Page:The London Magazine, volume 8 (July–December 1823).djvu/135

 tion there is a profound silence. Nay, it seems even as if this trader in black arts had at that very point been overtaken by death: for he had broken off in the very middle of a word. The lord have mercy upon his soul!”

Little as Rudolph’s faith was in the possibility of such a proposal, yet he was uneasy at his father’s communication and visibly disturbed; so that the latter said to him—“Had it not been better, Rudolph, that you had left the mystery to be buried with me in the grave?”

Rudolph said “No:” but his restless eye, and his agitated air, too evidently approved the accuracy of his father’s solicitude.

The deep impression upon Rudolph’s mind from this conversation—the last he was ever to hold with his father—was rendered still deeper by the solemn event which followed. About the middle of that same night he was awakened suddenly by a summons to his father’s bed-side: his father was dying, and earnestly asking for him.

“My son!” he exclaimed with an expression of the bitterest anguish; stretched out both his arms in supplication towards him; and in the anguish of the effort he expired.

The levity of youthful spirits soon dispersed the gloom which at first hung over Rudolph’s mind. Surrounded by jovial companions at the university which he now visited, he found no room left in his bosom for sorrow or care: and his heaviest affliction was the refusal of his guardian at times to comply with his too frequent importunities for money.

After a residence of one year at the university, some youthful irregularities in which Rudolph was concerned subjected him, jointly with three others, to expulsion. Just at that time, the Seven Years’ War happened to break out: two of the party, named Theiler and Werl, entered the military service together with Rudolph: the last, very much against the will of a young woman to whom he was engaged. Charlotte herself, however, became reconciled to this arrangement, when she saw that her objections availed nothing against Rudolph’s resolution, and heard her lover describe in the most flattering colours his own return to her arms in the uniform of an officer: for that his distinguished courage must carry him in the very first campaign to the rank of lieutenant, was as evident to his own mind as that he could not possibly fall on the field of battle.

The three friends were fortunate enough to be placed in the same company. But in the first battle, Werl and Theiler were stretched lifeless by Rudolph’s side: Werl, by a musket ball through his heart, and Theiler by a cannon shot which took off his head.

Soon after this event Rudolph himself returned home: but how? Not, as he had fondly anticipated, in the brilliant decorations of a distinguished officer; but as a prisoner in close custody: in a transport of youthful anger he had been guilty, in company with two others, of insubordination and mutiny.

The court-martial sentenced them to death. The judges, however, were so favourably impressed by their good conduct whilst under confinement, that they would certainly have recommended them unconditionally to the royal mercy, if it had not been deemed necessary to make an example. However, the sentence was so far mitigated, that only one of the three was to be shot. And which was he? That point was reserved in suspense until the day of execution, when it was to be decided by the cast of the dice.

As the fatal day drew near, a tempest of passionate grief assailed the three prisoners. One of them was agitated by the tears of his father; the second by the sad situation of a sickly wife and two children. The third, Rudolph, in case the lot fell upon him, would be summoned to part not only with his life, but also with a young and blooming bride, that lay nearer to his heart than anything else in the world. “Ah!” said he on the evening before the day of final decision, “Ah! if but this once I could secure a lucky throw of the dice!” And scarce was the wish uttered, when his comrade Werl, whom he had seen fall by his side in the field of battle, stepped into his cell.

“So, brother Schroll, I suppose you didn’t much expect to see me?”

“No, indeed, did I not—” exclaimed Rudolph in consternation: for in fact, on the next day after the battle, he had seen with his own eyes