Theatre, for the way was long and rough.
He gave the Gross sisters strict orders to have everything ready for Countess Wildenau's departure at the close of the performance.
”The carriages must stand packed with the luggage before the theatre when we come out. The new maid must not be late.”
Madeleine von Wildenau made no objection to all this, she was very pale and deeply agitated. Ludwig Gross, who was also just going to the theatre, was obliged to enter the carriage, too; the countess would listen to no refusal. The prince looked coldly at him. Ludwig Gross raised his hat, saying courteously:
”May I request an introduction?”
The lady blushed. ”Herr Gross, head-master of the drawing-school!” She paused a moment in embarra.s.sment, Ludwig's bronze countenance still retained its expectant expression.
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