Page:Select Popular Tales from the German of Musaeus.djvu/82

70 as with the black woodpecker. Fortunately, a fowler, who was then passing, extricated him from his perplexity, and gave a decision on the point, which fully satisfied our bird-hunter.

When it appeared to him to be full season to set about his great work, he began by hunting out a red cloak; unfortunately, but a single article of the kind was to be found in the whole town, and this was in the possession of a person to whom people are usually somewhat reluctant in applying—namely, that public functionary the executioner. It cost him no little exertion to overcome his scruples; nevertheless, the urgency of the case compelled him. Provided then with this indispensable part of his apparatus, our friend set out to execute strictly, according to the prescribed formula, the ceremony which was to put him in possession of the mystic plant. All proceeded exactly as had been predicted; and, when the woodpecker came back with the root in its mouth, Peter suddenly advanced from behind the tree, and performed his manuvre with such rapidity and dexterity, that, in its terror at sight of the flame-coloured mantle, the bird let fall the root, which he immediately seized, and wrapped up in a bunch of christ-thorn; and then proceeded homewards as overjoyed as if he had been already in possession of the wished-for treasure.

His travelling equipage was soon put in readiness, being only a sturdy staff, and a large and stout bag. It happened fortunately that, on the day fixed for his emigration, both Dame Ilse and Gertrude were gone to a convent of Ursulines, to see a nun take the veil; Peter availed himself of this opportunity to desert his post, he having been placed sentinel during the absence of the female part of the garrison.

Just as he was about to bestow a parting look on his household deities, it occurred to him that it would not be at all imprudent were he first of all to make a preparatory trial of his talisman, in order to satisfy himself of its efficacy. His worthy dame had in her chamber a cabinet built into the wall, in which shrine she kept certain golden relics, most religiously guarded under seven locks, the keys of which she constantly wore about her person by way of an amulet. Not having been allowed to hold a committee of inquiry on the state of his wife’s financial arrangements, Peter was altogether ignorant of these private funds, although he had some suspicion that a secret hoard existed somewhere: as soon, therefore, as this cabinet met his eye, his heart acted the part of a divining rod. With a bosom throbbing with anxious expectation for the success of the experiment he was about to make, he took out the root, and touched the door of the shrine. To his rapturous astonishment the seven locks immediately unbolted, and the door flew open with a crash, when there was displayed to his greedy gaze the store of bright seducing mammon, from whose snare his worthy partner took such pains to secure him. At first, he hardly knew whether to be more