Part 55 (1/2)
”Tony, my husband, never stays at home in the evening; he returns only late at night, scolds me for weeping and upbraiding him with his bad conduct, and yesterday--yesterday he wanted even to beat me!”
”What a bad man!” cried Andreas, vehemently. ”Why did he want to beat you, then? What had you done?”
”I had locked the street-door, and would not let him have the key when he wanted to leave the house.”
”H'em! that was a little too severe,” said Hofer, hesitatingly. ”Why should a young man be prevented from going out a little? He cannot always stay at home.”
”But he shall not go out without me, and he would not take me with him. I had requested him to do so, and he had refused; therefore, I locked the house and would not permit him to leave it. He shall not go out without me, for he is such a fine-looking man, that all the pretty women of Innspruck admire him in his handsome national dress, and ogle him when he pa.s.ses by.”
”Well, let them admire and ogle him,” exclaimed Andreas, smiling.
”What do you care for it, provided your husband does not ogle them?”
”But he does, commander-in-chief; he runs after the pretty women, he goes to the theatre and the concerts to see them, and speak and flirt with them. Believe me, dearest commander-in-chief, he deserts me, he is faithless, and all your fine and pious exhortations were in vain. He loves me no longer, and I love him so dearly, and would like to be always with him and never desert him. But he says it would be inconvenient to him, and make him ridiculous, if he should always appear together with his wife, like a convict with his jailer.”
”What a bad, hard-hearted man!” cried Andreas, indignantly.
”He is hard-hearted, indeed,” sobbed the young wife. ”He scolds me for my love, and when I like to be with him all the time, he says my jealousy is disagreeable to him, and there is nothing more abominable than a jealous wife!”
”Well, he may be right so far as that is concerned,” said Doeninger, busily engaged in cutting his pen.
”What did you say, Cajetan?” asked Hofer, turning to him.
”I did not say anything, but thought aloud,” said Doeninger, trying his pen.
Hofer was silent for a moment, and gazed into vacancy. ”Yes, my dear woman,” he then said boldly, ”your husband may not be altogether wrong in complaining of your jealousy. I really believe that you are a little jealous, and beg you to try to overcome your jealousy; for jealousy is a grievous fault, and makes many husbands very wretched.”
”But must I not be jealous?” she cried, vehemently, weeping bitterly. ”Do I not see that the women are trying to seduce him and make him desert me? Do I not see him at the theatre gazing at the finely-dressed ladies and admiring their bare arms and shoulders?”
”What!” exclaimed Hofer. ”Is it true, then, that the women here appear in public with bare arms and shoulders?”
”Yes, sir, it is,” sobbed the young wife. ”You can see it everywhere; it is the new fas.h.i.+on which the French brought here; the women wear low-necked dresses with very short sleeves, so that their shoulders and arms are entirely bare. All the aristocratic ladies of Innspruck have already adopted this new fas.h.i.+on; and on seeing them in their boxes at the theatre, you would believe they were in a bath, precisely as the good G.o.d created them. And it is owing only to these bare arms and shoulders that my dear husband deserts me and loves me no longer. The aristocratic ladies, with their naked charms have seduced him; and just think of it, he wants me to adopt the new fas.h.i.+on too, and go as naked as the other women!”
”You must not do it,” said Hofer in dismay; ”it is a shameless, unchristian fas.h.i.+on, and no decent woman should adopt it. This is not the first complaint that I have heard in regard to the indecent dress of the women here. Some of my neighbors were at the theatre yesterday, and were indignant at the indecent appearance of the women there; they told me the women sat there dressed in the highest fas.h.i.+on, their busts entirely bare and not covered with a handkerchief such as every decent woman in the Pa.s.seyr valley wears, and their arms adorned with all sorts of golden trinkets such as we see only on those of strolling players who perform in barns. But I will put an end to it; I will preserve the good and virtuous men from seduction, and will not suffer vice to dress up, and shamelessness to stalk by the side of decency. Just wait, my dear woman; I will protect your husband and all other good men from the seductive wiles of frivolous women, and issue a decree which will tell all the beautiful women how to behave. Sit down there and listen to the decree which I shall dictate to Cajetan Doeninger.
Cajetan, take a large sheet of stamped paper and write what I shall dictate to you.”
And pacing the room. and slowly stroking his fine black beard with his right hand, Andreas Hofer dictated as follows:
”Every one will perceive that we have good reason to thank the kind and almighty G.o.d for helping us so signally to deliver the fatherland from a powerful and cruel enemy; and every one will desire that we should henceforth remain free from this scourge, with which the Lord, as He punished His chosen people often in the Old and New Testament, visited and chastised our fatherland, that we might turn to Him and mend our ways. We will, therefore, turn to G.o.d with heartfelt thanks for his great mercy, and with the sincere purpose of improving our morals, and pray Him to protect us from further persecution. We must try to gain His paternal love by a devout, chaste, and virtuous life, and discard hatred, envy, covetousness, and all vices, obey our superiors, lend as much a.s.sistance as possible to our fellow-citizens, and avoid everything that might give offence to G.o.d and man. Now, many of my excellent comrades and defenders of the country have been scandalized at the neglect of many women to cover their arms and b.r.e.a.s.t.s, whereby they give rise to sinful desires which must be highly offensive to G.o.d and all good Christians. It is to be hoped that they will repent, lest G.o.d should punish them; but if they do not, it will be their own fault if they should be covered with mire in an unpleasant manner.” [Footnote: See ”Gallery of Heroes: Andreas Hofer,” p. 135; and Hormayr's ”Hofer,” vol. ii., p. 445.]
”Shall I really write that?” asked Doeninger, looking up from his paper.
”Yes, you shall; and you shall not omit a word of it,” exclaimed Andreas Hofer. ”Give me the paper, Cajetan; I want to see if you have not scratched out the last words. No, there it is: 'But if they do not, it will be their own fault if they should be covered with mire in an unpleasant manner.' That is right--now give me the pen, Cajetan, that I may sign the doc.u.ment. Then seal it up and send it to the Official Journal and the Gazette; they are to publish it at once, that all the women of Innspruck may read it to-morrow and know what to do. Now, my dear woman, I hope you will have some rest, and need not be afraid of the seductive wiles of those ladies. Go home, then; and if you will permit me to give you good advice, be very gentle and kind toward your husband; and for G.o.d's sake do not torment him with jealousy, for that is a bitter herb which even the best husband cannot digest, and which renders him morose and angry.
Go, then, with G.o.d's blessing, and come back a week hence, and tell me whether my decree has been effectual, and whether your husband goes any longer to the theatre and ogles the women there.”
”May G.o.d and the Holy Virgin have mercy on us!” sighed the woman, going to the door; ”for I shall not bear it if my dear husband ogles other women, and something dreadful will happen if he does not mend his ways.”
”G.o.d be praised!” said Doeninger, with a deep sigh, when the woman had left the room.