Part 13 (2/2)

Oh, dearest mamma, he is such a good, kind-hearted young man! he is my dear Eliza's cousin and our castellan's nephew, and you know how well Eliza and her father have treated me, and that they take care of me, whenever I am at the castle, as though I were the castellan's own child. Dearest mamma, shall we permit our men to kill the nephew of our excellent castellan?”

”No, we will not, Lizzie,” said her mother, resolutely. ”Quick, run up the footpath leading to the castle. Tell the young officer that the Tyrolese are going to deliver themselves from the Bavarian yoke, and that he had better effect his escape while there is time.”

”Mother, he will not do it, for he is a brave young man!” sighed Eliza; ”and then--I cannot betray father's secret to him. If the Austrians did not come after all, and I had told Ulrich von Hohenberg what father and the other Tyrolese intend to do, would I not be a traitress, and would not father curse me?”

”True, true, that will not do,” said her mother musingly; ”your father would never forgive you. But I know what you must do. Just run up to the castle and act as though you wished only to pay a visit to your friend Eliza; no one knows as yet what is going to occur. None of your friends have disclosed the secret; and the castellan too, though I think he is a good Austrian at heart, does not yet know any thing about it. Your father told me so this very morning. You will remain at the castle, and so soon as you hear the report of a rifle on the market-place here, you will know that the insurrection is breaking out. There is father's rifle; when it is time, I will step out of the back gate with it and shoot. You will hear the report, and tell the young officer that the Tyrolese are going to rise, and that he had better conceal himself until the first rage of the insurgents has blown over.”

”Yes, I will do so,” exclaimed Eliza; ”I will run up to the castle now. Good-by, dearest mamma.”

She imprinted a kiss on the hand of her mother, and then sped away as gracefully as a young roe.

”She is a very good girl,” said her mother, looking after her smilingly, ”and has a soft and compa.s.sionate heart. She wishes to save the castellan's nephew merely because she pities the young man who is exposed to such imminent danger. It is very kind of her! It-- But, Holy Virgin! what is the matter outside? Is the outbreak to commence already? I believe it is my Tony who is talking outside in so loud a voice. I must go and hear what is the matter.”

She hastened through the bar-room to the street-door opening upon the market place.

Yes, it was Anthony Wallner-Aichberger who was gesticulating so violently yonder. Round him stood the men of Windisch-Matrey, looking with gloomy faces at the three Bavarian revenue officers who were standing in front of Wallner.

”I repeat, sir,” exclaimed Anthony Wallner at this moment with an air of mock gravity, ”that we are all very loyal and obedient subjects, and that it is wrong in you. Mr. Tax-collector, to call us stubborn, seditious fellows. If we were such, would we not, being so numerous here, punish you and your two officers for speaking of us so contemptuously and disrespectfully?”

”You know full well that, at a wave of my hand, the company of soldiers will rush down from Castle Weissenstein and shoot you all as traitors and rebels,” said the tax-collector haughtily.

”Well, Mr. Tax-collector,” exclaimed Wallner, smilingly, ”as for the shooting, we are likewise well versed in that. We are first-rate marksmen, we Tyrolese!”

”What!” cried the tax-collector, furiously, ”do you speak again of Tyrolese? Did I not forbid you to call yourselves so? You are no Tyrolese, but inhabitants of South-Bavaria, do you hear? His majesty the King of Bavaria does not want any Tyrolese as subjects, but only Southern Bavarians, as I have told you twice already.” [Footnote: See ”Gallery of Heroes; Life of Andreas Hofer,” p. 15.]

”Very well; if his majesty does not want any Tyrolese as subjects, you need not tell us so more than once,” exclaimed Anthony Wallner.

”He prefers Southern Bavarians, does he? Bear that in mind, Tyrolese; the King of Bavaria wants only Southern Bavarians.”

”We will bear that in mind,” shouted the Tyrolese; and loud, scornful laughter rolled like threatening thunder across the market- place.

”You laugh,” exclaimed the tax-collector, endeavoring to stifle his rage; ”I am glad you are so merry. To-morrow, perhaps, you will laugh no longer; for I tell you, if you do not pay to-day the fine imposed on you, I shall have it forcibly collected by the soldiers at daybreak to-morrow morning.”

”We must really pay the fine, then?” asked Anthony Wallner, with feigned timidity. ”You will not relent, then, Mr. Tax-collector? We really must pay the heavy fine, because we had a little fun the other day? For you must say yourself, sir, we really did no wrong.”

”You did no wrong? You were in open insurrection. On the birthday of your gracious master the king, instead of hanging out Bavarian flags, as you had been ordered, you hung out Austrian flags everywhere.”

”No, Mr. Tax-collector, you did not see right; we hung out none but Bavarian flags.”

”That is false! I myself walked through the whole place, and saw every thing with my own eyes. Your flags did not contain the Bavarian colors, blue and white, but black and yellow, the Austrian colors.”

”Possibly they may have looked so,” exclaimed Anthony Wallner, ”but that was not our fault. The flags were our old Bavarian flags: but they were already somewhat old, the blue was faded and looked like yellow, and the white had become quite dirty and looked like black.”

”Thunder and lightning! Wallner is right,” exclaimed the Tyrolese, bursting into loud laughter. ”The flags were our old Bavarian flags, but they were faded and dirty.”

The young lads, who had hitherto stood in groups around the outer edge of the market-place, now mingled with the crowd to listen to the speakers; and a young Tyrolese, with his rifle on his arm, and his pointed hat over his dark curly hair, approached with such impetuous curiosity that he suddenly stood close to the tax- collector. However, he took no notice of the officer, but looked with eager attention at Wallner, and listened to his words.

But the grim eyes of one of the two bailiffs noticed with dismay that this impudent fellow dared to place himself close by the side of the tax-collector without taking off his hat.

Striking with his fist on the young fellow's hat, he drove it deep over his forehead.

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