Translation:The Mysterious Individual/XV

The very next morning he saw his two companions-in-misfortune passing beneath his little window with their arms bound together. Apparently they were being taken to their court-martial.

With each minute, he said to himself, the moment draws nearer which will also annul my being and hand me over to a strange, unknown and unforeseen existence. Can you admit that this is truth, reality, and not some empty mirage? No, this levity that masks our pain and suffering with its beguiling legerdemain, distracting one's soul again and again, has vanished completely in my case. The stupor has fled, and I am alone with my misery. And to ensure that I must despise myself, that I might mock myself Fate has granted me friends; it has forgiven me my lack of generosity, from my fall from grace it has brought me back to life; the finest of people accepted me as their son; a heavenly being degraded herself so far as to love me. All heaven lay before me; but I preferred to wear the jingling fool's cap and wield the marotte in such a way that it even shocked other fools! But did I not ignore all the admonitions of my better nature! And therefore it is only right and fitting that the final warning, the one to which I finally pay heed now, should come too late.

He heard gunshots.

The poor men! he sighed, praying for them instinctively.

A moment later the old warden entered his cell.

They are at rest, the brave young men, he said: it was a pitiable sight. When they returned from their court-martial, they went to the church and received the holy sacrament with reverence. The young fellow with the fair hair wept continuously, and lamented his old mother and his own youth. The other one was defiant, saying that the time would soon come when his comrades would avenge their deaths. Good Heavens, that is easier said than done; but it consoled him somewhat. The younger man died instantly; the one with the brown hair was still alive and beckoned with his hand, when he had collapsed, that they should quickly shoot him again; because he could no longer speak. After they fired the second time, he too lay completely still.

The old man would have chatted longer if an orderly had not entered to fetch Kronenberg. The latter rose calmly, believing that he was being taken to face the court-martial. But he was almost glad to be able to cast off the farce of life. He followed his conductor into a large house, climbed the stairs, and now found himself in the vestibule, which was swarming with uniformed men. He was ordered to remain standing. Officers from all arms of the service passed in and out of the inner chamber; others left the house; messages and letters arrived. A gaunt man in a richly embroidered uniform approached the stunned Kronenberg, and looked at him with a searching eye; then he spoke to some bystanders, obviously about prisoner's character and offence. After a while he went into the other room for the second time, and remained there a long time. Meanwhile the crowd of people waiting diminished, and eventually Kronenberg was called in. He was not a little surprised when he saw that there was nobody in the large room other than the marshal whose acquaintance he had recently made. The latter looked at him for a long time, and then said:

Young man, you are a sorry illustration of how youthful errors, which are often regarded by many people as matters of indifference, can lure one into the deadliest peril. You have friends not entirely undeserved, I hope  who are doing their utmost to help you. Last night a certain Herr von Emmerich hurried over to talk with me in the morning and to prepare me; if a friend, the persuasiveness of a brother, can prove the innocence of an accused man, then he has done everything possible. The noble Count, an honourable character, arrived immediately after him and argued on your behalf like a father; with tears of emotion he took you under his protection. His daughter, who was betrothed to you when they thought you were someone else, has hardly been able to face life since your misfortune; her mother too is inconsolable. Consider all these, and balance all the accounts: I wonder whether you, who could bring yourself to deceive this noble family under an assumed name and for such a long time, have deserved even the tenth part of this boundless and unprecedented display of love.

Your Excellency, Kronenberg said coldly, cannot put it to me more emphatically than I have already done myself: I have been a worthless wretch.

What fate do you deserve?

Death, a hundred times over; because he who desecrates life and truth with lies does not deserve life, love or the light of Heaven.

And yet your friends maintain, and they claim to have heard this from your own lips, that those intrigues in respect of which you stand accused never occurred, and that you did not write a line of that book.

So it is; but what I have actually done, the heart that I have broken, the despicable vanity to which I have sacrificed my own and another's happiness, this is a far more serious crime than the one for which I am here condemned.

The Marshal opened a press.

Do you recognize this wallet?

Kronenberg took hold of it.

It's mine, he said, surprised; it has been missing for a long time; I am astonished to find it here before my very eyes so unexpectedly and under these circumstances.

At that moment from behind the lowered curtain of a bay window there emerged, wearing a lavish civil uniform, that pale man who had earlier scrutinized the young man outside.

Don't you recognize me anymore? he said, addressing the perplexed man.

Kronenberg was reminded by the sound of his voice. It was the stranger whose acquaintance he had made in such a strange manner at the inn on the first day of his journey.

As a generous young man, said the stranger, you took care of me that time, you protected me and saw that I was provided for. I was in a difficult situation; a more artful man than myself had stolen my passport, my money was all gone, I was in a remote place, and the worst thing was that they had got wind of me and my disguise. I was almost discovered and arrested, in which case my journey and year-long struggle would have been in vain. You helped me out of my difficulties, and it was not very grateful of me, I confess it myself, to appropriate your passport. You saved me on that occasion, and I can now save you; because I am more convinced than everyone else of your innocence.

How so? asked the Marshal.

In addition to the passport, continued the stranger, I also found some correspondence in this portfolio, if you'll permit me, my young friend, (for once it cannot be helped) to translate the following sheet for the Marshal; it is from your uncle; and although it is not particularly civil, nevertheless it exonerates you completely.

He read in French:

Wayward Nephew!

I shall not pay your debts; I shall not take an interest in your estate, which you have thoroughly ruined; it would be a waste of my money, seeing that you continue to hold your new-fangled economic theories. The other devilries that you are peddling are even worse. Do you intend to marry two girls, then? The fool will fall between two stools, and it serves him right. I shan't be sorry if their brothers or their fathers teach you a lesson you won't forget. But perhaps someone else will take the trouble to put a rope around your neck, which must be itching like hell for the noose. And now you maintain that you wrote that book, you poltroon, that I brought back for you recently from my trip, and that you insisted on reading to me for patriotic amusement, the very work, you fool, in which our pastor had to explain some things to you. Or so my servant and also the schoolmaster inform me, whom you fooled into believing it. Your stupidity could even land you in prison. Finally, I must even hear that you wanted to hire the red-haired wigmaker; you ought to establish a regiment against the French for English pay. Old simple-minded Herr von Matthias was also quite full of it. You had also been telling him lies, that you were the leader of a secret society whose actions would soon be revealed. I beg you, you good-for-nothing, for the welfare of your body and of your soul, banish all this tomfoolery from your perverted mind once and for all, and give up this accursed habit of telling lies to which you have been inclined since early youth. It's true, I am your uncle, your next of kin, and by rights you should probably inherit my little poverty some day; but, the devil take me if I do not bequeath it instead to the old women in the almshouse, unless you pull yourself together and turn yourself into a completely different fellow. However, I remain, NB. provided you spare me your financial ordeals in the future, Your affectionate uncle Richard

The Marshal had not been able to listen to this fatherly missive without smiling.

You can see from this, continued the stranger, that our friend is completely vindicated as far as the present charges are concerned. You can release him; he has suffered enough on account of his poor, misunderstood vanity. If, however, there remains even the smallest doubt of his innocence, I will bear full responsibility for it. I am leaving this very day; I will be speaking with the Emperor in a short while; I will give him a full account of the affair, and I know in advance that it will make him laugh to hear what sort of jokes the Germans occasionally crack. Is it not like deliberately and wilfully dancing a ballet on red-hot steel in one's bare feet?

You are free, Sir, said the Marshal. I trust this incident has taught you a lesson.

Kronenberg took his wallet and thanked both gentlemen; without realizing what he was doing, he left the room and vestibule and found himself back on the street outside. He looked around him and up at the blue sky; he felt again that life was a possession that one should not throw away as carelessly as a threadbare dress. A servant addressed him and led him to a house where the Count was waiting for him. The latter embraced him in a fatherly manner and after congratulating him on his deliverance from an apparently life-threatening situation, to which Kronenberg was almost too ashamed to respond, he finally said:

No doubt there are many people who are possessed of a certain charm, a talisman, that wins them love and friendship wherever they go, and makes them happy if they respect this obliging sympathy. Thus it was that I and all of us behaved towards you. Do not expect to hear another word from me concerning your youthful indiscretions, which have taught you a harsh lesson that you will surely take to heart, for you would have to be more than irresponsible not to. Our entire household has fallen in love with you; I mourned for you as though you were my own flesh and blood. The tears that my good wife shed for your fate, the benevolence with which she forgave you, I have no desire to list all these things as evidence of our friendship. I have carefully considered everything that you recently told me about yourself and your circumstances; but our Emmerich has done more than you could ever do. This man is devoted to you out of the purest, almost unparalleled friendship. Yes, my dear young friend, there dwells a noble soul, a genuine spirit, within your breast, which will now take wing; we cannot all be completely mistaken, not so many good people. I know your family; your uncle Richard is an old college friend of mine; we would like to be reconciled with him, and you and all of us will be happy. So far I have said nothing about my daughter Cecilia. The faith that she became acquainted with through you, which was to a certain extent steadfast to her, has made her yours completely and for all time. She has disclosed her whole heart to me; and, deeply moved, I must give my blessing to this union which has been formed through some miracle.

Most generous of individuals, exclaimed Kronenberg, moved. Father! You leave me speechless and incapable of finding words to thank you. No man, not even the finest, could deserve so much love, much less I. My whole existence, every beat of my heart, shall be spent in thanks and joy. Believe me, I am awakened, and among such noble people I will feel good and noble. May my every breath be truth.

He was so deeply moved that he could not but break off. He went away for some time in order to wander about through the city and beyond the gates and give vent to his feelings.

Cecilia! he exclaimed. I have been given to you again, you have been bestowed on me. What an infinity of happiness and love there is in that one word! Oh, Cecilia! But I feel it, I know it: no heart could have loved you as mine did, and only your heavenly love could recognize the goodness and the purity that were in me.

He awoke with a start from his reverie when an old hand touched him on the shoulder. He looked around and recoiled before the well-known face of Christoph.

You here? he exclaimed. Good heavens! How did you get here?

With my lord, replied the old man. Oh, there are more people here who know you. We have been looking for you for ages.

At that moment the unknown Frenchman met them in his splendid uniform. He stood at attention, saluted Kronenberg, and then addressed his servant:

So, how are you, my good Christoph? Are you here again too?

Christoph was taken aback, bowed deeply, looked at him again, and then exclaimed:

Why, of all the nasty shocks in the world! Is it possible that you are the strange man from back then? Well, I've always said that Judgment Day must be just around the corner!

Now Karl von Wildhausen approached and was greatly surprised to find his servant taking part in this conversation. The stranger did not stay any longer after he had exchanged a few friendly words with Kronenberg. The two friends warmly embraced.

All that is strange, exclaimed Karl, all that is peculiar, becomes normal. Yesterday I arrive here on business, this morning I hear of your misfortunes; I give you up for lost, now I find you a free man; our Christoph makes the acquaintance of the most distinguished of individuals; your uncle Richard is impatient to clasp you in his arms.

He too is here? exclaimed Kronenberg.

He came with me, replied his friend; I have prevailed upon him to look after your affairs; your creditors are satisfied. But then we lost all trace of you. Then we took a business trip; he came with me to the local district, and urged me to visit the estate of an old school friend, Count Werthheim: that is why we are here; we intended to drive over to his country seat now. There we heard rumours this morning that you had been arrested and that your life was in danger; at the same time we learned the strangest things about you. The old man was beside himself when he heard the news; only now, when he was obliged to give you up for lost, did he show how much he had always loved you.

Just as they were approaching the gates, the old man came running towards them, fell weeping into Kronenberg's arms, and cried:

So, then, I have you back again, my only friend, my nephew, my son? You have been restored to me? You are free? To whom should I have bequeathed what is mine if you had been lost? But now, my friend, we shall all be reasonable, and I will take the lead; because first I excused you on account of your youth, and afterwards I became too strict with you.

They went together to the old Count and became reacquainted, and their joy was universal.

Let's go back to my estate, said the Count; they will be very anxious there for our safe return.

And I just have to fetch my wife, said Karl.

Your wife? asked Kronenberg.

Whom you know very well, replied the other man; the young lady from Neuhaus. I am contented with her; young Wehlen has become a lieutenant and has taken the field; the daughter is a rather sensible woman, and still as charming as ever. And my mother has now sworn full allegiance to your flag, my dear friend; she has become a patriotic German; it is unbelievable what the billeting of troops can achieve.

They all set off. Cecilia and her mother were delighted that the danger had passed by their house so fortunately; their cousin Feldheim had already left with his young wife.

When Cecilia and Kronenberg's engagement had been settled to everyone else's satisfaction, the musician said to Liancourt:

If a man is merely pitiful and stupid, if he indulges in nothing but silly pranks, then Dame Fortune will take good care of him.

He was not missed now whenever he avoided his circle of friends. Emmerich nobly made the best of the sacrifice that his heart had had to make, and Kronenberg became so obstinate that he could never again tolerate a lie, even if it was spoken in jest.

____________