Part 5 (2/2)
_Faustus_. Mighty sir, you have spoken well: tears are like water; they merely spoil the eyes of those that shed them. But do you know that my friend has right on his side?
_Judge_. Master Faustus, I know you for a man who plays away his money at ducks-and-drakes, and who has a loose tongue. Right and law are very different things: if he has the first for him, it is no reason that he should have the second.
_Faustus_. You say that right and law are two different things: something like judge and justice, perhaps.
_Judge_. Master Faustus, I have already said that I know you.
_Faustus_. Perhaps we are mistaken in each other, most enlightened sir.
But it is mere waste of soap to attempt to wash a blackamoor white. (_He opened the door_, _and in stalked the Devil_.) Here is a gentleman who will lay before you a doc.u.ment, which I hope will give the cause of my friend a new aspect.
When the Judge saw the richly-dressed Leviathan, he a.s.sumed a more friendly countenance, and asked them all to be seated.
_Faustus_. We can settle the whole business standing. (_To the Devil_) Produce the doc.u.ment which we have found.
The Devil counted out of his purse five hundred gold guilders; he then stopped and looked at the Judge.
_Judge_. The doc.u.ment is by no means a bad one, gentlemen; but the adverse party has long ago given me one of equal weight.
The Devil continued counting till he had told out a thousand; he then stopped.
_Judge_. In truth, I had overlooked this circ.u.mstance. Such vouchers, however, are not to be withstood.
He then gathered up the gold and secured it in his coffer.
_Faustus_. I hope now that right and law will go together.
_Judge_. Master Faustus, you understand the art of appeasing the bitterest enemies.
Faustus, whom the servility of the Judge as much offended as his former rudeness, whispered to the Devil, in going away, ”Do thou avenge justice on this wretch.”
Thereupon he left his friend, without waiting for his thanks, and went about with the Devil to discharge his debts. He then paid visits to his other friends, showered gold upon them by handfuls, even on those who had forsaken him in his adversity; and he felt happy in being able to give unbridled scope to his generosity and greatness of soul. The Devil, however, who saw deeper into things than Faustus, laughed within himself at the consequences.
They now went to the hotel, Faustus, recollecting the conduct of his wife, once again fell into an exceedingly ill humour. He could not pardon her for having ceased to lament his departure the moment she had seen the gold and jewels. Till now he had imagined that she loved him more than all the treasures of the earth; but what he had just observed forced him to believe the contrary, and his affection for her was turned to bitterness. The Devil, who perceived where the shoe pinched, willingly allowed Faustus to torment himself with these gloomy thoughts, so that he might tear himself from that sweet tie by which nature still gently fettered him. He foresaw, with secret rapture, the dreadful anguish which would one day arise in the bosom of the headstrong Faustus, when the future should disclose to him all the horrors which he was now about to perpetrate.
They dined in the public room, in company with some professors of law and divinity, who, to the great delight of the Devil, soon fell into a violent dispute concerning the nun Clara. The flame of that controversy was still at its full height; party-spirit raged in all houses, and the present disputants talked so loudly, and said so many ridiculous things, that Faustus soon forgot his ill humour. But when a doctor of theology a.s.serted that it was possible for Satan to have carried his wickedness so far as to have brought the nun into certain circ.u.mstances by means of the dream, the Devil burst into a bellowing laugh; and Faustus immediately thought of a scheme by which he might revenge himself, in a signal manner, upon the Archbishop, who had paid so little attention to his discovery. He hoped then to involve the thread of the theological and political war at Mayence in such confusion that no human power would be able to unravel it. After dinner he asked the demon whether it would be possible for him, under the figure of the Dominican, to pa.s.s that night with the lovely Clara. The Devil a.s.sured him that nothing was more easy; and, if he chose, the abbess herself should usher him into the nun's cell. Faustus, who had always considered the abbess to be a strict, pious, and conscientious woman, laughed in scorn at these last words of the Devil.
_Devil_. Thy wife, O Faustus, set up a shriek of despair when thou didst tell her of thy intended departure; but when the glitter of gold and dress burst upon her view, the sorrows of her heart vanished at once. I repeat, that the abbess herself shall introduce thee to the cell of the nun, and I will employ no supernatural means. Thou thyself shalt see how the old gudgeon will swallow the hook. Come, we will pay her a visit under the pious figures of two nuns. I know the manners and ways of the nuns, ay, and of the monks too, of Germany, well enough to ape them. I will represent the Abbess of the Black Nuns, and thou shalt be her friend, Sister Agatha.
At this moment Faustus's friend came, full of joy, to inform him of the happy issue of the law-suit. He was about to thank Faustus and the Devil upon his knees; but Faustus said, ”Spare your thanks, and take care of my wife and family during my absence.” He then whispered into the ear of the Devil, ”It is time to think of the Judge.”
The Judge wished after dinner to gratify his beloved wife by counting the gold pieces in her presence. He unlocked the coffer, and started back in a tremor at the sight of its contents: the gold pieces were changed into large rats, which sprang out, and fell furiously upon his face and hands.
The Judge, who had a great aversion to these animals, rushed out of the room; but they pursued him, fastening on his heels. He hurried from the house, and ran through the streets; but still they were close behind him.
He fled into the fields; but they allowed him no rest, and at last forced the terrified wretch to seek shelter in the stone tower where the tolls are gathered, and which stands in the middle of the Rhine. Here he thought himself safe from farther pursuit; but rats and mice hot from h.e.l.l are not to be terrified by water: they swam through, fell upon him, and ate him up alive. His wife, in her terror and astonishment, told the history of the transformation of the gold pieces by which her unfortunate husband had allowed himself to be dazzled; and from that time there has not been in the whole diocese of Mayence a single instance of a judge or a man in office taking a bribe. The Devil could not have foreseen this, or he certainly would have let the scoundrel go unpunished.
Faustus and the Devil stood in their disguises before the gate of the convent of White Nuns. The portress ran as fast as she could in order to inform the abbess of the unexpected visitors. The abbess received them with conventual greetings, to which the Devil answered in a similar tone.
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