Part 6 (2/2)
She was bending over the prisoner, who had thrown himself weeping on the ground at her feet, and speaking to him consolingly. _Heinrich_ motioned to the guide to be silent, and hastily retreated behind the door that he might not be seen.
”You have come too early, surely. I have not yet spent half an hour with Sebastian,” said the young girl. A pale sunbeam fell upon her as she raised her head and shook back from her face a ma.s.s of luxuriant curls. Her full lips pouted a little as she asked the jailer, ”What is the matter with you to-day? why do you look at me so?”
”You must come out now,” said he.
She rose slowly.
”Stand up, Sebastian; be reasonable.”
She bent over the despairing man and tried to help him rise; but he pressed his face still more closely to the damp ground.
”Stand up!” she suddenly commanded. ”Behave like a man, not like a child, if you wish me ever to come here again.”
The prisoner rose. He was an old man, decrepit and thin, with the staring eyes peculiar to those who for years have vainly endeavored to pierce with their glances the dungeon walls that surround them.
”Oh, do not be angry!” he pleaded. ”I am calm now.”
”Farewell for to-day, my poor Sebastian!” she said, returning to her former wonderfully gentle tone, and walked quickly along the pa.s.sage to the next door. As she looked round to see if the warden was going to open it for her she perceived _Heinrich_, who could now no longer conceal himself. He advanced towards her, and she watched his approach with surprise, but very calmly. Her gaze had only been fixed upon his breast, which glittered with orders; but as he stood silently before her in his manly dignity she raised her dark eyes to his, and their glances met like electric sparks. A flush slowly suffused the young girl's clearly cut face, and she involuntarily cast down her eyes as if she had received a shock.
”I am very much surprised to find such charming society in these inhospitable apartments, Fraulein,” _Heinrich_ began.
”I do not think it so very astonis.h.i.+ng if the jailer's daughter seeks to aid her father in his arduous duties.”
”Pardon me, Fraulein, if I take the liberty of doubting the accuracy of that statement,” said _Heinrich_. ”A jailer's daughter does not use such language; besides, the alarm displayed just now when I wished to enter the cell was far too great for me not to attribute more importance to your incognito. I am, unfortunately, compelled to look at your romantic appearance here through the extremely prosaic spectacles of an official, whose duty it is to obtain information in regard to every unusual event; therefore, by virtue of my office, I must inquire your name as well as request an explanation of your object.”
The young girl looked at him with a long, steady gaze, while an expression played around her lips which _Heinrich_ had never before seen on a woman's face,--a slight shade of irony.
”Very well, sir; if these people have already betrayed me I need use no further deception. I did not employ it for my own sake, but on account of these poor employees whom I have estranged from their duty. My name I hope I may be permitted to conceal; but I owe you an explanation about my object: it is only to do good. As others go to hospitals to heal diseased bodies, the majority of which can no longer be saved, I come hither to aid sick souls, where often the best and highest results may be effected. Do you think that so romantic? I have surely done no wrong in bribing the officials here, partly by money, partly by kind words, to allow me to make a daily round through the cells. In charitable inst.i.tutions the doors and gates stand open to all who wish to bring aid and consolation to the sufferers. The thrice wretched unfortunates in our prisons are refused all means of cheering and enn.o.bling them. No account is taken of individuality here, where individuality is the sole standard of measurement. A chaplain is sent to admonish criminals to repent, who is to convert them all in a lump according to his own theories; but people trouble themselves very little about the result of this manufacturing method of conversion, and when at the expiration of their imprisonment the criminals are sent back into the world, they begin again just where they stopped years before.”
”Oh, Fraulein, you go too far! The punishment itself does most, for it terrifies them,” replied _Heinrich_.
”Some, but certainly by far the smallest number. Many in the course of years become so hardened to it by custom that it loses its terrors, and the only moral the majority draw from imprisonment is--to manage more cautiously in future. There is only one guarantee for the permanent harmlessness of the criminal who cannot be imprisoned for life--amendment; but this princ.i.p.al object of punishment is always made subservient to the principle of avenging the insulted law.”
”Well, and can you tell me also how this amendment is to be effected?”
asked _Heinrich_, with increasing interest.
”I think by the admitting of judicious, trustworthy persons who can understand these different characters, and influence by advice and instruction, where the latter is needed.”
”I admire your sanguine, philanthropic ideas,” replied _Heinrich_; ”but tell me yourself, my honored Fraulein, would not the state have too much to do if it was compelled to take into account the peculiarities of each individual criminal, and establish and pay a whole corporation of amendment officials?”
This jeer wounded the young girl, and a deep flush crimsoned her n.o.ble, intellectual brow for a moment; but after a pause she continued, undaunted: ”Such a task would perhaps be too visionary and comprehensive for the government; but the citizens would come to its aid in this as well as in benevolent inst.i.tutions, and from the hearts of the populace a corps of volunteer amendment officials would arise, in which our n.o.blest patriots would undoubtedly be a.s.sociated. But I have no intention of discussing a subject upon which folios have been already written, and which you understand better than I. I only wished to give the motive for my actions; and your recent sneer,” she added, in a slightly defiant tone, ”has fully convinced me that you will at least consider these 'sanguine philanthropic ideas' in the mind of a fanciful young girl too harmless to put them on official record, so my examination is doubtless over.”
”Not yet,” said _Heinrich_, firmly. ”Your ideas and language do not seem to me quite so harmless as you suppose. I cannot help desiring to obtain more exact information concerning the motives of your acts and the bearing of your influence. I must and shall find means to do so.
You stand too proudly and firmly before me for me to be able to believe so implicitly in the purposelessness of your enthusiasm. I am a servant of the government; as such it is both a duty and a right to ask, 'Who are you? in what relations do you stand towards the prisoners? what is your object?'”
”Who I am I shall not tell you; in what relations I stand towards the prisoners and what influence I exert you can learn from themselves; as for my object, can you not understand it? I am making myself useful. Do you think it requires another and more important purpose to act as I have done?”
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