Part 15 (1/2)
”For G.o.d's sake, what are you thinking about, Barbelle,” said she, as she placed the jug on the table and approached the maiden; ”what are you thinking about, to sit and spin there with your new bodice on? And she has got her new petticoat on, too, and the silver chain, I declare, and has taken a clean ap.r.o.n and stockings out of the chest! What a piece of vanity, you foolish thing! Don't you know that we are poor folks, and that you are the child of an unfortunate man?”
The daughter patiently allowed her bustling mother to expend her astonishment; she cast her eyes down, it is true, but there was a roguish smile on her face, which proved that the lecture did not sink very deep. ”Ah! what's the use of being angry?” she answered; ”what harm can it do to my dress, if I wear it once on a week day? The silver chain will not suffer, and I can easily wash the ap.r.o.n.”
”So! as if we had not was.h.i.+ng and cleaning enough? But tell me, what has put it into your head to make yourself so smart to-day?”
”Ah! don't you know, mother,” said the blus.h.i.+ng Swabian child, ”that to-day is the eighth day? Did not my father say the gentleman would awake on the eighth day, if his medicines had their desired effect? And so I thought----”
”Yes, this is about the time,” replied the mother, kindly; ”you are quite right, child: if he awakes and sees everything about him slovenly and dirty, we shall get into trouble with the father. And I am not fit to be seen! Go, Barbelle, and fetch me my black jacket and red bodice, and a clean ap.r.o.n.”
”But, mother,” said the young one, ”you had better go and dress yourself, while I remain here, for perhaps the gentleman may awake when you are putting your things on.”
”You are right again, girl,” replied the mother, and, leaving the breakfast on the table, retired to adorn her person. Her daughter opened the window to the fresh morning air, for the purpose, according to her usual practice, of feeding her pigeons, which were a.s.sembled before the house waiting for their accustomed meal; larks and other little birds saluting her in full chirping chorus, partook also of her bounty, which the young girl enjoyed with innocent pleasure.
At this moment the curtains of the bed were opened, when the head of a handsome young man looked out; we need not say it was Albert von Sturmfeder.
A slight colour, the first messenger of returning health, played on his cheeks; his look was as brilliant as ever, and his arm felt as powerful. He surveyed his situation in astonishment; the room, with its furniture, were strangers to him; everything about him was a riddle.
Who had bandaged his head? who had put him in this bed? His position appeared to him like that of one who had pa.s.sed a jovial night with his companions, and, having lost his senses, awoke in some out-of-the-way place.
He observed the girl at the window for some time. He could not keep his eyes off her, as she was the first object he had seen; for the purpose of drawing her attention, he made a rustling noise with the curtains as he threw them further back.
She' started when she heard the noise, and looking round, exhibited, to Albert's astonishment and delight, the beauty of her countenance, now slightly tinged with a blush. His sudden apparition appeared for a moment to deprive her pretty smiling mouth of the power of finding words to welcome the invalid to returning life. She soon collected herself, however, and hastened to the bedside, but immediately after checked her steps, as if she were not quite certain of her patient being really awake, or whether it were proper to be in the room when he returned to his senses.
The young man, observing the embarra.s.sment of this beautiful maiden, was the first to break silence.
”Tell me, where am I? how came I here?” asked Albert. ”To whom belongs this house, in which, it appears, I awake out of a long sleep?”
”Are you really in your senses again?” cried she, clasping her hands for joy. ”Ah! thank G.o.d, who would ever have thought it? But you look at one as if it were true, though you have been so long ill as to make us very fearful and anxious about you.”
”Have I been ill?” inquired Albert, who scarcely understood the dialect of the Swabian girl. ”I have only been a few hours without consciousness?”
”Eh! what are you thinking about,” giggled the girl, and bit the end of the tress, to suppress a rising laugh; ”a few hours, did you say? This night will just be the ninth that I have been watching you.”
The young man could not comprehend what he heard. Nine days, and not arrived at Lichtenstein, to see Bertha? And with this thought his recollection of the past returned in full force to his mind; he remembered having renounced the service of the League,--that he had determined to visit Lichtenstein,--that he had crossed the Alb by unfrequented paths, and that he and his leader had been attacked. But now, when he looked about him, fearful doubts oppressed his mind. Am I a prisoner, he thought to himself; and immediately put the same question to his pretty attendant.
She had noticed, with increasing anxiety, the placid countenance of the young knight, as it became ruffled, and the wild look his features had suddenly a.s.sumed. Fearful he might relapse again into his former situation, which the languid tone of his voice seemed to indicate, she hesitated what to do, whether to remain in the room, or call in the a.s.sistance of her mother.
She did not return an answer, and retired towards the door. Her heart was touched at the distress which appeared to oppress her patient; and Albert, judging by her silence and the anxious expression of her countenance, which he construed into an affirmation to his question, that he was now in the hands of his enemies, exclaimed, ”I am a prisoner then, separated from her without hope, without consolation, without the possibility of hearing from her perhaps for a long time!”
The shock was too great for his weak state of body to withstand; a tear stole from his eye.
The girl observed the tear: her anxiety was changed into pity, she approached nearer, and seating herself again by the bed-side, ventured to take the hand of the young man. ”You must not give way to grief,”
she said, ”your honour is well again, and----you can very soon proceed on your journey,” she added, with a cheerful smile.