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WALT AND VULT, 
 
 OR 
 
 THE TWINS. 
 
WALT AND VULT, 
 
 OR 
 
 THE TWINS. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE FLEGELJAHRE 
 
 OF 
 
 JEAN 7 AVL^'^i'Mi^^^^ 
 
 BY THE 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE "LIFE OF JEAN PAUL." 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY. 
 NEW-YORK: 
 WILEY & PUTNAM. 
 1846. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in tlie year 1845, by 
 James Munroe and Company, 
 the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PRINTED BY THURSTOM, TORRr AND CO. 
 
 31 Devonshire Street. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 OF 
 
 VOLUME THE SECOND. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 J 
 
 . 12 
 16 
 
 . 24 
 33 
 
 . 41 
 48 
 
 . 54 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE BROTHERS. — WINA 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE COPYING-HOUR 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 DREAMING. — SINGING. — PRAYING 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DREAMS FROM DREAMS . 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A NEW WILL .... 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 RAPHAELA 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ENTRANCE ON A JOURNEY 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
vi CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 THE beggar's staff .... 68 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 LIFE . . . . . . .72 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 comedians.— the man -with the mask . . 82 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ADVENTURES . . . . . .88 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE ACTRESS ...... 94 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE FRESH MORNING ..... 100 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 CHARTREUSE OF THE IBI AGIN ATION. — BON-MOTS . 110 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE ROSENHOF NIGHT ..... 120 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 CONCLUSION OF THE JOURNEY . . . 131 
 
 CHAPTER XVni. 
 
 DEVELOPMENTS OF THE JOURNEY — AND OF THE TRIALS 
 
 OF THE NOTARY ..... 139 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 GENTEEL LIFE ..... 155 
 
CONTENTS. 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 PAINTING. — BILL OF EXCHANGE 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 SORROWS OF YOUNG WALT. — WINTER QUARTERS 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 DOUBLE LIFE ..... 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS .... 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 PROOF-SHEETS. — WINA .... 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 SKATING PARTY .... 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THE new-year's NIGHT 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 preliminary arrangements 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 THE MASKED-BALL .... 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 LETTER. — night-wandering 
 
WALT AND VULT, 
 
 OR 
 
 THE TAY INS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE BEOTHERS. WINA. 
 
 Sacred, holy day, that which follows the recon- 
 ciliation of men ! Love is again timid and virgin ; 
 the beloved new-born and glorified ; the heart cele- 
 brates anew its Älay time, and the survivors from the 
 field of contest forget or cannot understand the cause 
 of the war. 
 
 Battles, like storms, clear up the sky. The 
 brothers, after theirs, stood in the fairest weather, 
 and looked at each other and at everything else in 
 the light of sunshine. Walt, who was all love and 
 generosity, knew not, indeed, how he could be either 
 warmer or tenderer towards his brother ; he labored 
 always for the highest expression of benevolence. 
 The little scars left by the stings of conscience still 
 burnt and smarted, and the tears of the once arid 
 Vult were collected and preserved in his heart. Vult 
 himself felt like a man furnished with new melodies 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 1 
 
I 
 
 2 V/ALT AND VULT, 
 
 from the canon of love, but whether he would mani- 
 fest them through deeds, more than in words, was 
 yet to appear ; his frequent visits, his mildness and 
 compliance, his offers of service (although he fre- 
 quently departed abruptly) and sometimes the 
 brotherly embrace betrayed his inward emotion. 
 " No one," said Walt to him once, " can look more 
 expressively tender than you, when your piercing 
 eyes are softened by a mild expression ; thus the 
 Spartans always came before me, as they went into 
 battle with their flutes." " I am then," said Vult, 
 " like the sea-dog when he says mama.^ Yes, I 
 may even then call myself a piano hurricane. But 
 to speak seriously, I am now, in consequence of the 
 proceeds of the concert, a very lamb, a pious lamb, 
 my life is a book of leaf gold ; but, my child, the 
 leaves are as tender and thin as the gold-beaters' foil 
 itself." 
 
 Walt was never displeased with such speeches, 
 and Vult trusted so much in his love that he began 
 to look upon himself as the next heir to the throne, 
 that the count had abandoned, and in this, he should, 
 as he remarked, only repay his brother who had 
 preceded him, at least, one day in love. 
 
 Vult had also heard from his little bell wires — it 
 w^as thus he called a whole boarding-school of young 
 ladies, to whom he gave music lessons — of Walt's 
 
 * The sea-do^, according to Beckstein, learns to murmur 
 mama and papa. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 3 
 
 warm defence of himself at Newpeter's dinner ; ex- 
 actly at the moment also, when from extreme jeal- 
 ousy his own love had suffered a pause. Walt had 
 never mentioned this defence, not 6o much from 
 delicacy to Vult, as from forbearance to the whole 
 world ; and from reluctance to speak of the Van der 
 Kable testament, whose conditions had so offended 
 his brother. Vult, as he now entered, pressed in the 
 warmth of his love both shoulders of Walt, and 
 jokingly made known to him that he had heard the 
 Newpeter anecdote. But it was an unlucky time. 
 Walt was writing the romance, and embracing with 
 his writing arm all the five parts of the world, and 
 was just then describing the festival of meeting with 
 kindred souls ; his thoughts dwelling upon the lost 
 Klothar. With a melancholy delight he now described 
 the grief for a lost friend, as he had formerly de- 
 scribed the desire for the possession of one, and 
 wondered at the difference of his feelings. That 
 delightfully exciting dinner at Newpeter's, to v/hich 
 his thoughts had been led back by Vult, placed the 
 count again near his heart, and he confessed to his 
 brother, that the banished count, his life, desolated by 
 the loss of Wina, was always in his memory, and 
 heavy upon his conscience ; that he always saw him 
 a captive in that closed carriage, like an eagle driven 
 from the freedom of heaven and confined in a cage : 
 and that there was no martyrdom upon earth more 
 bitter, than the consciousness of having pained or 
 injured a noble spirit. " Oh, Vult, if there be any 
 
I 
 
 4 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 consolation, give it mc," he cried in strong .emotion : 
 " innocent intentions console one little. If with the 
 most innocent intentions, an ill directed spark had 
 set fire to a hospital, a humble ■ Swiss village, or 
 a prison, and you saw only the flames and the 
 whitened bones ? Ach Gott ! what could help 
 you ? " 
 
 " Cold reason would help me, and I will console 
 you," answered Vult calmly. " At the young ladies' 
 boarding-school near by, where I give lessons, I 
 learnt all the preceding circumstances. While I was 
 blind I sat every evening with the young ladies. 
 Theirs is the quickest Vienna-post that I ever met 
 with, for they report many events while they are yet 
 happening. The count is not excused, as you were, 
 by inadvertence in his mean misrepresentations about 
 the reading and restoring his letter. He acts after 
 the manner of the French tragedians, who if any- 
 thing is to be explained, would rather take upon 
 themselves a great sin than a small ; an incest rather 
 than an unchastity." Walt acknowledged that Klo- 
 thar's transgression lightened the burthen of his own, 
 but he remained melancholy. In society it is easier 
 to put a man down than to elevate him ; with Walt 
 it was the contrary. Vult departed and promised to 
 come soon again. 
 
 One afternoon, Flitt, whose dancing-hall was the 
 vrhole city, sprang into Walt's apartment. It was 
 his habit to number as many old acquaintances as 
 there were inhabitants in the place, and without 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 5 
 
 ceremony he reckoned Walt one of the friends, 
 among the friendly multitude. The latter readily 
 believed that he came from regard to him, and was 
 somewhat embarrassed by his joy, and his anxiety to 
 entertain such a distinguished man of the world. 
 He hunted diligently above in the four chambers of 
 the brain, and then beneath in both chambers of the 
 heart, hoping to start a little savory corn of an idea, 
 and, like a mouse, catch and lay it before the Alsatian 
 to breakfast upon. He found little that he could 
 relish, for the Alsatian was without hunger, and with- 
 out teeth. Learned people sitting whole weeks, day 
 in, and day out, in their studies, surfeiting upon rich 
 banquets, and tit-bits from all ages and all parts of 
 the world, think people of business are displeased 
 and famished if they are not regaled with the warm 
 and rich ideas that drop, as conversation turns upon 
 the spit. But it is a mistake. The man of business 
 is satisfied if he sit, and the man of the world if he 
 only stand by the window, and learn that the countess 
 yesterday at dinner was uncommonly gay, and that 
 the iaron, whose name he never heard, merely 
 passed through the city this morning without stop- 
 ping. To the learned this can hardly be too often 
 repeated, else they draw after them a provision-wag- 
 gon loaded with more or less thought, and little wit, 
 to furnish conversation. Flitt, who was as ignorant 
 of all that was real, as Walt of all that vf^iS 'personal, 
 was unable to begin any conversation, although he 
 sang, danced, and spoke well. He went from the 
 
G 
 
 VT ALT AND VrLT, 
 
 bookshelf lo the window, and from the window to the 
 bookshelf, taking from each something to say, for he 
 wished to be an fait with every one, upon every 
 subject of interest. Some men are harpsichords, to 
 be played by only one person ; others, are instruments 
 that belong only to concerts. Flitt could speak 
 only with a multitude ; in a duett he was wholly 
 stupid. 
 
 At length Walt began to feel the ennui which he 
 thought he imparted. In conversation, as in faro, it 
 has been shown, that the icinnings in satisfaction, as 
 in gold, are never greater than the stakes in either. 
 " Well," he thought, " I will study in him, the 
 French character ; Alsatia is certainly sufficiently 
 French, and afterwards I can make a cast of him 
 as he now appears, for my hall of casts in my 
 romance." 
 
 While Walt was thus employed, he shut the window 
 suddenly, and bowed through the glass ; as Raphaela, 
 who was walking with Wina towards the settino; sun, 
 turned back her head and greeted him slightly. 
 Flitt caught the glance and bowed also. Raphaela 
 turned again quickly and acknowledged the bow. 
 Wina slowly continued her walk, as though under 
 heavy sorrow, looking sometimes towards the de- 
 clining sun, with her handkerchief at her eyes. Walt 
 forgot himself so entirely that he sighed audibly and 
 said, " the general's daughter is weeping." " There, 
 beneath " asked Flitt, coldly, " it is her despair at 
 the loss of the count, for she cannot survive his loss 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 7 
 
 till another time ; a revoir, ami ! " and he flew 
 
 down to the garden. 
 
 • Walt placed himself at the widow, supported his 
 head with the hand that covered his eyes, and had a 
 long severe pain. Fie was unable to look at the 
 lovely face of the beautiful Wina, or to listen to her 
 sorrow, even with glances, when she turned and came 
 towards him. He was alarmed at the thought of 
 meeting her when he should first write, at her father's. 
 At length the setting sun, with motherly smiles, 
 warmed him from the wintry sleep of this sad hour. 
 The garden was now empty, and he went down. 
 He knew not what led him but he followed the same 
 path Wina had taken. In the bushes fluttered a half- 
 torn sheet of letter paper. He took it and saw that 
 it was in a female hand, and contained, as he saw by 
 the marks of quotation, a passage copied from 
 another letter. A half sheet torn in two, containing 
 a copy from a second letter (the first he never could 
 have read) he thought, he might, indeed, with honor 
 look at and read. 
 
 " flowers rent asunder — believe me. Oh, 
 
 how easy it is to bear one's own pains ! But tell me, 
 why it is so hard to bear the sorrows that we have 
 been constrained to cause others ? How can a being 
 with a human heart, cause whole nations to weep, 
 when we suffer so much when we make one person 
 unhappy. Conceal, and be silent upon my conscien- 
 tious scruples, that my father, who is so soon to be 
 
8 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 informed of everything, may not be tormented. Yet 
 you would be secret without my prayer. In the 
 mean time my resolution is as firm as ever. I can 
 now do nothing but suffer and be better, reward 
 Mm by what it costs me ! I go frequently to church, 
 and write often to my mother. I am more tender 
 towards my father, and to every human soul ; should 
 not I, who find happiness in the bosom of the 
 church, bring it to others, and increase it wherever 
 I can } For myself, it had long ceased, even be- 
 fore I parted from him ! Oh, be then happy, my 
 Raphaela ! " 
 
 From this extract, you can see, dearest, how this 
 wound of my Wina's must oppress my too tender 
 heart. Farewell ! The golden heart, if you have 
 not yet ordered it at the goldsmith's, must weigh full 
 three half ounces. My mother has received the 
 Hasen-hrecher and the bracelet. 
 
 Thy RAPH.1ELA." 
 
 While reading, Walt was called in the gayest tone 
 from his own window by Yult, and as he went up to 
 him, he finished the letter. 
 
 " You know,*' began Yult, " my trumpet of fame } 
 my Delphian sybil of the yast ? that is, my hired 
 torches ? Heavens ! do you not understand ? I 
 mean my historical octavo ; my eight parts of speech ; 
 for there are eight young ladies. The devil ! The 
 boarding-school ! From thence, as the purest source. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 9 
 
 I learnt what follows ; for the general, who visits 
 there often, like all curious people, tells as much as 
 he learns. 
 
 " It is understood by the Dogaressa or director of 
 the young ladies, that for a couple of pieces of news, 
 or even for civilities, he would sacrifice as many 
 daughters' souls, as there are girls in the pension. 
 The day before yesterday, the general celebrated his 
 birth-day, and, according to his usual custom, partook 
 of the sacrament, and before dinner heard a long 
 sermon, full of medicine for the soul. Flis daughter 
 must always go to the confessional with him. On his 
 birth and confession days, he has an especial love for 
 her ; for she is a sort of baptismal water to him. He 
 has indeed this only merit, that he sincerely wishes 
 the happiness of his daughter, and, therefore, suffers 
 her constant intercourse with her Protestant mother 
 in Leipsic, whom he cordially hates ; and he is so 
 liberal to the daughter, that the mother depends 
 wholly on her. As he remained the whole day to- 
 gether with Wina and the confessional, he had wept 
 and drank a great deal. He now demanded a con- 
 fession from her, and asked, why she was yet so 
 melancholy ? and told her, she appeared to hold the 
 count dearer than her God, the church, or her father. 
 She answered warmly, that she valued him less than 
 either. That the church-rath Glänze, had often 
 spoken to her of her Catholic faith, but she had 
 merely listened to him from politeness ; and that the 
 count was no more valued by her than any other 
 
10 
 
 WALT A\D VULT, 
 
 good man. Zablocki asked, much astonished, why 
 then, with complete freedom of choice, she would 
 marry him ? 
 
 " ' I hoped,' she said, with some hesitation, ' that 
 by a disinterested sacrifice, I might bring him back 
 to our holy religion ! ' Walt ! convert a philosopher ! 
 — sooner baptize and tonsure a peruke ! 
 
 " The general laughed and wept at the same time ; 
 but he continued to press roughly upon the tender, 
 delicate being before him, forced himself into her 
 open heart, and brought out the second secret ; 
 namely, that she hoped she might be able, from this 
 rich marriage, to offer to her divorced Protestant 
 mother, and to her father, so involved in debt, some 
 little solace ; in short, to throw them a pillow, upon 
 which they might repose for the remainder of their 
 lives. The inebriated father could not forbear swear- 
 ing, that he would sooner send a grape-shot through 
 his heart, or give up his Warsaw law-suit, than urge 
 
 or oppress such a true and precious soul as hers 
 
 And so forth ! Art thou consoled ? " Walt was 
 silent. Vult took the torn letter from his hand, 
 read, and found in it the confirmation of his news. 
 He made his satirical remarks upon Raphaela's 
 female epistolary style ; mixing hearts and cos- 
 metics, great and little, together. Walt answered, 
 that this manner of narration only proved, that 
 women were more epic ; men, on the contrary, 
 more lyrical. 
 
 A lackey of Zablocki's came in, and informed 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 11 
 
 him, that to-morrow, at four o'clock, he was expected 
 at the general's, for the well-known business of copy- 
 ing. Walt concealed from his brother, the whole 
 evening, the violence of his emotions at the prospect 
 before him. 
 
 No. 33. Strdlglimmer. {Mica.) 
 
12 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 CHAPTErx n. 
 
 THE COPYING-HOUR. 
 
 At four o'clock, Walt appeared in the presence of 
 the general, who, as usual, met the blue-eyes with a 
 smile. His fears of the recollection of the fatal let- 
 ter, or the appearance of the writer, had been vain. 
 Zablocki gave him the anonymous, or rather the let- 
 ters, with their baptismal names, placed upon a finely 
 veined and polished secretary, together with his wri- 
 ting orders, and left him. 
 
 With as many exquisite final letters, and artificial 
 flourishes, as could be sent from Paris only, Walt 
 copied, and, at length, ventured to look about him. 
 
 The beautiful cabinet, by the aid of painted tapes- 
 try, was made to represent a flowery arbor, but filled 
 with perfumes that came from real flowers, and veiled 
 by a green twilight, produced by drawing down the 
 blinds, and softening the day-light to evening. Even 
 in winter these leafy imitations had been to Walt a 
 source of enchantment. " In that wardrobe, I think," 
 he said to himself, " is the celestial blue dress.*' He 
 wrote, as though reclining upon a gently moving 
 cloud. When an expression in the letters suited 
 his own situation, he soothed himself with the 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 13 
 
 thought, that he was under the same roof, perhaps 
 within the same apartment, bearing the same badge 
 of mourning as herself ; who, after the sun of friend- 
 ship had set, gleamed forth as the quiet Hesperus of 
 love. 
 
 He copied with open ears ; for, not without fear, 
 the hope possessed him, that Wina might enter the 
 cabinet and approach one of the secretaries, the 
 wooden or the living. Nothing came. He was con- 
 sidering, whether he might venture to open the ward- 
 robe and touch with his hand the celestial dress, like 
 the blue ether, in which the sun lightly rests, or ap- 
 proach it with his lips, when the general entered, 
 looked at, and praised the copy, and dismissed the 
 secretary. 
 
 Thus happily went over the writing hour, and the 
 danger of seeing Wina ; and he wavered home, with 
 a head that had drunk a little too much from the 
 over-full heart. Upon the towers of the city and the 
 summits of the park, there yet lingered a sweet, red 
 sun-light, that awakened, at the same moment, both 
 within and without Haslau, the longings and the hopes 
 of men. 
 
 Walt wrote, the second day, with the same trem- 
 bling fear, that Wina might open the door. The 
 third passed, and no one came. He was now like 
 the soldier, that time makes so courageous, he longed 
 intensely for the danger. At this time, whole nights, 
 the pious and lovely maiden stood before his soul ; 
 he enjoyed, in this manner, an eternal spring, merely 
 
14 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 as he formed and dismissed one plan after another, 
 by Vvhich he could repair the consequences of the 
 open letter, and effect something favorable for the 
 count. But no very good idea ever occurred to 
 him. 
 
 The fourth day he heard, while writing, a female 
 voice singing ; that, although from the third chamber, 
 was as good for him as though it came from the third 
 heaven. He copied on, much excited, while one city 
 of the sun, after another, was built within him by 
 these Orpheus' tones, and all the rocks of life danced 
 after them. He well remembered what Vult had 
 writtAi him of Wina's sinojing. As he went home, 
 
 OD ' 
 
 he heard the same voice before him, proceeding from 
 a young girl with a box under her arm, who was de- 
 scending the steps ; and he had the mortification to 
 hear the voice say to another in the street, that the 
 Fraiilein (for it was Wina's dressing-maid) would 
 not return from Elterlein till next Friday. Walt was 
 immediately seized with a violent longing to be out 
 of the city, and again in the place of his birth. He 
 was infinitely curious to look in the face of this re- 
 flection of the sacred neighborhood of Wina, and 
 more especially of a person whose divine tones he 
 adored, as he followed them. He had long believed 
 that a first singer could not be the least of the saints ; 
 and he never would believe, that any but a modest 
 woman could keep a divine voice ; an opinion that 
 good-humored people of the world will ascribe more 
 to his ignorance of the stage, and of the world, than 
 
OR THE TWINS. 15 
 
 to stupidity. He had scarcely made three hasty 
 steps, ia order to pass her, than he heard three 
 curses, and a word of double meaning from her lips. 
 He turned quickly back, with the order chain in his 
 hand, with which he had adorned her as one of the 
 sisters of the order of slaves of virtue, but had torn 
 it immediately away ; and in a dark lane of the city, 
 he concealed his regret, that a soul so coarse pos- 
 sessed the voice of an angel, and dwelt so near a 
 saint. 
 
 High above him, in the shining clouds of heaven, 
 hovered the form of Wina ; and it seemed as though 
 death only could bring him to her, as it would to 
 God. 
 
 No. 34. 'Petrified thistles. 
 
16 
 
 WALT A>'D VLLT, 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 DREAMING. SINGING. PRAYING. 
 
 The Friday after, the day that Wina should come 
 home, Wah sprang, without thinking of her, as de- 
 lightedly from his bed, as if it had been his bridal 
 morning. He knew no reason, but that the whole 
 night he had had a constantly returning, blessed 
 dream, of which he could retain neither word nor 
 form, but only an undefined bliss. Like flowers of 
 heaven, dreams often pass through the whole nights 
 of men, leaving only a strange summer perfume, the 
 traces of their vanishing. 
 
 The sun shone brighter and nearer to him. All 
 whom he met were more beautiful and worthier than 
 before. The unknown fountains of the night over- 
 flowed his breast with so much love, that he knew 
 not where he should conduct the streams. He sought, 
 at first, to pour them upon paper, but he could write 
 neither prose nor poetry. This morning was like 
 that after a night of dancing, when one can do noth- 
 ing but dream ; when all must be gentle, even joy 
 itself. Evening songs only, can be listened to in 
 such a morning ; and a veil, but transparent and 
 bright-colored, is drawn over, and softens all the 
 sounds and sisrhts of earth. 
 
 D 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 17 
 
 Walt could do nothing — "God grant," he said, 
 " I may have no deed to draw to-day," but walk in 
 the Van der Kable wood, where he had seen the 
 count for the first time, and which he would one day 
 inherit. All around him flew, and hovered, and 
 rested, dreams from long past centuries ; from flow- 
 ers, and flowery lands ; from his home and his child- 
 hood. A little dream sat and sang in the span-long 
 garden of his childhood's Christmas night, that the 
 man had drawn after him, with a thread upon four 
 small wheels through life. Behold, there moved from 
 heaven itself, an enchanter's wand over the whole 
 landscape, and it was filled with castles, and country- 
 houses, and woods, and changed into a flower-covered 
 Provence of the middle ages. In the distance, he saw 
 approaching the Provencials from olive-groves. They 
 sang cheerful songs in the free air. The gay youths, 
 full of joy and love, gathered, with stringed instru- 
 ments, in the valleys, and before the high castles, on 
 distant mountain-sides. Beautiful maidens looked 
 from the narrow windows down upon the knightly 
 youth. They were allured to the pavilions, placed 
 on the green meadows, to exchange some words with 
 the Provencials ; for in that age and country, the 
 earth was a paradise for the art of poetry ; and 
 troubadours and contours dared to love ladies of the 
 highest rank ; and there was an eternal spring upon 
 earth and in heaven ; and life, a long dance through 
 flowers. 
 
 VOL. ir. 2 
 
18 
 
 WALT AND YULT, 
 
 " Sweet valleys of joy behind the mountains," 
 sang Walt ; " oh might I pass over into that blushing 
 mornincr of life, where love desires nothing but a 
 virgin and a poet : and there, wandering in the spring 
 air, whh only a lute in my hand, could I sing of se- 
 cret love around thy pavilions, Wina, and cease 
 when thou passed by." 
 
 Walt came back to his little chamber, but with his 
 geographical and historical Provence in his head, he 
 found so little room there, that he had the boldness 
 (poetry had made him equal and free) to go down 
 into Xewpeter's park, where, after a few steps, he 
 met Flora loaded like Pomona, with fruit, and gave 
 her his hand. To the poet, the whole world is bright ; 
 but a ducal, or royal crown, is, in his eyes, dimmer 
 than a beautiful female head, under any covering, or 
 only with the free heaven above it. The poet is 
 modest when he gives his hand to a princess, sincere 
 when he offers it to a shepherd's daughter, but to the 
 father of either he will not often bend. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Walt brought much of his morning's joy to the 
 dinner-table. There, to his astonishment, he heard, 
 although he had long since known it, that on the 
 Jews' vigil, that is, on Friday evening, the Catholics 
 also fast : he laid his knife and fork down. No 
 morsel, had it been cut from the government ox, 
 roasted in Frankfort for the emperor's coronation, 
 would he touch. " I will not feast luxuriously," (it 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 19 
 
 was old cow's beef that was placed before him,) he 
 thought, " in the hour when a generous soul like 
 Wina must fast." 
 
 With the utmost indifference to his own necessities 
 of appetite, he had always the greatest pity for those 
 who could not eat. He thought it was cruel in the 
 church to allow nuns, as well as monks, to fast. It 
 was, perhaps, enough, he thought, if villains, gam- 
 blers, murderers, were required to fast. 
 
 At the copying hour Walt went to the general's, 
 not only with the warmest wish to see her, who on 
 this day had been a martyr, but also with the cer- 
 tainty, that she had returned from Elterlein and 
 would appear. While, with inexpressible satisfaction, 
 he was writing out fairly, an extremely bold letter of 
 a certain Lihette that could have come only from 
 that sty of Epicurus, Paris ; for he, in his uncon- 
 sciousness, tasted only in this joy-cup the holy water 
 of spiritual love, there came no sound through the 
 half-open door of the cabinet, that did not tremblingly 
 announce an approaching apparition. As in thick, 
 extensive forests, distant continued tones echo here 
 and there, exciting romantic hopes, thus came to his 
 ear a simple accord upon the piano. The general 
 called. Wina answered. At last he really heard 
 Wina herself in the adjoining room, speaking of 
 music to her father. The crimson rushed to his 
 brow, and he bent his head till it touched the feather 
 of his pen. She had that deep, heart-touching voice, 
 coming more from the soul than the throat, that in 
 
20 
 
 WALT AND VULT. 
 
 women, and in the Swiss peasants, is more frequent 
 than in others. 
 
 The general entered the cabinet, but the excited 
 Walt continued to write with the utmost eagerness ; 
 and, although Wina entered to seek some musical 
 notes, from delicacy and embarrassment he could 
 not raise his eyes, and saw only her white dress as 
 she left the room. Soon after, her voice was again 
 heard in the next room. " Oh no, not that," cried 
 the general, " I meant, the last wish of Reichard." * 
 
 She ceased, and immediately began the song de- 
 sired by her father. " S'mg," he again interrupted, 
 " only the first and the last, without the tiresome 
 verses." 
 
 She held in, with her fingers hovering ov^r the 
 keys, and answered, " Yes, father." Again she 
 began ; her sweet speaking voice melting into sweeter 
 singing tones, as though it had changed into the notes 
 of nightingales, or softly repeated echoes ; as though 
 she wished to pour her love-warm heart, like a mu- 
 sical sigh, into everv* key. 
 
 Oh I destiny, ^at last 
 My latest wish accord ; 
 A little field, a lowly cot, 
 A small, but my own herd. 
 A friend, well tried and wise, 
 Freedom from noise and strife ; 
 And thou ! I softly sigh 
 Companion of my life. 
 
 * A celebrated composer of music. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 21 
 
 Oft have I wished in vain, 
 Deny not thou the last, 
 The evening of my life 
 In peaceful joy to pass. 
 Sweet leisure in my home, 
 With honor, faith, and love. 
 The sole reward of truth, 
 A violet on my grave ! 
 
 These long-dreamed sounds from the soul, dreamed, 
 but never heard before with such splendor, came over 
 Walt, billowing like the waves of the sea, which he 
 had seen from a distance, but now overtook and over- 
 whelmed him with a flood of music. 
 
 The general, during the singing, looked at the 
 copy of the last piquant letter of Libette, and, with 
 a peculiar expression in his countenance, said, " How 
 then pleases you that — the wild Libette ? " " Oh, 
 so true! so heartful ! ***so deeply felt!" said Walt, 
 thinking only of the song. " I think so, also," said 
 the general, with an ironical sort of enthusiasm, 
 which Walt took for a commentary upon the 
 music. 
 
 " What has been your most important notary-busi- 
 ness hitherto ? " asked the general. Walt answered, 
 rather shortly, and with a little displeasure, that he 
 had divided his attention, as his hours, between 
 poetry and prose ! He made use of as little intel- 
 lectual power and as few words as possible in his 
 answer, not knowing that to please Zablocki, a man, 
 whether from Witzlau or Ratisbon, or from any 
 
22 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 Other region of ennui, could never be too diffuse or 
 too long in his answers ; but only too abrupt. 
 
 " I believe," continued Zablocki, " you have done 
 some business for the Count Klothar." 
 
 " Not a line," answered Walt, too hastily ; for he 
 was entranced by the beautiful tones, and could not 
 understand how the general, who had demanded these 
 heavenly sounds, could prefer his own. The general 
 said he was so accustomed to this music, that it 
 passed over him without impression. 
 
 " Oh God," thought Walt, " how can it be, that a 
 man is not wholly overwhelmed in this stream of 
 harmony ? And is it possible ! a widowed and almost 
 childless father ! " Walt believed, indeed, that a man 
 Vvho had parted with his wife and his youth, would 
 listen to such lines, as to the echo of his own expe- 
 rience, the complaint of his own soul. For Mm it 
 was a deeper and purer emotion to listen to the lan- 
 guage of music upon the wishes and sorrows of 
 others, than when it drew his thoughts to himself ; 
 and, therefore, the insensibility of Zablocki displeased 
 him so much the more. 
 
 " Not a line," Walt had answered, rather hastily, 
 to the question of the general. " How so ? " asked 
 Zablocki ; " my man of business told me just the 
 contrary. At this moment Walt's tears started forth. 
 He could not help it. The last line of the song, with 
 uncontrollable emotion, had wholly overpowered him ; 
 and shame, at the involuntary deception, had nothing 
 to do with it. " Indeed," he said, " I meant even 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 23 
 
 so ; for the donation act was interrupted. I wrote 
 the first line of course — " 
 
 The general, ascribing his confusion and his agi- 
 tated countenance, not to the beautiful voice of the 
 singer, but to his own, interrupted him good humor- 
 edly with words of dismissal — that he would sus- 
 pend the copying for some weeks, as in the morning 
 he should journey to Leipsic with his daughter, for 
 the approaching fair. ^ 
 
 At this moment the singing ceased, and with it 
 Walt's brief enchantment. 
 
 No. 35. Chrysopras^ a finer stone than the Chry- 
 salis. 
 
24 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DREAMS FROM DREAMS. 
 
 When Walt found himself in the open street, after 
 leaving the Zablocki cabinet, it was as if he had 
 lost something, or a whole Christmas tree had sud- 
 denly become dark, or that he had fallen to the earth 
 from a ladder leading to the sun. Suddenly he saw 
 the Soubrette of the general's family, and before her 
 Wina, just entering the Catholic church. Without 
 farther consideration, he made it his own, and en- 
 tered immediately after the nun, to hear her sing 
 again the line which had been singing in his inward 
 ear all through the street. 
 
 In the temple, he found her kneeling and bent low 
 before the high altar, her unadorned head sunk in 
 inward prayer, and her white dress flowing upon the 
 steps of the altar. The officiating priests in a strange 
 dress, made, during the service, to him, mysteriQus 
 motions — the lights upon the altar emulated the sac- 
 rificial fire — a cloud of incense hung around the 
 arches of the windows, and the setting sun, glowing 
 through the rich-colored upper panes, was reflected 
 in various lights upon the cloud of incense. Beneath, 
 in the temple, it was night. Walt, the Lutheran, to 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 25 
 
 whom a maiden, praying at an altar, was a new and 
 heavenly sight, was, as he stood behind her, rapt in 
 devotion and love. Had the Holy Virgin herself, as 
 she stood above the altar, ready to ascend to heaven, 
 come down to pray once more upon the steps of that 
 altar, she could not have been to him so sacredly 
 beautiful, as the maiden kneeling there. He felt it 
 would be a sin to go five steps farther, so that he 
 could look in the innocent face of the praying saint, 
 although those five steps had brought him five golden 
 rounds higher on the ladder to heaven. At length his 
 conscience urged him, Protestant although in his con- 
 victions he was, standing thus, behind this silent inter- 
 cessor, to think of praying himself. His hands had 
 long been folded, although not in devotion, before 
 he could think of anj^thing for which he should 
 pray. 
 
 It may be believed, in the world behind the stars, 
 where they must certainly have their own peculiar 
 notions upon devotion, that even the involuntary 
 folding of the hands may be valued as a prayer; 
 and many warm hand-pressures and lip-pressures, 
 yes, many curses even, may be there received as 
 ejaculatory prayers ; while, at the same time, the 
 great church-illuminating prayers, that are prepared 
 for the press, without self-reference, merely for occa- 
 sions foreign to the heart, or worked out in manu- 
 script with a purpose to preserve a manly pulpit elo- 
 quence, may be there received as mere curses ! 
 
 Walt remained until Wina arose, and passed near. 
 
26 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 SO that he might look at her. Ho could not after- 
 wards understand, that when she was nearest to him, 
 why he involuntarily and almost convulsively closed 
 his eyes ; " and what did it help me," he said, " that 
 I followed after her through three streets ? " 
 
 He hastened out of the city. It seemed to him, 
 that two opposite moving storms held a rose in the 
 midst, wavering between them. A long reflection of 
 the evening glow upon the mountains, like an aurora 
 borealis in the sky, made it light upon the earth. 
 Walt endeavored, according to his old custom, when 
 under great excitement, that is, when he had seen 
 a great author or artist, and was thrown upon the 
 tight-rope of his imagination, to draw near to them, 
 and to calm himself, by dreaming out an extreme 
 exaggeration of the circumstances, infinitely beyond 
 the reality. He therefore ventured to indulge the 
 most splendid and exaggerated dream about himself 
 and Wina. The dream follows. 
 
 " Wina is the daughter of a pastor in Elterlein. 
 I accidentally journey through the village with my 
 suite. I am, of course, a Marquis or a Grand Duke. 
 The heir-apparent; young — as young as I am my- 
 self — and splendidly formed ! Very tall, with heav- 
 enly eyes ! I am, perhaps, the most beautiful youth 
 in my country ; indeed, like Count Klothar. She 
 sees me from the parsonage, riding quickly past upon 
 my Arab. A God from heaven kindled in her poor 
 but tender heart, as she saw the prince arrive, the 
 deep and inextinguishable flame of love. 
 
OR THE TWI^S. 
 
 27 
 
 I ascend the neighboring Himmelsberg, where I 
 am assured there is the most beautiful prcspect of 
 the surrounding villages. The sun has not yet gone 
 down. Upon the burnished mountains of the earth 
 rest the golden clouds of heaven. Ah, only the 
 happy sun may venture behind the blessed moun- 
 tains that enclose the old, ever desired, rose-colored 
 paradise ; the love-valley of the heart. But I long, 
 bitterly, to pass over into it, for as a prince I have 
 not dared to love ; and now I dream, that I may love 
 as a man. I hear the notes of a nightingale as love- 
 warm as if it drew its tones from my own breast. 
 It sits upon the shoulder of the pastor's daughter, 
 who, without knowing I was there, had come up to 
 look at the evening sun-set. She weeps, she knows 
 not why, but ascribes her emotion to the tones of her 
 nightingale. I see a being such as I have never seen, 
 except at the concert — even Wina — a human 
 flower that has expanded, unconscious of its beauty, 
 and whose petals are opened and closed by heaven 
 alone. The evening glow, the sun, the purple clouds 
 hover towards her, for she is love itself, and draws 
 all of life and love around her. The turtle-dove 
 approaches her feet, and its wings tremble with joy ; 
 the nightingales flutter from their coverts, in the 
 hedges, and fly around the singing one. Now she 
 turns her blue eyes from the sun, and they fall upon 
 me. She trembles. I also tremble, but with joy, 
 and go towards her. We are equal in nothing, ex- 
 cept beauty, for my love is far warmer than hers. 
 
28 
 
 WALT AND YULT, 
 
 She bows her head and weeps. Ah, no ! It cannot 
 be my high rank alone that so agitates her! What 
 to me are the possession of the throne or the crowns 
 of princes ? 1 cast them all away for love alone ! 
 ' Although you may not know me, maiden,' I say, 
 * yet love me ! ' 
 
 " She does not answer, but the nightingale that had 
 rested upon her shoulder flies from her's to mine, and 
 sings. Behold ! I say, and am reverently silent before 
 this indication of destiny. At last I take her hand, 
 and with both my own press it upon my heart. She 
 tries to withdraw her hand, but I whisper, ' how art 
 thou called beautiful, maiden ? ' Softly, so that I 
 can scarcely hear, she answers, Wina. The word 
 trembles through my whole frame, as a sound re- 
 membered from my infancy. Wina, signifies con- 
 queror, I answer, and I imagine I feel a gentle pres- 
 sure of her hand. Love has raised her above the 
 pastor's or the prince's rank. Meantime the night- 
 ingales surround us ; the blushing evening clouds go 
 down ; the smiling evening star goes down. The 
 star-gemmed sky draws its silver veil around us ; 
 we have the stars in our hands, upon our hearts : we 
 are silent, and love ! We hear a distant flute behind 
 the Himmclsberg, that expresses what we feel, but 
 cannot say. — It is my brother's flute, I answer, and 
 in the village — my parents dwell " 
 
 Here Walt came to himself. He looked around, 
 he was standing by the side of a river, into which his 
 prince's throne sank down, and the wind took away 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 29 
 
 the light crown from his head. " It would have been 
 too much for a human dream," he said, " to have 
 kissed her," and went home. On his way home he 
 considered the morality of such a dream, and held 
 it piece by piece on the touchstone of truth, so that 
 • he had it over again, in a different manner. Thus 
 the innocent soul, swimming with fear and anxiety, 
 holds fast by every twig that swims also with him ; 
 and first-love, the most unintelligible and unreason- 
 able, is yet the purest and holiest. Its bandage is 
 indeed thick and broad, for it goes over eyes, ears, 
 and mouth at the same time ; but its pinions are 
 longer and whiter than those of any other love. 
 
 At Newpeter's house, and under his own window, 
 his cell appeared to him strangely unknown ; he was 
 scarcely himself ; and, as he looked up, it seemed to 
 him, that the notary above must every minute look 
 down upon him. Suddenly he heard from his win- 
 dow the sound of a flute, and he immediately knew 
 his brother was waiting above for him. The fire in 
 his heart, upon which Wina had poured a pure and 
 mild oil, was instantly smothered. 
 
 Vult was entirely amiable and friendly. In Walt's 
 absence, he had seen and read in the double-romance 
 the new piece of garden-ground that Walt had there 
 laid out and walled around ; and had there found that 
 the green hanging-bridge, that led away from the 
 Hercules temple of friendship, was beautifully and 
 artistically built; but the moss and bark covered her- 
 mitage of first-love, thinking itself unknown, was 
 
30 
 
 WALT AND VTLT, 
 
 overgrown w ith the timid, humble plants, that flourish 
 Qnly in darkness and solitude ; so that now nothing 
 was wanting but the little singing bird-house. The 
 satyrs and other garden diviuuies, Yult, from his 
 position, could designate and place in view. He 
 praised the passage most warmly, although Walt was 
 to-day made more melancholy, than happy, by his 
 praises. 
 
 *• Brother," Vult said, " did I not know you and 
 the power of art so well, I should swear that you had 
 been standing upon the isolated, electrical pedestal 
 of first love, and had received the shock, so beauti- 
 fully and true do the sparks tell upon thee." For Vult 
 had hitherto, notwithstanding, or rather on account of 
 the open-heartedness of his brother, not remarked the 
 forget-me-not of love among the other exquisite flow- 
 ers with which that heart was sown ; and because Vult 
 himself, at this period, thought little of the influence 
 of women. His sullen spirit, he said, repelled hira 
 from women. He also maintained, that the varnished 
 stafl* that was often placed in the earth to support 
 feeble female plants, should be a Roman column, 
 whose capital tlie flowers themselves should crown. 
 
 Walt was much astonished, for in writing his ro- 
 mance he had been merely the poet — namely, the 
 tranquil sea, in which all the tumult of earthly strife, 
 and the harmonies of heaven, had been merely re- 
 flected ; — astonished that Vult should suspect, from 
 the look, that, perhaps, he loved ! He believed the 
 travelled flutist, but said not a word of himself, and 
 was secretly glad that he could feel as he wrote. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 31 
 
 When the brothers, according to their usual cus- 
 tom, were mutually to confide the history of theis 
 day to each other, Walt's dropped with great difficulty 
 and hesitation from his tongue. He dwelt more upon 
 the general and his memoir es crotiqiies, he even praised 
 the pure spiritual flowers in these letters. Vult 
 laughed aloud, and said, " You are a damned good 
 soul, brother!" Love, that opens the whole heart 
 when he gives it away, yet closes, and holds fast a 
 little corner where he nestles himself, and dictates to 
 the most conscientious youth his first lie, as to the 
 purest maiden, her first, and her last ! 
 
 Walt, full of the inward emotion that made him 
 inexpressibly happy, followed his brother home. 
 Vult, happy also, returned with him. .Walt went 
 back again that he might return by the heavenly path 
 that led under Wina's window. This they passed 
 and repassed, till Walt was left master of the field. 
 
 Alone, under the broad star-lighted heaven, his 
 soul could expand and cool its fever. " Can I then 
 indeed," he said, " live truly, and in reality, the ro- 
 mantic life I have so often loved ? Ah, yes ! I will 
 break the frozen chrysalis of the winter butterfly, and 
 expand in joyous upward spirals. I will love as never 
 man loved before, even to agony and death, for I 
 know well she can never love me, and I cannot 
 throw a shade of injury upon her; that her rank 
 forbids. She is also now absent for a month. Yes, 
 this unknown heart ! it is to her wholly, solely, 
 devoted ! Like to the subterranean Gods, I will 
 
3-2 
 
 WALT A^"D VULT, 
 
 secretly and silently sacrifice, to her alone. Ah, 
 •ould I pluck these stars from their spheres to form 
 a jewelled crown for her brow, I would bind it with 
 the tender lilies of earth, and in her blissful sleep I 
 would place it on her pillow, and should no mortal 
 ask who had laid it there, I were blest enough ! 
 
 He went again down the street to Zablocki's house. 
 All the lights were extinguished. A dark cloud hung 
 OYer the roof — he would have torn it down. All 
 was so still, that he heard the ticking of the clock. 
 The moon sent a strange and unusual day into the 
 windows of the third story. " Oh! were I a star," 
 he sang within his heart, " I would shine upon thee ; 
 were I a rose, I would bloom for thee ; were I a 
 sound, I would press into thy ear and thy heart ; 
 were I love, the happiest love, I would dwell therein. 
 Ah! were I only a dream, I would visit thee in slum- 
 ber, and be the star and the rose, and love itself, and 
 vanish only when you awoke."- 
 
 He went home to his first sleep, and hoped he 
 mio^ht dream that this dream was not a dream, but a 
 reality. 
 
 No. 36. Ä Bit alte shell. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 33 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A NEW WILL. 
 
 The month of September, into which Wina, that 
 exquisite rose, had been transplanted, was so beauti- 
 ful, that to Walt, coat, chamber and city had become 
 too narrow. Fie must go out into the wide world. 
 Travelling was always to him an inexpressible satis- 
 faction, especially if he journeyed in unknown places ; 
 for upon the way he always flattered himself that it 
 was possible he might meet with one of those delight- 
 fully romantic adventures, of which he yet sometimes 
 read. The high road, that as a river ornamented the 
 landscape, and in its infinite windings, now here, now 
 there, took his imagination with it, was it not an in- 
 finite delight to him, for it reflected the whole of 
 life ? And upon that road, he thought, passes at this 
 moment the silent Wina, and looks at the blue 
 heavens and at her father, and thinks of many 
 things. 
 
 Walt hesitated long in great uncertainty, whether 
 it would not be wrong to take the little money he had 
 gained in his notary business, from his parents, 
 merely for his own satisfaction in travelling ; while 
 his brother Vult also, according to his usual custom. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 was beginning to suffer from a light purse. He was 
 obliged to go over again all his conscientious rules 
 upon pure intentions, to decide whether he could 
 admit this sweet-toned variation, or these five ad- 
 vancing steps of praise, in the music of his church 
 anthem. But Flitt decided all by sending from the 
 city tov.'er, where he dwelt, a summons, to tell him 
 he was lying on his death-bed, and wished, through 
 the agency of the notary, to make his will that very 
 evening. 
 
 If the reader would ascend the tower, behind the 
 notary, where the Alsatian lay on his death-bed, I 
 must go before to place the necessary steps that 
 brought him to this situation. It was thus. Fortune 
 is as inconstant to its friends, as they are to their 
 favorites. Nature gives the philosopher, on life's 
 journey, too little money. Flitt was such a phi- 
 losopher, and although he had long practised the rule 
 that the end of money, like the limits of a park, 
 should be carefully concealed, yet the common 
 nervus rerum gcrendarum failed him for this cunning. 
 When he merely passed through a city, he managed 
 it easily, for he dressed himself richly and came as a 
 servant, only to announce his Lord ; then, after a 
 while, he would come without the servant. 
 
 In Haslau it did him good service for a whole 
 month, that at his own expense, he would let them 
 drain a pond, and dig and grub therein to find a valu- 
 able diamond that he said he had lost ! But hunger, 
 that he, as well as Philip II., called the noon-day 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 35 
 
 devil, and yet more, the tailor's imps had drawn 
 upon him by degrees an ever increasing train of 
 lackeys, or valets de fantaisie^ who always followed 
 in his service, under the well known name of credit- 
 ors. These true Moors of the palace, came without 
 being summoned ; for like Mephistopheles, when not 
 called, they will come of themselves. On this ac- 
 count he withdrew to the clock tower, his true 
 Schuldthurm,* where, through its numberless steps, 
 he could elude some visitors, or prepare for others, 
 as he saw them approaching. In the city he swore 
 he had gone there to enjoy a, free prospect. 
 
 Among his creditors was a young physician, named 
 Hut, who magnified himself, but had few patients.t 
 The gallant Flitt made the following proposal to this 
 creditor : the city, he said, was full of prejudices ; he 
 himself was involved in light debts ; he would pre- 
 tend to be sick unto death, and make his will, if the 
 doctor would undertake publicly to reestablish his 
 health, and thus, by an innocent deception, heal the 
 city of its self-deception. Secondly, by willing his 
 estate to the court agent, Newpeter, he should win 
 the father's consent to his marriage, with the already 
 long-won daughter, and could he marry, he would 
 easily pay the doctor. After some little delay the 
 doctor consented to the project. 
 
 * A prison for debtors. 
 
 t Here follow some satirical remarks upon local medical prac- 
 tice, which I have omitted. — - Zr. 
 
36 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 Al tiie end of a few cays, the Alsatian was deadly 
 sick : ate and drank no more, except in rare solitary 
 momeois ; took the sacrament, which he thought he 
 and others should do in healthy days, and finally sent 
 for the noiarj^ in the night to draw and establish his 
 last will. 
 
 Walt was shocked. He had loved Fliti's gay and 
 blooming youth, and pitied its defeat. Heavily and 
 sadly he mounted the long, dark steps that led to him. 
 The clock struck eleven, and it sounded to him as 
 though the death angel had moved the pendulum. 
 Faint, and silent, and painted (although white) lay the 
 Alsatian, in the midst of tlie seven witnesses to the 
 \^-ill, among whom was the morning preacher, Flachs, 
 who, in spite of his long pale face, had never become 
 vesper preacher. 
 
 ^Valt, full of pity, took silently with his right hand 
 the hand of the patient, and with his left drew his 
 seal from his pocket, while with his eye, he numbered 
 the witnesses present. He asked for three lights, as 
 the promptuarium juris demanded that number for a 
 night testament, but was obliged to be satisfied with 
 one only- — miserable enough.* As upon the whole 
 tower no second ?Fas to be found, much less a third, 
 and Walt, having too much compassion to send a man 
 to the bottom of the tower, in the middle of the night,* 
 
 ^ It inusi be recollected, that for the «mallest deriation. from 
 esiaLiished customs, as well as for the slightest errors in his 
 notary office, Walt forfeited a part of the inheritance. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 37 
 
 to demand a light, he was obliged to proceed without 
 the requisite number. 
 
 The sick man began to dictate the first legacy ; 
 according to which, the merchant, Newpeter, should 
 receive the whole of Flitt's dividend upon the long- 
 expected West India ship, also a jewel casket sealed 
 with the initials O. U. F., that was deposited with the 
 brothers Heiligenbeil in Bremen. It was apparent 
 that Flitt, although half dead, could yet dictate in the 
 most exact and accurate manner. But Walt was 
 obliged to pause and ask for a spoonful of water, to 
 make some liquid ink from the dry ink powder, in 
 which he dipped his pen. When it was prepared, he 
 found, very unwillingly, that the new was of a wholly 
 different color from the old, and that if he would go 
 on, he must violate the notary ordinance, which for- 
 bids an instrument to be written with two kinds of 
 ink. He could not persuade himself, in his deep 
 compassion for Flitt, to tear the leaf and begin 
 anew. 
 
 Secondly. Flitt willed to the needy Flachs, the 
 morning preacher, his silver spurs, his silver-handled 
 riding-whip, and his (empty) coffer covered with 
 seal-skin. To Dr. Hut he made over all that was 
 owing to him in the city. He was obliged to pause 
 to gain strength, then with a weak voice he began 
 again. I desire to leave, for the satisfaction of having 
 become acquainted with him, all that may be found 
 after my death, in ready money or in bills of ex- 
 change, to the Herr Notary Harnish, and as I fear it 
 
38 
 
 WALT AND VÜLT, 
 
 may not amount, to more than twenty Joins d''ors, 
 I pray him, out of love to me, to add thereto my 
 golden finger-ring. Walt laid down the pen. He 
 blushed to receive such a present from a dying man, 
 who owed him nothing. He arose immediately, 
 pressed silently, with compassion, the hand of the 
 dying man, said firmly and decidedly, no ! and then 
 asked him to call another physician. " To the 
 
 keeper of the city tower " Flitt would have said, 
 
 but sank exhausted back upon his pillow. Heering 
 sprang forward, arranged the pillows and placed the 
 patient a little upright. "To Herr Heering," con- 
 tinued Flitt, " I present, together with my fine white 
 linen, all my clothes, all, except my riding-boots that 
 I promised to the maid." It struck twelve, and 
 Heering should have struck the quarter, but he would 
 not interrupt such solemn business, he said, by ham- 
 mering on the bell, and the testator continued 
 
 " and all that remains from, the sale of a richly jewelled 
 snuffbox, which will be found in my coffer, after the 
 expenses of my funeral are paid." 
 
 After these legacies, came the formalities of the 
 last will of a man, which are heavier than all the 
 heavy formalities that have gone before. The visibly 
 failing Flitt insisted that Walt should immediately 
 place his notary-seal upon all his effects. He did it 
 promptly. 
 
 It was sad and bitter to Walt to bid farewell to the 
 poor pleasure-loving bird, who would have left him 
 both feathers and golden eggs. Heering lighted both 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 39 
 
 him and the witnesses down the stairs. "I will 
 swear," he said, "he does not survive the night; 
 there are many curious indications ; but if he really 
 gets over the night, I will hang out my handkerchief 
 from the tower early in the morning." 
 
 Shuddering with cold, they descended the long 
 ladder through the empty, dark descent in which 
 there was nothing but steps. The slow iron pen- 
 dulum of the clock, that carried on the decrees of 
 destiny, swung here and there, like the mowing of 
 the scythe of time. The winds that came in gusts 
 against the tower ; the solitary and careful steps of 
 the nine men, as they descended ; the strange light 
 of the lantern that struggled in the upper darkness 
 and shed a sepulchral light upon the living, and the 
 expectation that Flitt, at any moment, might depart, 
 and like a pale ghost, pass through the church ; all 
 these haunted Walt, like a dream, in the land of 
 'shadows and terrors, so that he stepped from the 
 tower, like one risen from the dead, and meeting eye 
 to eye, and life with life, in the outward living world. 
 Flachs, the preacher, living rather than understand- 
 ing the things belonging to death, said to him as they 
 descended, " you are lucky with testaments ! " This 
 drew Walt from his reverie, in which he was thinking 
 of that foolish carnival of life, where the all too 
 earnest death, at last draws off the mask and alters 
 the countenance. 
 
 In bed he prayed with deep emotion for the dying 
 youth, that some evening beams of love and mercy 
 
40 
 
 WALT AND VULT 
 
 might penetrate and gild the night, whose clouds 
 were falling upon him, as at last they must fall on 
 even* mortal : and, while he prayed, he pressed his 
 eyes together, that no accidentally intrusive spectre 
 might make him shudder. 
 
 Xo. 37. A selected cabinet crystal. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 41 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 RAPHAELA. 
 
 When Gottwalt awoke he had at first forgotten all. 
 But when, from his bedroom window, he saw the 
 reflection of the rising sun, so red upon the western 
 hills, his wish to journey returned with new warmth. 
 Then came the objection of his poverty, and at last, 
 the memory of the twenty louis d''ors bequeathed to 
 him the evening before. This made him turn his 
 eyes to the city tower, upon which, as upon a Castrum 
 doloris, the dead Flitt might now repose. 
 
 Compassionately, as he raised his eyes, his counte- 
 nance was cheerful. This romantic journey, so sud- 
 denly made possible, appeared to invite him to a 
 passage through the transparent sun of fortune, v/here 
 the dust would be sparkles of light that would cover 
 him with diamonds. Displeased with himself, that 
 he could not be melancholy, he left his bed without 
 prayer, and examined his heart again. But he might 
 quarrel with himself as long as he pleased, and his 
 fancy might represent the pale young corpse lying in 
 the church tower, whose closed eyes would never 
 
 again open with the morning sun It was of no 
 
 use. The journey and the travelling money retained 
 
42 
 
 WALT AND VULT 
 
 in his eyes all its splendor, and his heart looked 
 willingly only at that. At length he asked himself 
 whetlier he was indeed the living devil that he seem- 
 ed^ to be willing to take advantage of Flitt's gene- 
 rosity, and that if he were even now living, something 
 could not be done immediately to save him ? And 
 he remembered the promise of the warden, that if 
 the young man died in the night, a whhe handkerchief 
 should be huns out as a mouminor flaor. He looked 
 and found none there, and as he could trace some 
 little joy in himself on this account, he absolved his 
 poor heart from utter selfishness, and was almost 
 angry for having so severely questioned, and without 
 any necessity, that honorable villain. 
 
 He saw now, indeed, a white handkerchief, not on 
 the tower, but borne by Raphaela, who wandered 
 with apparent melancholy in the park below, and to 
 whom the fashionable absence of pockets afforded 
 the good fortune to display this alluring sign of feel- 
 ing, this flag for the imagination, in her hand. She 
 looked often at the tower, occasionally up at his 
 window, and seemed to give him a melancholy greet- 
 ing. It seemed also, though he could scarcely believe 
 it, that she signed to him to come down, for he had 
 read in English romances only, the extent of female 
 tenderness. While he deliberated, Flora came and 
 asked him to descend. I can easily imagine," he 
 said upon the steps, " how she must feel when she looks 
 at that cit^- tower, and thinks that perhaps very soon 
 her lover may be placed on his bier : the only man 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 43 
 
 that through a disinterested, heart-felt love, like that 
 of a mother for a deformed child, could so beauti- 
 fully overcome the impression of her repugnant 
 features." 
 
 " Pardon the step I have taken," she said with 
 embarrassment, as she drew the handkerchief, that 
 veil of a dry heart, from her eyes, " if it seems to 
 you incompatible with the delicacy, which my sex 
 should maintain towards yours." 
 
 Fortunate it was, that she had not made this speech 
 to Quod Deus Vult, for it would be difficult to find in 
 Europe, even in Paris or Berlin, a man, who in the 
 same degree cursed, or suspected, when a woman 
 entrenched herself within her sex, and the necessary 
 reserve of sex, to protect herself against the imagined 
 tenderness of the other; when, at one moment, a 
 pressure of the hand, at another, an unguarded glance 
 betrayed an impure soul. He would not have hesi- 
 tated to assert, that an open courtezan was an honest 
 saint, compared with such concealed and cov/ardly 
 sensuality. ..." Truly," he said of such, " they 
 enter the material or spiritual dissection-room, merely 
 to see the naked body, innocent only, if like children, 
 they are ignorant and childlike their conscious- 
 ness is their death." 
 
 But the unsuspicious Walt gave her merely the 
 simple and honest answer, that he knew not how any 
 one of his sex, to say nothing of a holier, could con- 
 sider such a step as prompted by anything but the 
 heart. 
 
44 
 
 WALT AND VILT, 
 
 She had, however, nothing to say, but that as the 
 dying maji was a friend of her father's, and one whom 
 every one liked, and she herself also regretted, she 
 wished to ask whether, the night when he made his 
 will, of which she had learned by tlie seven witnesses 
 as through seven different avenues, whether he had 
 mentioned her, for she knew the word of a dying 
 man was more powerful than that of a living. 
 
 Walt answered conscientiously tliat he had been 
 summoned as a notar}-, but from not seeing the white 
 flag, he hoped Fiitt was still living. She informed 
 him that doctor Hut, who had been called, spoke of 
 him but as a lost man ; and she told Walt that the 
 sorrows even of strangers, and the loss of the most 
 distant of her relations, took so powerful hold of her, 
 that it cost her many tears. 
 
 Walt looked with all the signs of a sympathising 
 heart into her tearful eyes, and almost wished that 
 the delicacy of tlie said English romances, had per- 
 mitted him to take her sot't white hand in his, which 
 was glistening before him in the morning dew of the 
 shrubs, and afterwards ha her dark hair, in order, 
 after the prescription of tlie English, to strengthen it 
 as with a wash. 
 
 They now found tliemselves upon the island, op- 
 posite tlie stone statue of the grandfather, and near 
 an urn and weeping plants. Upon one of the trees 
 Raphaela had placed a tablet, with the inscription, 
 " Friendship endures even to the last." She wound 
 her arms around the urn, for in this position they 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 45 
 
 were snow-wlilte, like the arms of angels, and told 
 Walt that here she thought of her distant friend 
 Wina von Zablocki, who alas, was twice a year 
 separated from her, when, according to their agree- 
 ment, her father took her to Leipsic to see her deserted 
 mother. Unconsciously, through her description of 
 sorrow, Raphaela's tone had again become lively. 
 Walt commended her friendship, and, still more the 
 friend ! She raised the friend still higher than her- 
 self, and with his swelling heart he could remain no 
 longer. Resuming her tone of complaint, with a 
 melancholy glance at the tower, she parted from the 
 young man. 
 
 His thoughts were like a flock of twilight birds, 
 that for thirty-six hours had been fluttering about 
 his head, and he knew not how to get rid of them but 
 by a journey, and on foot. Wina's living image, the 
 September sun that burnt in the clear blue ether, the 
 possible travelling money, and all the warm wishes 
 of his heart pressed him on one side ; on the other, 
 Dr. Hut's regrets and receipts, Flitt's extremity, Heer- 
 ing's white bier-flag, that might at any moment 
 flutter — his own delayed poetic hours (for what 
 could he compose in such a crisis of uncertainty), and 
 last, the thirty-six hours of inward contest. At length 
 unable to endure it any longer, he decided upon two 
 courses ; first, to go to the executors of the will, and 
 announce this pause in his notary business ; and then 
 to the flute-player to acquaint him with, and give him 
 the hundred inducements for his journey. 
 
46 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 The brothers were now accustomed to rejoice if, 
 in the week, anything occurred which they could 
 impart to each other at their weekly meeting. Walt 
 was now the imparter, and Vult had to wonder at 
 much. The juristic theory was to him very bitter, 
 that the luord of a dying man, like that of a Quaker, 
 had the force of an oath ; meanwhile the point, upon 
 which the whole deception turned, remained con- 
 cealed from him. It seems to me," he said, " he 
 sent for you merely to make a fool of you, but I 
 know not why. In God's name, if you -svish it, 
 young man, be a coach (travel the road), but take 
 the advice of an older traveller, have behind a little 
 window, that no thief may cut from you your purse 
 nor your honor." 
 
 Vult had nothing to relate, but Walt fortunately 
 could continue. He related Raphaela's conversation, 
 but with the utmost caution, for he knew Vult's im- 
 measurable severity towards women. It was of little 
 use. Vult hated the Newpeters, especially the 
 women. " Raphaela," he said " is an unmixed lie 
 and deception." " But in one so unfortunately ugly," 
 said Walt, " I could forgive a deception, although not 
 in myself nor in one I loved." " I mean to say," 
 continued Vult, " that she w^ould fortify herself by 
 her assumed sorrow^ and if one lover is extinguished, 
 fish up a successor in the dark stream of her tears." 
 
 " I have always foreseen the possibility of such 
 deceptions, but to believe m the reality^ is in any 
 case difficult, and should make us pause. Is not 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 47 
 
 Raphaela's joy, at my praise of her friend, a lovely 
 sign ? " " No," said the inexorable Vult, " the ac- 
 knowledged beauty only, who is accustomed to every 
 homage, hates mediocrity, and the division of any 
 sentiment of empire ; but beauty of a lower order, is 
 obliged to acquiesce in mediocrity, and to praise all 
 that is above her own standard." 
 
 Walt had nothing further to say. He made known 
 his plan of journeying for some days, to breathe the 
 pure heavenly air, and he was only undecided what 
 path he should follow. Vult approved his plan, and 
 Walt would have taken leave, but the flute-player ac- 
 customed to impromptu journeys, made not much 
 account of this, but said gaily, " Farewell ! good 
 night ! a happy journey." 
 
 The fairest indication of this appeared in the irra- 
 diated sky. The sickle of the new moon cut the 
 blooming flowers of the horizon. The fresh morning 
 breeze moved upon the already crimsoned islands of 
 clouds, and the stars as, one after another, they went 
 down, left the promise of a beautiful day. 
 
 No. 38. Marienglas. A sort of clayey stone that 
 is used in Russia for glass. 
 
48 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ENTRANCE ON A JOURNEY. 
 
 In the morning Walt stood upon the threshold 
 ready for his journey, and looked round upon his 
 dark western apartment. He could not help casting 
 a glance of love and leave-taking, and another full of 
 compassion upon the tower where no flag waved for 
 the dead, as he flew joyfully across the threshold 
 and upon the empty place beneath. He looked 
 around under the four-armed wooden sign post, to 
 determine within himself whether he should take the 
 west, north, or east, for he came out from the southern 
 gate of the city. 
 
 His main object was not to know the name of any 
 town, nor even of the villages. He hoped thus, with- 
 out any decided aim, and a sort of imaginary uncer- 
 tainty, to wind about among the pleasure-grounds and 
 flower-beds of journeying, and see only what should 
 arise before him at every new step ; to pray in every 
 green, gold-waving grove ; in every little hamlet to 
 ask its name, and secretly to exult in his knowledge. 
 With such measures, he hoped that even in a small 
 compass of country he might, perhaps, find country 
 houses, irregular gardens, a diminutive Switzerland ; 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 49 
 
 and that his imagination might fill it with mountain 
 castles, and beautiful eyes within them looking down 
 upon him ; chapels with pilgrims, and eyes raised in 
 prayer ; accidents, and romantic adventures were 
 sown in numbers over his journey, such as he could 
 never, in sober reality, expect. " Infinite good ! in 
 thy clear blue heaven," he prayed in his exquisite 
 delight, " this once let not my excessive joy be the 
 omen of disappointment ! " 
 
 He now blamed himself, that he had not taken 
 counsel of the sign-post, that, like a monkey, pointed 
 with its four limbs ; fortunately no name was visible, 
 time, especially the humid time of winter, with its 
 wet fingers, had rubbed out all the names of the post 
 cities. To the north was Elterlein ; in the east stood 
 the Pestitz, or Linden mount, through which ran the 
 road to Leipsic, itself a city of Linden trees. Between 
 these two, Walt now directed his steps, so that the 
 height behind which the lovely Wina rolled or rested 
 might never be lost from his eyes, whether they 
 drank from the petals of a flower, or from the clouds 
 that rested upon the mountain tops. 
 
 It is a happiness for the present writer in describing 
 his journey, that Walt, for the satisfaction of his 
 brother, left so circumstantial a day, or rather minute 
 book of his travels ; so that one need but open the 
 covers, and all will be found ready dipped in the ink ; 
 for the sufferer a refreshment, and he who rejoices 
 in the reality of life ; may find truth in poetry, and 
 
 VOL. II. 4 
 
50 
 
 WALT AND VüLT 
 
 double his enjoyment if he find his own experiences 
 renewed in those of Walt. 
 
 " I would, indeed, hope," thus Walt began the 
 minute and second book of his journey, written for 
 Vult alone, " that my brother will not laugh at me if 
 I divide my insignificant journey, not into German 
 leagues, but rather into Russian wersts, which, like 
 mere quarters of hours, are very short, but not too 
 short for men upon this earth. How would it have 
 been with this fleeting life, if instead of minute and 
 hour clocks, our time had been measured upon week 
 or century clocks — a short thread upon a monstrous 
 wheel. Eternity is as vast as infinity. We, fugitives 
 in both, have but one little word for both — ime." 
 
 As he began his first worst towards the north-east, 
 with Wina's mountain and the early sun upon the 
 right, the dewy meadows and an expanding rainbow 
 upon the left, he struck his hands together, merely 
 from joy, like the cymbals of eastern music, and was 
 borne on so lightly that he scarcely touched the 
 ground. His face was like the morning breeze, a 
 whole oriental life was painted in his countenance. 
 His collected cabinet of medals, or students' fortune, 
 was placed carefully, to serve as a surplus, or experi- 
 mental swimming girdle, ready for all floods, whether 
 of hell or paradise. He moved through the opposing 
 air as freely as the butterfly above his head, needing 
 nothing in life but a flower and a second butterfly. 
 Turning from the turnpike (where he saw a gang of 
 criminals, undergoing reformation by the process of 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 51 
 
 roadmaking, because he would not plague them to 
 give him a morning greeting, or say to them hypo- 
 critically, " good morning," when he knew there was 
 none in store for them) he strayed rather in the wet 
 grass valley, where he alternately lost and saw the 
 city. While he yet saw it he could not imagine him- 
 self on his travels, he must, therefore, go back two 
 long worsts before it disappeared beyond the western 
 hills. As yet he had met nothing more remarkable 
 than the road itself, when he greeted a man who 
 passed quickly with his face bound in a handkerchief. 
 He passed on, and, when far enough not to seem, im- 
 pertinent, looked round, the man also had turned. 
 When again he looked, the man had turned his back, 
 and seemed angry at being so watched. Walt suf- 
 fered him to pass without further observation. 
 
 He soon after met (for thus his adventures in- 
 creased) three old women and a very young girl, who 
 came out of a wood with baskets heaped high with 
 dead-wood. They stood in a line, one behind the 
 other, resting their heavy baskets upon the sticks 
 placed crosswise, that all bear, like Alpine travellers. 
 Walt's heart would have made it out that, like 
 Catholics or Protestants, in Wetzlar, they employed 
 their fasts and festivals in this manner, that they 
 might meet and talk .together ; for never could the 
 smallest alleviation, the handful of hay or feathers, 
 escape his eye, which the poor could lay upon the 
 hard wooden bedstead of life, upon which to sleep 
 more tenderly, or to stuff out the martyrs' seat, upon 
 
52 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 which he must rest. A loving spirit, in order to feel 
 a joy himself, readily discerns the little joys of the 
 poor ; a malignant heart spies out their miseries, not 
 to lessen their amount, but that he may grumble at 
 the rich, whose number perhaps, he augments. Walt 
 would fain have given these poor basket-bearers some 
 groschen, but he was ashamed to bestow charity 
 before so many witnesses. 
 
 Immediately after, there came along a man with a 
 wheelbarrow of rattling tin ware, and his little daugh- 
 ter harnessed before to drag it on. Both coughed as 
 though spent. Walt was constrained to place himself 
 at the opposite end and help the little girl to push it 
 forward. He could not help reflecting how much 
 happier was his lot than that of the pedlar, to say 
 nothing of the old wood-women. The cells of his 
 life were all filled with honey, and when he measured 
 his free unrestrained motions, travelling like the great 
 of the earth, with the burthen-bearers and wheel- 
 turners of life, he blushed at his riches and his rank. 
 As he looked round and saw the four wood-carriers 
 leaning, as before, upon the sticks, he ran back with 
 a gift for each, and then hastened on. 
 
 " Ach Gott," he wrote in his journal to justify to 
 himself this extravagance, " the poor, passing pleasure 
 of tickling the palate, with the little better food that a 
 few groschen would afford, cannot be compared with 
 the enjoyment of giving, although that enjoyment 
 should not be the motive with which we give : — but 
 the thought that accompanies one the whole day, that 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 53 
 
 he has solaced a heart spent with hunger, or warmed 
 the withered, cold, and empty veins of age, by the 
 loss of a few groschen, is only to purchase therewith 
 a pleasure for one's self." Here he fell, unrestrained, 
 into his old dreams of a travelling lord, who, with a 
 full hand, could give a whole village beer and roast 
 meat, and enjoy the long elysium that such an act 
 would afford. 
 
 With three heavens in his guileless face, although 
 he had left one on the faces behind him, Walt step- 
 ped from dew-drop to dew-drop ; he had thrown out 
 the ballast of his money, and his heart was elevated 
 like an air-balloon thereby. In the mean time he 
 reached, apparently quite late, the Härmlesberg inn, 
 only four wersts from the city ; for everywhere by 
 the way he had sat down and wrote, or stopped to 
 read the inscriptions on the stone benches, upon the 
 road side ; not the smallest thing was omitted. He 
 inquired the names of the inhabitants, the food for 
 their cattle, the growth upon the meadows, the num- 
 ber of feudal or bond-peasants. 
 
 " In this village," he said, " like a travelling gentle- 
 man, I will take my dejeuner d'inatoire'" — and he 
 entered the littte ale-house of Härmlesberg. 
 
 No. 39. The paper Nautilus. 
 
I 
 
 54 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 CHAPTER YIII. 
 
 THE '>VIRTHSHAUS. 
 
 Walt was one of those men, who for whole years 
 would content himself at home, or in solitude, with 
 spare food and the smallest amount of indulgence, 
 but not in travelling (others are exactly the contrary), 
 he, therefore, boldly demanded his mug of beer. He 
 sat refreshing himself, and observed with great satis- 
 faction the room, the table, the benches and the peo- 
 ple. As some travelling mechanics paid for their 
 coffee, he remarked that the milk-pots in Franconia 
 had their spouts or noses opposite the handle, while 
 in Saxony, if they had spouts, they were on the left 
 of the handle.* His soul went with these Burschen 
 on their way. Can there be anything, he said to 
 himself, more delightful than such a Wanderjahr in 
 the most beautiful time of the year, in the sweetest 
 season, the spring of life, and with the entertainment 
 which every master is bound to give them on their 
 wanderings. To travel without cost, through all the 
 cities of Germany, and as soon as the wet and the 
 
 * It would almost seem that Jeao Paul anticipated the ridicule 
 of certaia travels in America. 
 
I 
 
 OR THE TWINS. 55 
 
 cold comes on, to nestle themselves in some snug 
 domestic comer, and brood upon the work-bench, 
 like the cross-bill upon her nest in winter. " Why," 
 he wrote in his journal to Vult, " why cannot the 
 poor scholar have a Wanderjalir 7 the travelling and 
 the money are certainly as necessary to him as to 
 the mechanic ? " 
 
 " Without — in the Empire," Walt's father who 
 had been a travelling mechanic, always said, when 
 in winter snow-storms, he related his own Wanderjahr, 
 and this empire had ever since, in the memory of his 
 son, glistened in morning dew, like a square mile of 
 oriental land. Whenever he met the travelling ap- 
 prentices, his father was again young, and one of them. 
 
 A carter of salt now stopped with his horse. He 
 came in, washed his hands in the common room, and 
 dried them upon a roller hanging from th'e horns of a 
 deer. Walt admired the boldness of this man of the 
 world, for he felt that he could not have been able to 
 wash his own hands under any eyes but his own. 
 Yet as he had called for something and paid also, he 
 might enjoy, in a small degree, the freedom of an 
 inn, and he began, well pleased, to walk up and down 
 the little room. He did not feel at liberty, indeed, 
 under the ceiling of a room, to keep on his hat, but 
 he observed, with satisfaction, that others were cover- 
 ed,* and seemed to enjoy the academic freedom and 
 
 * On the continent at this time, no one kept his hat upon his 
 head, either in a public or private apartment. 
 
I 
 
 56 WALT AND VTJLT, 
 
 independence of a Wirths-apartment, that allowed 
 every one to lie, or to sit, to talk, or to be silent. 
 
 It has been mentioned that Walt walked up and 
 down, he even went further, he wrote before all eyes 
 many beautiful texts in his tablets, from which he 
 promised himself when he w^as alone, within his own 
 quarters, to compose many a sermon. The courage 
 of men grows easily ; it is only necessary that it 
 should legin to sprout. The arriving guests greeted 
 him softly, the departing loudly. Walt was able to 
 thank them both aloud. It was so pleasant to find a 
 cup of joy, that, unlike Saxon native wine, contained 
 no water. He loved every dog, and wished to be 
 loved again. For this reason he formed a close 
 union with the Wirth's cur, merely to have some- 
 thing for his heart, if it were only as narrow a band 
 of friendship as could be formed with such a being 
 by a small piece of sausage-skin. With warm- 
 hearted novices, the dog is always, indeed, the dog- 
 star, through whose introduction they seek to attain 
 to the warmth of other men's hearts ; they are, so to 
 say, the terriers and truffle-hunters of deep-buried 
 hearts. " Spitz, give the paw," cried the host of 
 Härmlesberg. Spitz, or the Spitz (for the name of 
 the species in Germany and in Haslau, is rarely given 
 as the personal name, except in Thuringia, where 
 they are called Fixe). Spitz, pressed the hand of the 
 notary as well as he knew how. 
 
 " Give the gentleman also a pat," cried the host, 
 as three little arm-long, prettily dressed girls, of the 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 57 
 
 same size and physiognomy, led by the hand of a 
 young, beautiful, but snow-white mother, entered from 
 the sleeping-room. " They are drillings^ and are 
 going to visit their godmother," said the host. 
 
 Gottwalt swore in his journal, that there was 
 nothing in the world more lovely, more heart-touch- 
 ing, than the sight of three such pretty, delicate 
 creatures, all of the same height; with their little 
 caps and aprons and little round faces, and nothing to 
 regret, but that they were only drillings, and not 
 fifthlings, sixthlings, or even hundredlings. He 
 kissed them before the whole room, and blushed 
 deeply ; it was as though he had touched with his 
 lips the tender, pale young mother. But children are 
 always the truest Jacob's ladder to the mother's 
 heart. Such very little girls are also an electrical 
 preserver for youths, who have not courage to stand 
 before grown-up maidens ; a beautiful conductor and 
 non-conductor, presented unconsciously for the mo- 
 ment of danger, they secretly and gladly wonder 
 how they can caress a little thing so like a young 
 maiden. 
 
 The little girls were soon at home with Walt. As 
 a twin himself, he was, he thought, more nearly re- 
 lated to the drillings, than the other guests in the 
 room. To the great joy of the mother he gave them 
 some money, for which she bade them give him three 
 kisses. But Walt held back ; he would not allow 
 them, so early in life, to anticipate the time when 
 such precious things would be made the subj ct of 
 barter. 
 
58 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 "Ah, good Herr Harnish ! " said the Wirth. 
 Walt was surprised, but not without pleasure, that 
 the host knew his name, for with such a beginning 
 might he not anticipate yet stranger adventures. 
 He therefore asked no questions, lest the truth should 
 rob the future of hope. 
 
 He looked on silent and pleased, while the father 
 bartered the money from the children with apples ; 
 and one threw the bread, the mother had given it, 
 timidly at the goat under the window, who snapped 
 it in all haste, and another devoured the apples, and 
 the third offered hers to him, till at last perfect fami- 
 liarity was established among them all. " Ah, were I 
 only for a little time almighty, or powerful," thought 
 Walt, " I would create a world especially for myself, 
 and suspend it under the mildest sun ; a little world 
 where I would have nohting but little lovely children ; 
 and these little things I would never suffer to grow 
 up, but only to play, eternally. If a seraph were 
 weary of heaven, or his golden pinions drooped, I 
 would send him to dwell a month upon my happy 
 infant world ; and no angel, as long as he saw their 
 innocence, could lose his own." The children at 
 length, holding each other by the hand,, and by the 
 mother's, departed to visit their god-mother. 
 
 A tall Tyrolese, with a green hat, upon which 
 many colored ribbons fluttered, came singing into the 
 apartment. Walt finished his beer and went forth. 
 It was beautiful without, even within the limits of 
 Härmlesberg. In the village, timber was hewed with 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 59 
 
 heavy blows, and measured by the carpenter's red 
 line, and cut into exact forms. All the scenes of 
 Walt's childhood, among the building-wood of his 
 father's industry, came back from the roses of child- 
 hood, laden with the rose-honey of memory. Blanch' 
 eresses, with great hats, went, slightly bent, carefully 
 over the bleaching fields to water the whitening 
 linen. By the long ribbons of a hat, that a young 
 girl carried, hanging on her arm, he was transported 
 to the blue and yellow blossoms of the garden, and 
 rocked in imagination in all the cups of flowers. 
 
 He came now to that long street bounded on both 
 sides with hills, like rows of palaces, which enclosed 
 the valley of Rosana. The key of the garden of 
 Eden was in his hand, and Walt entered. 
 
 " The perfect spring is here," he wrote, " the 
 Orpheus of nature. The buttercups are so thick that 
 the whole meadows bloom with flowers. Above, 
 from the groves upon the hills, the wood-lark and the 
 thrush call to each other. Sweet spring-breezes 
 draw through the valley. Butterflies and little in- 
 sects celebrate their child-like ball, while the little 
 fieldfares and golden birds sit quietly upon their low 
 nests. The foliage of the cherry-trees glows like its 
 fruit, and instead of pale blossoms, beautifully painted 
 leaves fall to the ground. The sun in the autumn, 
 as in the spring, draws from the revolving earth- 
 wheel his flying gossamer webs. Truly, a spring like 
 this autumn have I never seen ! " 
 
 In the upper ether there were thin stripes of silver 
 
60 
 
 WALT AND VüLT, 
 
 floating, while beneath, one mountain of cloud after 
 another moved slowly on, between these lighter cliffs 
 in the clear blue vault. Walt flew in thought upon 
 this celestial path, *yet he looked down into the 
 secluded valley, and saw the quiet smooth stream 
 wandering there. The groves from the mountain 
 sides bowed themselves lovingly towards it. On 
 other hills shone vineyards, houses, and ripened 
 gardens. He descended lower in the valley, as upon 
 the lap of a mother. 
 
 " How beautiful it is," he wrote, " in these pillared 
 halls of nature, the living green above and beneath, 
 an eternal succession of infinite life." 
 
 " Move on ye beautiful butterflies, enjoy the honey- 
 week of your short being. Without hunger, without 
 thirst, your very existence is an existence of love ; 
 the only chamber of your hearts * is the bridal 
 chamber of love. The flowers bend to you and 
 suffer you to woo them, and to flutter gently with the 
 blossoms of their life." 
 
 He looked at a flock of silent nightingales prepar- 
 ing for their nightly annual flight. 
 
 " Where fly you with your sweet spring complaint ? 
 Seek you the myrtle for love ? Seek you the laurel 
 for song ? Desire you to meet eternal spring and 
 ever golden stars ? Ah ! fly where there are no 
 storms beneath the clouds, and sing in the fairest 
 
 * Butterflies have only one ventricle in the heart, and most of 
 them have no stomach. — Author. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 61 
 
 lands ; but return again in our spring, and sing to 
 the thirsting heart the longing strain of Heimweh^ for 
 its own celestial country. Trees and flowers ! ye 
 bow yourselves hither and thither as though you were 
 living, and would speak to our hearts. I love you as 
 though I were myself a flower with its blossoms. 
 Ah ! once I lived a higher life ! " 
 
 Suddenly he heard, afar off, the sound of a flute, 
 as if it came floating towards him from the stream 
 beneath. Distance increases, in a wonderful degree, 
 the power of the flute ; and to Walt, who understood 
 the sounds better than their succession, it would not 
 have been half so agreeable if it had been nearer. 
 The tones appeared to come nearer, but softer and 
 weaker. Upon the road there was a stone bench. 
 He looked at it as an instance of the care of men for 
 others, and to express his gratitude, sat down upon 
 it. But he soon threw himself into the high grass of 
 the river's bank : he would be nearer the mother 
 earth, which is at the same time the table and the 
 bed of man ; but he moved gently, not to frighten the 
 little fishes of a day, that were playing in the warm 
 quiet bend of the shore. He loved not one or another 
 living being, but all life itself, not merely the pros- 
 pect, the grass, the woods, the clouds and the golden 
 insect, he bent low to observe the smallest earth- 
 worms, their bread-trees and their pleasure-gardens. 
 He would pause in the midst of writing his poems, if 
 a weak and spotted insect was working its way over 
 the smooth surface of the paper, lest he should crush 
 
6S 
 
 W ALT AND VULT, 
 
 or disturb him. " Ach Gott ! " he said, " how can 
 any one destroy life, if he only look upon it rightly, for 
 a single moment." 
 
 He listened again for the flute, which seemed to 
 speak from the breast of the silent nightingales, when 
 two large clear drops fell, as from a warm passing 
 cloud, upon his hand ; he looked at them long, as he 
 used formerly to do when, in his childhood, he be- 
 lieved the rain came from a high, far off, holy place. 
 The sun darted upon the white skin, as though it 
 would kiss the drops away. Walt kissed them off 
 with his own lips, and looked with inexpressible love 
 up to the warm sky, as a child to its mother. He 
 sang no longer, but listened and wept. 
 
 At length Walt rose and continued on his heavenly 
 way. He had advanced some steps, when he picked 
 up a toll-bill, that had fallen from the hat-band of a 
 waggoner : with the hope that he might overtake and 
 restore it to the driver, he hastened his steps. Noth- 
 ing that belonged to others ever appeared to him 
 trifling, while nothing concerning himself could ever 
 take much hold upon his disinterested mind. It 
 would have been easier to him, in the midst of his 
 poetic fervor, to have bowed a mountain, than to have 
 bent a flower. If the glow of passion rises, con- 
 fused and rapid, like a burning ship, the poet's warmth 
 rises from the heart, like the dove in the evening twi- 
 light, or like the christian, who, as he ascends towards 
 heaven, does not forget the earth. The flute, whose 
 sounds pursued him through the valley, without 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 63 
 
 coming nearer when he paused, or retreating when 
 he ran, was silent, when the road turning suddenly 
 up towards the hills, opened wide and broad upon a 
 plain filled with villages and castles, and water-courses 
 from the mountain ; all girdled round with bending 
 woods. He went along the summit of the hill as 
 upon a long arched bridge, on each side of which he 
 could see a sea of living green. 
 
 As he was entirely alone, and secure from all ears, 
 he whistled freely chorals, phantasies, and at length 
 the old national melodies, and left off not even when 
 he paused for breath. Differing from all other wind- 
 instruments, this mouth harmonica is romantic^ and 
 sweet in proportion as it is near, or only a few inches 
 from the ear; and as with music in dreams, the per- 
 former is at the same time the maker of the instru- 
 ment, the composer, and the player, without in the 
 least needing any other master than himself, the 
 pupil of his own teaching. 
 
 Walt became constantly happier, and more excited 
 as he continued to blow upon this first shepherd's 
 pipe, upon this original Alp-horn, against the western 
 wind, that blew back the tones to his own breast, till 
 at last it appeared to him that they were sounds 
 woven from the distant air. As soon as he began to 
 descend on the left, the brow of the hill, towards the 
 shepherd's pastures and the meadows, he saw the old 
 gray church-towers of Altengrün, of Joditz, of Thal- 
 hausen, of Wilhelmslust, of Kirchenfelda, and dis- 
 covered the hunting and pleasure castles, either of 
 
64 
 
 WALT AND VÜLT, 
 
 whose names had been in his childhood, enchanting, 
 romantic words, ancient paradises for his childish 
 imagination. Then he looked back again upon the 
 plain at his right, where he saw the stream of his 
 valley, the Rosana, become free and spread out upon 
 a flowery dancing plain, where it could wander at its 
 own sweet will, and always bear and reflect the silver 
 shield of sun or moon. Then he raised his eyes to 
 the Lindenstall hill, where, among the graceful linden 
 trees, the dark pine woods stood like broad shadows ; 
 and then towards heaven, where the clouds sailed 
 silent and gentle, like the doves ; and in the low 
 valley, where the harvest birds sheltered under the 
 stone bridges in storms ; he became silent from re- 
 verence, and thought what he ought to sing in the 
 presence of God, as though the Infinite had not read 
 his thoughts. At length he repeated in a low voice 
 the Streckvers, that he had long since composed. 
 
 " Oh how is heaven ; how is earth so full of joyful 
 voices ! How much more beautiful than where the 
 choruses once loudly complained, and Niobe only 
 stood immovable beneath her veil, with infinite woe 
 in her heart. Here the choirs of heaven and earth 
 now praise and rejoice. The Infinite * alone is 
 silent, above the ether that veils his bliss ! " 
 
 After this he looked towards heaven, called God 
 twice Du, (Thou) and was silent a long time. Then 
 
 * Allseelige, cannot be translated. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 65 
 
 he thought he might be permitted to think of Wina. 
 Suddenly there came to his ears an old, confidential 
 but wonderfully familiar sound from the distance ; 
 a sound, as out of the starry twilight morning of 
 childhood. Many miles at the left, behind unnum- 
 bered villages, he saw Elterlein lying, and he be- 
 lieved he knew the old village bell, and that he could 
 discover Wina's white mountain castle and the pa- 
 rental house. He thought with longing heart of his 
 distant parents, of the tranquil life of childhood, and 
 of the gentle Wina, who had also come to him in the 
 secluded life of her childhood, and laid the auriculas 
 in his hand. His eye rested and dwelt on that east- 
 ern mountain, behind which, as behind a cloistered 
 wall, he saw Wina, like a nun, wandering, earnest 
 and silent among the flowers of the convent garden. 
 The clocks and bells from many villages sounded 
 out together. The morning wind blew stronger, the 
 sky was brighter and more blue, and the variegated ta- 
 pestry, upon which this earthly life is pictured, spread 
 itself over the whole region. 
 
 Now he sang again, filled with blissful thoughts, 
 but named not her name. 
 
 " Through the beautiful nights move numberless 
 stars, and the northern aurora appears, and the night- 
 ingales sing, but man sleeps and remarks it not. At 
 last he opens his eye, and the sun looks at him. Oh ! 
 Lina, Lina ! thou went past me like the stars, like 
 Aurora, with thy flowers, with thy sweet tones, and 
 
 VOL. II. 5 
 
66 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 thy love ; but my eye was blind ! now it is open — 
 but the flowers have faded, the tones have passed 
 away, and thou art to me nothing more, but the re- 
 splendent sun." 
 
 He turned from the blowing wind. All the world 
 was wonderfully still around him ; the sound of his 
 voice was low and soft like the tones of childhood, 
 and he became much agitated. He went and sang 
 again 
 
 " Tearful eyes ! desolate heart ! Seest thou not the 
 sky and the spring and the lovely life around thee ? 
 Wherefore dost thou weep ? What hast thou lost ? 
 Who is dead for thee ? Ah ! I have lost nothing. 
 For me no one is dead ! Oh, suffer me to weep, for 
 I have never yet loved !" 
 
 At last, he sang nothing but lines and single words, 
 and came hastily through cultivated fields, over clear 
 brooks, through the mid-day silence of the village. 
 He passed by the resting tools of labor, while the 
 hands that used them were taking their short, mid- 
 day repose. Upon the magic circle rested the magi- 
 cal haziness of ether. The storm-wind had passed, 
 and upon the sky remained only the pure infinite 
 blue. The past and the future of life seemed to 
 meet in this transparent atmosphere, kindled by the 
 present. The flower petals of life opened, and drew 
 him into her enchanted calyx, and rocked him in her 
 honey cup, while the hour of Pan went on ! 
 
 " Now I understand," he wrote in his journal, " as 
 I always do upon a journey, what the ancients meant 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 67 
 
 by the magic influence of the hour of Pan. It lasts, 
 I think, from eleven and twelve to one o'clock. 
 Therefore the Grecians believed in the hour of Pan ; 
 and people at the present time in a noon-day 
 ghost, and the Russians in a mid-day demon, that 
 rules this hour. While it lasts the birds are silent. 
 Men sleep near their tools of labor. Throughout 
 nature there is something secret ; yes, something 
 mysterious, as though the dreams of these mid-day 
 sleepers were floating around. Near us all is soft 
 and low, while in the verge, where heaven and earth 
 meet, sounds seem to hover. We do not in this 
 magic hour remember the past, but it unconsciously 
 penetrates and fills us with yearning and melancholy. 
 Towards the vesper hour life becomes again fresh 
 and powerful." 
 
 No. 40. Cedo nulli. 
 
68 
 
 WALT AND VTJLT, 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 THE beggar's staff. 
 
 Walt turned in at Griinbrunn. He. held his wax- 
 wings before the kitchen fire of the Wirthshaus and 
 meUed them down a httle. In fact, a man with the 
 best wings for the ether, needs also a pair of boots 
 for the paving-stones. As the dining-room was full 
 of dogs and gentlemen, he took a seat rather under 
 a sort of pent roof, where a table was spread the 
 whole length of the place. From thence he could 
 look out into the strange fields, and when he had 
 reckoned and found that he was nineteen worsts from 
 his home, he felt like a light troubadour of ancient 
 times. He entered in his journal the economical 
 practice which he saw before him, of enclosing the 
 meadows with rows of cabbages, or with rows of 
 other kinds of vegetables, as in some other places 
 with a ridge of unploughed waste land ; and he 
 remarked to a peasant who sat near him, eating, how 
 very neat it was. 
 
 They suffered him to sit a long time in his epic 
 mood of mind, with the echoes of his morning melo- 
 dies in his ears, looking at the coming and vanishing 
 guests, while he waited for his table-cloth and his 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 plate. It is, perhaps, worth the trouble to remark, 
 that Walt was one of those men who never ate all 
 that was placed before him, partly from delicacy 
 towards the host, lest he should think he had not 
 been liberal enough. Men like him belong to those 
 royal animals, the eagle and the lion, who never, like 
 children or meaner animals, wholly devour all that is 
 placed before them. Walt could not understand how 
 the peasant, and the other guests, could so clean their 
 plates, and after trepanning every polished bone, 
 bore it through, as if it had been a cannon or a pearl. 
 
 After dinner he placed himself at the open door of 
 the eating-room, with the toll-bill he had found in the 
 enchanted valley in his hand, to wait till the dining 
 wagoners, whom he was too timid to address in 
 corpore, came out, singly. There stood a young 
 thirteen yeared little wagoner, in a blue frock and 
 thick white night-cap, secretly turning the hour-glass 
 of the host, which was only a third run out, as though 
 he would drive on the hours. Walt was angry, and 
 turned the glass back again. It was impossible for 
 him to suffer such an injustice, which indeed he 
 would have endured if directed against himself, but 
 not against another. This excitement gave him cou- 
 rage to raise the toll-bill before the whole table d 'hote, 
 and to call out " if any one had lost it ? " " I, sir," 
 said a voice, and out stretched a long arm, seized it, 
 and nodded slightly, without, as Walt had expected, 
 any expression of thanks. 
 
 Walt would now have taken wings, instead of 
 
70 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 horse, to go forth ; and while paying, he was rejoiced 
 that a poor old beggar, who would gather his alms 
 in natural products rather than in money, asked him 
 for a glass of beer, probably a secret disciple of the 
 physiocralic system. The man, while taking this 
 little solace of nature, placed his beggar's staff in the 
 corner. This gave Walt an opportunity to take the 
 heavy thorny stick in his hand. He raised and 
 swung it with the strange feeling that he had now 
 actually in his hand that beggar's staff, of which he 
 had heard and read so much. 
 
 At length, after having represented to himself with 
 increasing warmth, that this was the last thin and frail 
 fragment of a dismasted life ; a dry branch cut from 
 no brilliant Christmas tree, but from a weeping oak ; 
 a spoke from Ixion's wheel, he determined to possess 
 it, by purchasing this only luxury of the beggar, who 
 could only be convinced that he was in earnest, by 
 the money Walt offered in exchange. 
 
 " This staff," said Walt to himself, " shall trans- 
 form me like an enchanted rod, and better than a 
 Lorenzo smiff-lox^ make me always pitiful and mer- 
 ciful, when with coldness and indifference I would 
 pass by the great sorrows of my fellow-men ; it shall 
 make me recollect how brown, and withered, and 
 weary was the hand that bore it." This he said 
 severely to himself, for the tender-hearted man, un- 
 like the hard-hearted, reproaches himself, unjustly, 
 that he is not merciful enough ; while the hard-heart- 
 ed thinks himself too merciful. He needed not this 
 
OR THE TWINS, 
 
 71 
 
 staff to support his fruit-bearing blossoms ; but where 
 the beggar's lightning-conductor itself grows, upon 
 the battle-fields, and around the pleasure castles of 
 kings who came into the world with teeth;* there, 
 where the secret steps and scaffolding of thrones are 
 built of such martyr wood ; in countries where the 
 beggar's staff is the common or general staff, per- 
 haps through the army itself ; there it would be a 
 desirable legacy, if every beggar in the land would 
 leave his staff to make out a state cabinet of curious 
 woods. At least, if near every sceptre and every 
 sword such a balancing rod were placed, it might 
 serve, like the rod of Moses, to draw sweet water 
 ^ from the hard rock of the throne. 
 
 Walt left his inn exulting as much in his purchase 
 as the beggar himself, who remained in astonishment 
 and joyful tears at the exchange. He rejoiced espe- 
 cially at the golden harvest of adventures he had 
 gathered in half a day. " Truly," he said, " it is 
 strange ! In Härmlesberg they knew my name ; in 
 Grünbrunn 1 find it written ; an enchanted flute goes 
 with me, and pauses when I pause ; a strange travel- 
 ling staff has fallen into my hands. Heavens ! after 
 such a beginning what may happen in a long sum- 
 mer's afternoon ? A hundred wonders ! for it strikes 
 but just two o'clock." Walt looked into the blue 
 vault of heaven, and went gayly on. 
 
 No. 41. Trödelschnecke. 
 
 * Lewis XIV. was born with teeth. — Author. 
 
72 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 LIFE. 
 
 In the next stream Walt washed his hands, and 
 the beggar's staff, for out of delicacy towards the 
 beggar, he had taken it as it was. The first act of 
 benevolence that he performed after the purchase of 
 his stick, was upon the floating wood itself in the 
 river. He could not bear to see that, while much of 
 the timber, dancing joyfully, swam down the stream, 
 much, also, that was not insignificant, was caught in 
 the windings of the stream, and miserably imprisoned 
 in corners. With his beggar's stick he helped to set 
 as many afloat again as he could reach, to follow the 
 course of the others ; for " all boards," he said, " as 
 well as all men, have not the impelling motive to join 
 the procession of their fellows." 
 
 He now met a little ragged boy, barefooted, in a 
 pair of red plush breeches, infinitely too large, and 
 inexpressibly polished, — the castaway breeches of 
 some poor man, which had become to him at the 
 same time breeches and stockings. The boy possess- 
 ed nothing but a little glass containing salve, with 
 which he constantly stroked his inflamed eyes. Walt 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 73 
 
 asked him gently the cause of his pain and distress. 
 It consisted in this ; that he was running away from 
 his step-mother, as his father had done before him, 
 and that he hoped to enlist in the French army. 
 " Do you think the Hessian groschen would be of 
 any use to you ? " asked Walt, who found to his 
 surprise, that he had given away all his small money. 
 The boy looked at him stupidly, and laughed, as if 
 it were a good joke, but said nothing. Walt showed 
 him one — " Oh ! " said he, " I know that well ; my 
 father has often given it to me to exchange." Walt 
 learned at length that the boy was a Hessian, and 
 gave him all that remained of his native currency. 
 
 Gradually the beggar's staff seemed to manifest its 
 malignant power, and, like a lightning-rod, to draw 
 the thunder upon him. Walt tried in vain, but he 
 could not bring back the morning spring, he was 
 compelled to see the evening autumn before him, 
 which was indeed as epic as the spring had been 
 lyric and romantic. He dared to lay the guilt on the 
 stick, that although he looked at the Leipsic hills, 
 and would have looked beyond them on the other 
 side to find on the Leipsic plains Wina's garden- 
 door, it was all in vain ; the staff would stop and turn 
 on the descending mountain side. 
 
 He saw now only the flight and the rapid course 
 of life ; its haste upon the earth, like the flight 
 of the shadow of the clouds, while in the sky the 
 clouds themselves moved slowly on ; and the sun, 
 like a God, stood firm and silent. " Ah ! " he said, 
 
74 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 " in every autumn fall also human leaves ; but alas, 
 not all ! " 
 
 He looked at a closely eaten meadow ; violet color- 
 ed with the full-blown poisonous harvest flowers,* 
 and listened to the noisy birds, who seemed to be 
 consulting with each other about their nocturnal jour- 
 ney. Upon the high road a heavy wagon rolled, 
 under whose hind wheels a dog was barking violently. 
 Then came Walt to a little village with five or six 
 washing and sweeping houses, and some others, 
 smoking with baking-ovens. The young men were 
 raising with poles, at the risk of half their lives, a 
 May-tree, ornamented on the top with gay colored 
 ribbons, (a May-tree in a village is as important as 
 a bird-pole t in a middling town.) The young girls 
 who sent up the ribbons, heated and red with the 
 excitement, had nothing in their blessed heads and 
 hearts but the Sunday dance around the May-pole, 
 with all the most respectable Burschen in the place. 
 Not far from these he saw a pretty little girl of eleven 
 years old, walking with a crutch, whom he inex- 
 pressibly pitied, because she could not join the to- 
 morrow's dance. 
 
 Some criminals came along, chained together, and 
 between their prison leaders, singing, as they went, 
 
 * Colchicum Autumnale. 
 
 t The diversion of shooting at a mark in the form of a bird 
 suspended from the top of a high pole, is common in the small 
 towns in Germany. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 75 
 
 the praises of the beer they had drunk in the last 
 village they passed through. 
 
 Walt came now to the considerable village, of 
 which the first named was only a parish. The door 
 of the mother church stood wide open, and from the 
 short thick tower something was blown, which was 
 answered again by the blowing of the shepherd's 
 horn. He went in for a moment, for among all pub- 
 lic buildings, he preferred to visit churches ; they 
 were ice palaces, upon whose empty walls the altar 
 fire of his own pious thoughts kindled and played in 
 wandering lights and in beautiful colors. A christen- 
 ing was going on. The baptized and the baptizer 
 were both crying before the baptismal angel. * Four 
 or five men were adorned after their custom, in their 
 Sunday clothes, the hurried work of the tailor. From 
 the principal pew, that of the noble family, the servant 
 girls looked on, wrapped in blue aprons, instead of 
 shawls, the demi-negligee of their working days. The 
 God-father, who was also the great-grandfather of 
 the little child at the fount, from years and weakness 
 could scarcely support the little frail neck ; and his 
 winterly form, spare and denuded of all grace, with 
 the few white hairs carefully gathered behind to form 
 a cue, made a painful impression on the heart of 
 Walt. The old man standing so near the young ; 
 the child of the grave close to the child of the cradle ; 
 the yellow stubble supporting the may-blossom, dwelt 
 
 * Tlie angel that supports the fount. 
 
76 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 upon and touched his fancy for an hour after he left 
 the village. 
 
 " Play rather," he said to some children who car- 
 ried a cross, and were playing a burial procession, 
 " play rather, dear children, at baptizing an infant." 
 
 " Rejoice now in your plays, blooming children ! 
 When you again become children through age, you 
 will bend beneath infirmities and gray hairs ; and in 
 that melancholy play, the days of infancy will be 
 remembered. The western sky may indeed shut 
 down the aurora, and the eastern glow may be re- 
 flected in the west, but the clouds become darker, and 
 no second sun arises in life. O ! rejoice, then, chil- 
 dren, in the rose color of the morning of life, that gilds 
 you like painted flowers, fluttering to meet the sun." 
 
 The magic lantern of life threw a succession of 
 moving figures upon his way, enlightened as they 
 were behind the glass by the setting sun, they passed 
 before him in a continual stream. A boat, with mer- 
 chandise for the fair ; adjoining the road side an hum- 
 ble village church-yard, over whose turf wall a lap- 
 dog could spring ; an extra post, with four horses and 
 four servants ; the shadows of the clouds, and follow- 
 ing them, the shadow of a flight of ravens ; the ruins 
 of castles gray with age. Now he passed a clatter- 
 ing mill, then a village accoucher springing in haste 
 to his horse ; the hard, dry, village barber, his razor- 
 bag dangling behind him ; a thickly coated country 
 minister, with his written harvest sermon, to thank 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 77 
 
 God for the universal harvest, and his hearers for his 
 own ; a wheelbarrow loaded with wares, and a beg- 
 gar with his staff, both going to the kirmes dinner.* 
 
 He passed another village of three houses, and a 
 man upon a ladder to number the houses and streets 
 with red ; a fellow bearing a white plaster bust upon 
 his head, either the head of an old emperor, or phi- 
 losopher, or any other whatever ; a pupil of the gym- 
 nasium spitted upon a milestone, with a romance 
 before his eyes, to enable him to poetize youth and 
 life ; and at length, upon a distant height, yet between 
 him and the green mountain, a conspicuous town, 
 which he would reach to-night, upon whose steeples 
 and gables the clear evening sun was reflected in 
 golden light, as they stood against the blue ether. 
 
 As he ascended a little eminence, and looked 
 backwards and forwards to knit together the chain of 
 objects hastening on, or departing from each other, 
 there came to meet him a picture-dealer, with his 
 print and picture gallery bound upon a cylinder, and 
 suspended from his neck, and asked him if he would 
 purchase. " I know I shall not purchase anything," 
 said Walt, and gave him twelve kreuzers, " but let 
 me, for these, turn them over a Ihtle." 
 
 " With all my heart," the other answered, and 
 bent back his thorax that he might draw them out. 
 
 Here Walt found again the standing and the mov- 
 ing pictures of life, drawn out with color upon paper ; 
 
 * A church consecration dinner. 
 
78 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 half the world, and the world's history; pictures of 
 potentates and of pots from Herculaneum ; merry 
 andrews and military uniforms : flowers and fashions ; 
 all overlaid the breast of the man. 
 
 " What is the name of that little town above 
 there " asked Walt. 
 
 *' Altfladungen, my dear Sir, and the mountain 
 beyond is an excellent lightning conductor, otherwise, 
 the day before yesterday, the lightning would have 
 burnt it up," said the picture-dealer ; " but I have 
 more beautiful pictures than you have yet seen," 
 and he turned over the hano;in^ cabinet with both 
 hands. Walt's eye fell upon a Quodlibet * sketch, 
 where, with a traveller's lead pencil, all the objects 
 of his day's journey, as it seemed, had been hastily 
 thrown. Since his youth he had considered a so- 
 called qiiodJihet an anagram or epigram of life, and 
 had looked at it with more sadness than cheer- 
 fulness ; but especially as upon this one, which was 
 so drawn as to represent a Janus-head, with two 
 faces, that differed little from his own and Vult's. 
 An angel hovered over both. Beneath, under one 
 face, was written in German, What God iciUs, is 
 well done — under the other in Latin, Quod Dem 
 Vult est bene factus. Walt purchased the picture 
 for his brother, and the picture-dealer left the hill 
 with many thanks. 
 
 * A disconnected sketch that tells the story of any given time, 
 thrown together upon one sheet. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 79 
 
 Walt again raised his soul from the daily painted 
 course of life, passing beneath his eyes, to the pro- 
 tecting mountain, whose painted rocks, and sheep 
 feeding beneath them, had become, in the parting 
 sun, altogether rose color, and his thoughts took 
 this form — 
 
 " Thus it stands, as it has stood from eternity. 
 Before the birth of man, it divided, as now, the heavy 
 thunder-clouds, and brake the thunderbolt ; and 
 although there were none to rejoice, made all clear 
 and beautiful in the valleys beneath. How many 
 thousand times may the crimson glory of evening 
 have gilded its summit when there was no eye to 
 look up, and, overpowered with the majesty of nature, 
 sink again into the forgetfulness of dreams ! Art 
 thou then. Oh, Infinite Nature, art thou not too Infi- 
 nite for us, the poor creatures of a day ? when for 
 centuries thou hast shone in power and in splendor 
 — alone ! And thee ! oh God, not even a God has 
 yet beheld thy face ! How much less we, who are 
 so infinitely little ! " 
 
 As the day advanced towards evening, the epic 
 mood of his soul was changed into the romantic. 
 Behind these rose -mountains, Wina again wandered 
 in her garden ; for the light of evening, colors at the 
 same time the optical and the spiritual shadows 
 before us more gayly. He longed now for commu- 
 nion with some human being, and he pressed himself 
 
80 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 upon a man who was wheeling a barrow full of wool 
 slowly along, and who frequently stood still, and 
 looked at the setting sun. 
 
 " He had been," said the latter, who was soon ex- 
 cited to talk, " formerly a shepherd, and had kept his 
 herds together by blowing a glass horn ; there were not 
 many herdsmen that would not have made something 
 of it, if they could have learned to blow as well 
 as he did, but no one had ever been capable of 
 it, and he should like to know whether other herds- 
 men kept their cattle behind them when they waded 
 through the Elbe (as though they were files of sol- 
 diers). God forbid that he should boast, but it was 
 true." 
 
 Nothing gave Walt more joy than to hear a poor 
 devil, whom nobody praised, praising himself so 
 heartily. 
 
 " I shall have to wheel," said the man, who kept 
 his own part in the conversation, " full five hours 
 longer, and the fresh cool night will be right wel- 
 come." 
 
 " That I can easily believe, my old friend," said 
 Walt, before whom the never- forgotten old man of 
 Toggenburg appeared to stand. " In the shepherd's 
 hut upon wheels, where you sleep, the whole starry 
 heaven must be open to you when you wake at night. 
 The night must be wonderfully dear to you." 
 
 " It is very natural, I think," said the shepherd, 
 " for as soon as it begins to be fresh, the dew falls 
 bravely. The wool collects the moisture, and weighs 
 
OR THE TWINS. 81 
 
 much heavier — that every honest shepherd knows. 
 And in a hundred weight it will go for something, if 
 not for much." 
 
 Wah left him with an angry " good night," and has- 
 tened on to the mountain town, whose columns of 
 smoke were ascending in the evening air, and where 
 he hoped, after the adventures of the day in villages, 
 one would spring up, perfect in root and flower, 
 worthy to be transplanted into his written romance. 
 
 No. 42. A variegated changing spar. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 6 
 
82 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 C03IEDIANS. THE MAN WITH THE MASK. 
 
 Walt entered the Lewis XVIII., as the mn was 
 called, which stood just at the gate of the city. His 
 first adventure was, that the host refused to give him 
 a room. " The whole house," he said, " is taken 
 by Fränzel's company of comedians. The gala- 
 rooms and chambers are in possession of the higher 
 characters, who came in carriages and on horseback, 
 and the foot-goers have the floor of the house." 
 Walt found himself obliged to put up with the loud 
 tumult of the coffee-room, while he hoped, at least, 
 his sleeping-room might be solitary. 
 
 He placed himself at the half-circular leaf of a 
 sideboard, and called to a waiter, who accidentally 
 passed near enough, and asked politely for food and 
 drink, fortifying his request with good arguments. 
 Without any, he might have received it six minutes 
 sooner at the common table. While sitting there, he 
 felt the highest respect for the entering and departing 
 actors ; and particularly for some distinguished ac- 
 tresses, and their hundred peculiarities. The habits 
 of the men, so newly and skilfully polished ; the 
 buoyant and expanded dresses of the women ; their 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 83 
 
 universally high self-esteem, through which every 
 actor was the mint-master of his own prize medal ; his 
 own chevalier dVionneur ; every actress her own 
 decorative painter ; the true stage courage displayed 
 in the apartment of the host ; the feeling that the 
 sock and the cothurn protected their Achilles' heels. 
 Then again, the variegated obscurity of their dic- 
 tion, which was cut out and made up from as many 
 pieces as the uniforms of those French soldiers, 
 made from bed covers and curtains, and every thing 
 else they could plunder ; and the purer pronuncia- 
 tion, so much envied by Walt. " There cannot be 
 among them," he thought, " one, who has played often 
 and long, an honest, or a modest, or a learned, or im- 
 perial, or even innocent part upon the stage, without 
 improvement : " and he grafted, as youth is accustom- 
 ed to do, into the wood of the stage, as into the pul- 
 pit, the men who stand upon it, but make no part of 
 its growth. 
 
 What troubled him the most was, that all the faces, 
 even the youngest, bore the traces of age, while 
 upon the stage (if the play-bill require it), as upon 
 Olympus, there is eternal youth. 
 
 In the dusk of the evening, a man came in, whose 
 countenance was moved by no expression, who spoke 
 with every one, but in a hollow voice, and often, 
 when one asked him a question, instead of answering, 
 would turn close to the questioner, look at him with 
 a dark, lightning glance, and turn away again wiljjout 
 saying a word. He appeared to belong to Franzel's 
 
84 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 fruit-eating company, and yet these comedians seemed 
 to look at him with marked attention. The man 
 ordered a melon and a paper of snufF ; cut the melon, 
 and strewed the snufF upon it, handed it to the oth- 
 ers, and began to eat the slices of melon himself. 
 As the lights were brought in, he handed the plate to 
 the astonished notary, who plainly saw that the man 
 wore a mask, (but not a deforming one,) before his 
 face, and the well-known Iron-mask glided with the 
 old shudder into his imagination. Walt bowed, and 
 declined. 
 
 After this the mask arose and went to the window, 
 opened the upper part, and asked some of the actors 
 if they would venture to throw an egg through the 
 window ? " Wherefore ? " said one. " Why not ? " 
 another. The mask drew, with something concealed 
 in his hand, some lines across the window, apparent- 
 ly in the air, and said coldly, " Now perhaps — 
 nothing more." He would pay doubly, he said, for 
 all the eggs, as soon as one was thrown through. 
 All the actors, one after another, threw an egg. All 
 rebounded. Not one passed through the window. 
 The mask doubled the price. It was in vain. Walt, 
 who had learnt to use the sling, opened his purse, 
 and paid a groschen for an egg, and bombarded like 
 the others ; he might as well have thrown a bomb 
 without a mortar. A whole brood "and poultry of 
 eggs fell back harmless from the window. 
 
 "Jt is well," said the mask, " till to-morrow even- 
 ing, about this time, the egg-opposing power will 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 85 
 
 remain in the window ; after that any one may throw 
 them through." And he went out. 
 
 The host laughed, not so much because he admir- 
 ed the trick, as because he was reflecting that in the 
 morning these eggs, upon his reckoning table, would 
 be worth more than a whole falconry of birds of 
 prey, to bring booty to his purse. 
 
 As the mask did not immediately come back, Walt 
 followed him with the thought, — "Heavens! what 
 adventures a traveller may meet with in twelve 
 hours;" and, as he was hungry for new ones, he 
 walked in the twilight, in the suburbs of the city. 
 He always preferred the suburbs of a city to the 
 city itself, because they seemed half in the country, 
 in its fields and flowers, and were, besides, on all 
 sides open. 
 
 Walt had walked not a long time, when he met, 
 among the hundred eyes, a pair of deep blue ones, 
 that looked penetratingly into his own. They be- 
 longed to a beautiful and well dressed maiden, to 
 whom, as she passed, he took ofl* his hat. She went 
 into an open shop. A shop is a privileged place, 
 where, as in a stage-coach, or a romance, different 
 and opposing characters are brought together. Walt 
 did as his own romance writer in such cases, and 
 busied himself with the various pieces of cut goods, 
 of which, however, he purchased only a hair-ribbon, 
 merely for the purpose of knitting a bond between 
 himself and the blue-eyed damsel. The beautiful 
 girl stood, as it were, upon a sort of bargaining lad- 
 
86 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 der, with a pair of men's kid gloves in her hand, 
 and disputed, at every step, the value of the gloves. 
 The amazed notary stood with the hair-ribbon be- 
 tween finger and thumb before the counter, until the 
 bargaining was ended, and the refused gloves thrown 
 back to the shopman. Walt, who always avoided 
 even looking inquiringly into a shop, lest he should 
 excite and disappoint hopes of a purchase, stepped 
 bitterly away, grieved at the hardness of the gentle- 
 eyed maiden, and left her charms, where she had 
 left her gloves. Beauty and self-interest, or avarice, 
 were to him opposhe poles. In buying, not in sell- 
 ing, women are less generous, and much narrower 
 than men ; because they are more considerate and 
 fearful, and are more accustomed to the outlay of 
 small, than of large sums. 
 
 The blue-eyed passed beyond Walt, and looked 
 back, apparently at the letter-post-man, whose horn 
 was sounding behind them. In the post horn there 
 was always something displeasing to Walt's fancy ; 
 without his knowing why, except, perhaps, that as 
 formerly, it awakened longings for a future, foreign 
 world ; now that world was his own, the sound no 
 longer promised or painted more. Men often be- 
 come cold to the post-horn or post-rider, because 
 they know beforehand that he brings nothing to 
 them. 
 
 As he entered the Lewis XYIIL, the post-rider 
 alighted from his saddle in the court. He looked at 
 Wait, and asked him how he was called } " Where- 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 m 
 
 fore ? " asked the other. " In case your name is 
 such as it is, I have a letter addressed to it," answer- 
 ed the post-man. It was in Vult's hand. On the 
 address was written, In case H. H. is not in Altfla- 
 dungen, the respected post-master is requested to 
 return the letter to H. Van der Harnish, at the theatre- 
 tailor's, Purzel. 
 
 No. 43. Polished stick of amber. 
 
88 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ADVENTURES. 
 
 Here follows Vulfs letter. — "I am just out of 
 the feathers, (while thine have borne thee, or thou 
 them, many worsts onward,) and write hastily with- 
 out stockings, that my letter may reach you this 
 evening. It is ten o'clock ; at half-past ten my 
 dream must be at the post. My dream, I say, for I 
 have had one, so strange that I must send it after 
 you, even if you should laugh at me for it, for a 
 month to come. Your whole to-day's and to-mor- 
 row's journey, I have distinctly dreamed. Has the 
 trickster of dreams deceived me, and this letter 
 does not meet you at Atfladungen, but is returned to 
 me, then I, as well as you, have been made his sport, 
 and we will expose him. 
 
 " In my dream I was sitting upon the peninsula of a 
 cloud, and saw the whole of the north eastern land- 
 scape, with all its flowery meadows and dunghills ; 
 between which passed a small, yellow-coated figure, 
 rejoicing, on his way. His eyes sometimes raised to 
 heaven, sometimes cast down to the earth. This 
 figure once stood still, drew out its purse, and then 
 went on to the alehouse in Härmlesberg. After- 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 89 
 
 wards, I saw from my cloud, that it went through the 
 Rosana valley, up the mountain, and past the villa- 
 ges. In Grünbrunn it vanished again by the alehouse. 
 My dream-spirit was truly poetical, for every time 
 you entered an alehouse, exactly six minutes before 
 you there entered a person resembling you, only 
 more spiritual, more beautiful, with small wings, 
 which, whenever they moved, colored my cloud, 
 sometimes with a dark blue, sometimes with a pure 
 rose-colored reflection. I inferred, that the dream 
 would, in this, represent to me thy good genius, 
 always preceding thee on thy journey." 
 
 Walt now found the riddle solved, or doubled 
 through another ; that the bust in Härmlesberg knew 
 his name ; that it was written in another place, and 
 also the solution of the strange quodlihet of the pic- 
 ture-dealer. 
 
 But Walt began to doubt the authenticity of the 
 letter, and asked the drinking post-rider where, and 
 from whom, he received it. 
 
 " That, I know not," he said, pettishly, " what my 
 post-master gives, I ride to the station with, and Gou 
 forbid I should pry into secrets." 
 
 " To be sure," said Walt, and read curiously, fur- 
 ther. " Thereupon," continued the letter, " I saw 
 you pass through many places, and enter a church. 
 The genius slipped in before you. In the evening, 
 you took up your night-quarters in Altfladungen. 
 Here I saw, before the door of the Wirthshaus, 
 a splendid form, namely, the genius, contending 
 
90 
 
 WAI/r AND VII LT, 
 
 with a dark-looking being, whose head had no face, 
 but was all hair." 
 
 " God ! " cried Walt, " that must be the man 
 with the mask!" "The being without a face," 
 continued the letter, " held possession of the door ; 
 but thy genius rose, like a bat in the gloaming, close 
 to my cloud ; there threw off its wings, and descend- 
 ed about a mile from Altfladungen, where it assum- 
 ed the shape of a mole, and disappeared in the earth, 
 and, after a time, threw up, close to a bowling-green, 
 a little mole-hill. 
 
 " It struck eight o'clock, reverberating in the cloud 
 around me, and the being without a face came to the 
 mole-hill, and seemed to place something within it, 
 and you, who were behind him, found, as you stro- 
 ked away the summit of the ground, some hundred- 
 year-old Frederic (Tors^ that the genius had dug 
 up, God knows from what depths and caverns, per- 
 haps from Berlin itself, and deposited there for 
 thee."* 
 
 At this moment the mask really entered. Walt 
 tried to look behind his mask, but saw nothing. It 
 struck three quarters after seven. The mask walked 
 uneasily up and down the apartment. He had in 
 his hand a piece of black paper, which, he said, he 
 had been obliged to hang, as a mark, upon the heart 
 of a soldier, who had been shot, and in which he cut 
 a face, which Walt said in his journal, " looked pre- 
 
 * Vult had gained the money by giving a concert at Berlin. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 91 
 
 cisely like me. Like that incomprehensible winter 
 night of the mind, when we are like spirits to our- 
 selves, this mask appeared to me, in this, my sum- 
 mer night of life." 
 
 It struck eight o'clock, and the mask went out. 
 Walt followed boldly behind him. There was in the 
 garden of the inn a bowling-alley, and Walt observ- 
 ed that the mask actually struck a stick into one of 
 the little mole-hills near. Scarcely had he gone, 
 than Walt proceeded to take out the stick, and skim- 
 med, for such it seemed, the surface of the ground, 
 like milk. The cream was, indeed, some spoon's full 
 of beautiful, although rusted, Frederic d'ors. 
 
 " Why did 1 not faint on the spot " he says in 
 his journal, (which may be extensively read.) " it 
 was because I was now embarked in a stream of ad- 
 ventures, that beat strongly against the present and 
 actual, while the thin air of the future, and of hea- 
 ven, drew me on, whether 1 would or not." He 
 adds, also, that he wished to read further in the let- 
 ter, and see what he should do in the morning, and 
 which path he should take, to pursue his journey. 
 " It was, truly, the first time in my life," he con- 
 tinues, " that I ever reached the experience of seeing 
 clearly beyond the present into the future, and living 
 my passing hours twice, now, and then. 
 
 The letter goes on. " My dream was now again 
 somewhat more human. I saw again how the 
 mask, and thy genius, sought to allure thee upon dif- 
 ferent ways. Instead of taking the road to St. Lüne, 
 
92 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 you followed your genius to Rosenhof. At this mo- 
 ment, the mask fell to pieces, and I saw only some 
 dry bones. Thy genius arose, and became a cloud 
 in the far distant horizon. You went singinfj from 
 your mid-day quarters, namely, Jodhz, through a 
 landscape filled with castles in the air, to the valley 
 of Rosana ; where you had to wait till the ferry- 
 boat took you over into the little city of Rosenhof. 
 
 " How such visions could come into my head is 
 comprehensible, only through the fact, that since 
 yesterday, you and your romantic dreams are con- 
 stantly in my mind. I would that your name were 
 so renowned, that this letter would reach you, if it 
 were only addressed to H. H., upon the earth, or, as 
 we say, ^ to the man in the moon.' The dearest 
 address to any one is, ' to Him, in this Universe.' 
 
 " Brother ! travel with the wisdom of the serpent. 
 Preserve much knowledge of the world, and do not 
 believe, as you once asserted, that a blind passenger 
 can take his place by the letter-post, and fail as little 
 in his object, as one who sees. Be happy, and lead 
 a merry life with the old Frederic d'ors, that the 
 mole thre\v up. Select not, O friend, a mourning 
 horse for a hobby-horse, for every cross^ from the 
 cross of an order to the ass's cross, presses upon, or 
 bears too much. * Avoid as much as possible the 
 
 * In Catholic funerals, the horse is covered with a black cloth, 
 on which the cross is wrought. The Eselkreuz, or ass's cross, 
 means the cross marked with black hairs, along the spine, and 
 across the back of every ass. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 great world ; their joy-dances are set in F. mol. 
 Fate often takes the thick liquorice-stick, upon which 
 they chew, for a rod, with which to chastise them. 
 ***** 
 
 " I conclude the longest and most serious letter I 
 have written for ten years, for it strikes half-past ten, 
 and it must forth. But, heavens ! where mayst thou 
 be Perhaps, worsts wide from our Haslau, and 
 already experience in yourself how easy it is to 
 out-crow, and like a polypus, out-swell other men ; 
 and how difficult it is not to look down with con- 
 tempt upon those recluses, who, perhaps, have 
 never crept ten miles from their stoves, and to whom 
 a correct judgment upon such travellers as you and I 
 is impossible. Such men, friend ! should only once 
 experience, in their own person, how mortifying is 
 that British law, that those who go out of the cities 
 should give way to those who enter in.* 
 
 " Follow my counsel. Farewell. Noli nolle. 
 
 V. DER H." 
 
 " P. S. Preserve this letter in case it reaches 
 you — else not. There are things therein for our 
 Hoppel poppel." 
 
 No. 44. Cat-gold from Saxony. A glimmering 
 mica, containing no gold. 
 
 * Hume's miscellaneous works. 
 
94 
 
 WALT AND YULT, 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE ACTRESS. 
 
 " There may be, behind, in the dream, a spirit or 
 a man," thought Walt, " in either case it will remain 
 a wonderful adventure." He was wafted away, upon 
 the train of this romantic comet, far from the crowded 
 apartment, and even from the earth upon which we 
 dwell. The old Frederic d'ors, with which he in- 
 tended to accomplish so much, were the golden 
 coverings of his wings. Now, Avithout encroaching 
 upon the parental fund, he could call for a pint of 
 wine, even if the Alsatian should recover. 
 
 In such a happy mood, he easily made his way 
 through the theatrical swarm in the apartment, 
 passing in and out, as through a cornfield ; now brush- 
 ing the sleeves of the men or women ; now pausing 
 before the groups, and laughing, boldly enough, at a 
 strange conversation. The blue-eyed girl, who had 
 not bought the men's gloves, entered the room. The 
 director of the company scolded Wina, (so he ab- 
 breviated the name of Jaco-bine) publicly and se- 
 verely, because she had brought him gloves that 
 were too dear. Walt had the satisfaction of secretly 
 excusing her avaricious bargain-making, when he 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 95 
 
 found that she belonged to the company of come- 
 dians ; a class of people who have never anything 
 to spare ; whose gold-dust, like the rosin of their 
 fiddle-bows, is thrown in to increase the fire. While 
 the rough director thundered at her, she cast the 
 most good-humored glance at W alt, and said at last, 
 " that gentleman was the witness of her effort to 
 make a better bargain." Walt defended her, but 
 the thunderer was little appeased. * 
 
 At last, however, she made her peace with him, 
 and sat and sewed ; but raised, as often as she drew 
 out her needle, her great blue eyes, roguishly upon 
 Walt, till he felt himself encouraged to approach, 
 and sit near her. He looked attentively at her sew- 
 ing, and tried to think of a suitable preface and in- 
 troduction to conversation. He could easily spin a 
 long and fine thread, but he found it difficult to bind 
 the first flossicle upon the spindle. While he was 
 searching in the chambers of the brain, and in the 
 antechamber of the heart, for something to say, she 
 slipped off her little shoe from her little foot, and 
 called to some of the gentlemen, to lay it upon the 
 stove, to dry. Walt, with much satisfaction, would 
 have sprung to obey, but he blushed too deeply, and 
 was embarrassed. A female shoe, for he could not 
 separate it from the foot, was to him as sacred, as 
 
 * I have here omitted two or thee pages, where a wager be- 
 tween the mask and the director of the company is described, in 
 which the mask wins. — TV. 
 
i 
 
 96 WALT AND VÜLT, 
 
 beautiful, and as significant as her bonnet. For a 
 man, the shoe is nothing ; the overcoat is of some 
 consequence, and of children every little thing is 
 sacred. 
 
 " I thought you would at last say something," 
 interposed Jacobine, and, as she could not move his 
 tongue, she would his body, and let her spool of cot- 
 ton fall, holding it by the end of the thread. Walt 
 ran to take up this fortune's foot-ball, Jacobine ran 
 also, and pushed it still further on with her foot, so 
 that he became completely entangled in the thread. 
 Both stooped at the same moment, their heads met, 
 and both were reddened by the blow, for her natural 
 paleness had been corrected by the stage rouge, and 
 his natural glow increased. As they came thus sud- 
 denly together, in an extraordinary and active group- 
 ing, more was done towards an acquaintance, than if 
 they had sat there three months considering the 
 programme of friendship. The ball furnished an 
 Ariadne's thread, through the labyrinth of introduc- 
 tion, and Walt asked her boldly, " What are your 
 principal characters ? " " I play all the innocent and 
 naive," she answered, and the glance of her eye 
 confirmed her assertion. 
 
 To give her a high and exalted pleasure, Walt went 
 deeply into stage characters, and defined to the silent 
 sewer the true poetry of acting. 
 
 " You are as wearisome as a theatrical poet," she 
 said, at last, " or you are one } What may be 
 your name. " Walt informed her. " I am called 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 97 
 
 Jacobinc Pamsen ; Mr. Franzel is my step-father. 
 Where do you think of going, Mr. Flarnish ? " He 
 answered, " probably to Rosenhof" " Delightful ! 
 we play there to-morrow evening," and she described 
 the heavenly places around, and said, "the place 
 itself is indeed wholly superb." "Ah, well" — 
 said Walt, and promised himself, from her descrip- 
 tion, a little pattern-card drawing of the landscape, 
 and a skeleton-leaf of the foliage — " go on." 
 
 " But what then ? " said the Pamsen, " the places, 
 I tell you, are the most divine that can be seen. 
 Look after them yourself." 
 
 The masked gentleman now stepped up to them, 
 wholly at his ease, and said decidedly, " near Berch- 
 tolsgaden, in Salsburg, is one much like it, and in 
 Switzerland I found much more beautiful places. 
 Besides, the Berchtolsgadners cut artistical tooth- 
 picks," and he drew one from his vest, whose handle 
 was cut in the form of a perfect greyhound. " He 
 who travels for pleasure only, mein Herr," he con- 
 tinued, " may find his account, perhaps, better in the 
 watering-place of St. Lüne, where at present three 
 courts are pouring in ; the whole of the Flachsen- 
 fingel, besides the Scherrauer and Pestizer, and a 
 whole flood of other guests. I journey in the morn- 
 ing there myself" 
 
 The notary bowed slightly. Fate had through 
 this whole evening prepared for him only surprises. 
 *' Heavens ! " he thought, " these are the very words 
 VOL, ir. 7 
 
98 
 
 WALT AXD VÜLT, 
 
 that are in my brother's letter." Jacobine, with her 
 work, left the room at the entrance of the mask, and 
 by the light he looked at the passage in the letter, 
 and found — " In the morning thy genius and the 
 mask endeavored to allure thee two different ways, 
 but thou followedst thy genius, and instead of St. 
 Lüne, went rather to Rosenhof." It now appeared 
 certain that the mask was his bad genius ; Jacobine, 
 to judge from many things, his better angel, and he 
 wished much that she had not left the apartment. 
 
 Walt had already come to the resolution to follow 
 the dream and the letter on the path to Rosenhof, for 
 he had learnt from Homer and Herodotus and the 
 whole Grecian history, a sacred reverence for the 
 indications of destiny, and fear of raising the bold 
 human hand of free will, against the fore finger in 
 the clouds. This resolution of obedience was now 
 strengthened by the importunity of the mask, and 
 the unconscious influence of Jacobine in weaving 
 that net in which men, as well as birds, are impri- 
 soned, because it is of the same color as the earth, 
 and as hope — namely, green. 
 
 He saw no more of Jacobine ; but under the 
 threshold of her door, merely the light that streamed 
 into his own little chamber opposite. He considered 
 a long time whether he should not offend the whole of 
 humanity if, through suspicion, he drew his night-bolt. 
 But the mask occurred to him, and he fastened his door. 
 In his dreams it seemed to him he heard his name soft- 
 ly called. " Who's there ? " he cried out. No one 
 
OR Tin: TWINS. 
 
 99 
 
 answered, and the purest moon-ligbt alone lay upon 
 the pillow. His dreams were confused. Jacobine 
 drew him always again upward, borne on a rose- 
 colored cloud, after the mask, in the form of an 
 angel, had thrown him upon the hot, sulphureous 
 earth. 
 
 No. 45. Katzenauge, 
 an eye is represented. 
 
 A sort of onyx, in which 
 
100 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE FRESH MORNING. 
 
 Early in the morning the troop broke up their 
 noisy tents, as troops are wont to do, and moved out 
 of the camp. The drivers shook their night-straw 
 off. The horses neighed, and pawed the ground. 
 The freshness of life, and of the morning kindled 
 the glittering morning dew over all the fields of the 
 future, and made it worth their trouble to journey 
 forth. The noise and motion animated the romantic 
 in the heart, and it was as if one passed over from 
 the land of prose to the land of poetry, and reached 
 it about seven o'clock, when the sun yet burnished 
 all with gold. As they passed before Walt, Jacobine, 
 paler than the rest, appeared like the spirit he had 
 seen in his dream, and he looked forward to the 
 evening, when he should again see this pale spirit, 
 and ask her the cause of her paleness. It was easier 
 for him to suspect the color of the soul even, than 
 the painted cheek, that autumn color of the falling 
 leaves, that displaces the virgin bloom of the rose of 
 spring. * * * 
 
 The mask mounted, and cantered off upon the 
 road to St. Lüne. Gottwalt knew that if he struck 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 101 
 
 into the road to Joditz, the dream, which prophesied 
 that he should dine in that little village would be 
 half fulfilled. He took that road. 
 
 Was it that the second day of travelling had dim- 
 med the dazzling splendor of nature, or that his 
 uncertain glance at the prophesied gifts of Rosenhof 
 had scared away the soft green of nature, that like a 
 picture, can only enter a quiet eye? Enough — 
 instead of yesterday's reflective morning, he had 
 now only a restless activity. He rarely sat down, 
 he flew, he stood, and went on like an express-rider 
 at the top of his speed. Had he met Don Quixote's 
 Rosinante grazing upon a meadow, he had swung 
 himself on the naked back, (himself his own sad- 
 dle,) to ride through the world of romance, till he 
 paused before the house-door of some Dulcinea of 
 Toboso. He saw as he passed, a working oil-mill, 
 and entered it. The giant machinery appeared to 
 him to be alive ; the cutting, hewing trunk, the thun- 
 dering timbers, seemed raised and moved by strange 
 and unseen spirits. 
 
 Through the pure blue sky a rushing wind passed, 
 forming its own Eolian harp. The woods and moun- 
 tains seemed shaken and bent by invisible spirits, 
 and the outward world appeared as fluctuating as the 
 inward was restless. Upon the rocky heights were 
 castles ; in the gardens, pleasure-houses. Some- 
 times on the rising grounds a small white house 
 appeared, or the red-tiled roof of a cottage, or a corn 
 or paper-mill glanced from the foliage. Under all 
 
102 WALT AND VüLT, 
 
 these roofs there might be fathers and daughters 
 dwelling, and events occurring in which he might 
 take a part. He could not then pass them unmoved.' 
 
 As a second road cut across, forming the St. 
 Andrew's cross of fortune-tellers,* the old traditions 
 of his childhood arose fearfully in his mind, and 
 moved him deeply. He appeared to stand in the 
 centre of the four corners of the earth, from whence 
 he discerned the distant tribes in their life's-course 
 over the places. Now he discovered Joditz, where, 
 according to Vult's dream, he must dine. It appear- 
 ed to him as if he had long since seen it — the stream 
 encircling the village, the brook running through it, 
 the wooded hill rising perpendicularly from the river, 
 the surrounding birches — all were to him an old 
 familiar picture. Perhaps the dream-spirit had built 
 such a village in the air, in his sleep, and suffered it 
 to hover before him. He thought not of this, but of 
 the strange coincidences in nature, willingly giving 
 resemblances to stones and clouds, and playing with 
 the likeness of twins. * * # 
 
 Walt continued his way through a quiet wood into 
 which he had stepped from the high road, and de- 
 scended a gradually narrowing dell, till he came to 
 the silent spot, that he thus describes in his journal. 
 
 " The rocks on each side pressed so nearly to- 
 gether, that the arms of the trees waving on their 
 summits embraced each other. There was no color 
 
 * The cross made on the hand by fortune-tellers. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 103 
 
 here but green and the deep blue above. The birds, 
 never disturbed in this their own abode, nestled, and 
 fluttered, and sang around me. Gushing springs 
 cooled the place, for no air found its way therein. 
 An eternally shaded nnorning dwells there ; and 
 every wood-blossom is moist, for the morning dew 
 rests upon it till the evening dew falls. So securely 
 enclosed, so secretly in-built is this green, still life of 
 nature, there is no bond with the outward world 
 except through some solitary sun-beam, that at noon- 
 day unites this quiet spot with the all-pervading sky. 
 Wonderful, that the deep places are as solitary as the 
 mountain-tops. Upon Mount Blanc, which rejoiced 
 me much. De Saussure found nothing living, but a day 
 and a night butterfly. At length I was as calm as 
 the place, and slept ; one enchanting dream after 
 another folded its wings over me, and they soon be- 
 came large flower-petals, upon which I rocked in 
 sleep. At last it appeared as if a flute called me by 
 my name, and my brother stood close to my bed. I 
 opened my eyes ; but I certainly heard a flute. I 
 looked at the summit of the trees, red with the sun's 
 beams, and recollected with alarm my journey from 
 Joditz, the prophesied evening in Rosenhof, and that 
 I had slept a whole night in this spot ; for I thought 
 the glow upon the trees was the red glow of morning. 
 I pressed through the dewy wood, up to the road 
 again. A splendid morning landscape appeared to 
 me to spread its glowing wings before me, and raised 
 my heart to the most cheerful devotion. Wide pine 
 
104 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 woods on the hills were indeed sown with yellowish 
 red, but only from the ravages of the murderous cat- 
 erpillar, the enemy of the pine. The precious sun 
 was where, at this time of the year, it would be at 
 half-past five in the morning, although it was, truth 
 to say, a quarter-past six in the evening. In the 
 meantime I looked at the Lindenstatt mountains, 
 flooded with the red glare of the opposite sun, which 
 from their eastern position, had it been morn- 
 ing, should have stood above them. I remained in 
 perplexity, although the sun appeared to fall rather 
 than to rise, till a young and thin landscape-painter, 
 with a sharp and beautiful profile, long legs and steps, 
 and one of the great Prussian hats, would have pass- 
 ed me, with a painter's portfolio in his hand. ' Good 
 morning, friend,' I said, ' is this the road to Rosen- 
 hof, and how far is it ? ' 
 
 " ' There, immediately behind the hills, it lies. 
 You can reach it in a quarter of an hour; before the 
 sun sets, if the ferry-boat happens to be ready.' 
 
 " With long strides the painter went on. I called 
 out ' thanks — good night.' It was as surprising to 
 me as if the earth had turned backwards, and a 
 great shadow had passed away from the sun-light of 
 life, that it was now evening instead of morning." * 
 Thus far the journal. 
 
 Walt stood still and looked around. Unknown 
 
 * Because of the adventure he expected that evening in Rosen- 
 hof. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 105 
 
 mountains enclosed a long plain behind him, while 
 before him storm-clouds were heaped behind hills 
 that seemed to bear the pines playfully on their heads. 
 The landscape-painter had seated himself upon an 
 eminence, and seemed to transfer the concealed city 
 of Rosenhof to his sketching paper. " Ach Gott ! " 
 thought Walt, " now I understand where the city lies." 
 As he ascended, the prospect rose before him, and as 
 he stood still, near the position the painter had taken, 
 at the first glance at the landscape he cried out, " yes, 
 that is worth painting." "I sketch merely," said the 
 painter, and bent low, without looking up, over his 
 paper. 
 
 Walt remained standing : his eye swept from the 
 broad stream of the Rosana, at his feet, upwards to 
 the city, and rose to the woody, divided summits of 
 the mountain above the city, and fell again upon the 
 ferry-boat at his feet, as it passed between two 
 ropes, from shore to shore, constantly filled with new 
 passengers, with men and wagons and horses ; and 
 his eye followed the river down its course, divided 
 by five beautiful islands, and burnished by the even- 
 ing sun. 
 
 The passengers were landed. New foot-passengers 
 and workmen stepped in, but they waited, as it seemed 
 to Walt, for him. He ran down and sprang upon the 
 boat. But still it waited, and he looked up the three 
 roads that met at the ferry. At last he saw, in the 
 evening sun-light, an elegant travelling carriage, with 
 four post-horses and a cloud of dust roll down one of 
 
106 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 the roads. Walt rejoiced at this accession, for there 
 stood ah'eady upon the boat a wagoner's car and 
 horses, and a carriage and horses would make the 
 company more lively and various, which already 
 consisted of a throng of beggars, messengers, dogs 
 and children ; travelling mechanics and apprentices, 
 to which were added the hay women,* the Tyrolese 
 and beggar, who were on their way, the accoucher 
 and the painter he had met yesterday. The ferry- 
 boat was to him a crowded floating market-place ; a 
 proud ship of the line between two lines of ropes ; a 
 Beaucentoro^ from which his soul threw out two mar- 
 riage rings, one for the sea-ward stream, the other 
 into the glowing evening sky. He more than half 
 wished that the passage might lead to some danger, 
 not to injure others, but to throw a more vivid life into 
 the scene. 
 
 There stepped from the carriage, before it touched 
 the narrow edge of the boat, a dignified person, who 
 said, with the proud reserve belonging to his station, 
 that he could not trust his own horses on board. 
 Walt, in the jubilee of his heart, placed himself, with- 
 out any distinguishing politeness, before him, for he 
 saw at once that it was general Zablocki. The latter, 
 through frequent journeying, accustomed to such re- 
 cognitions, bowed a calm satisfaction at meeting his 
 erotic secretary again. 
 
 * Grummet-women. These are old women who go out to cut 
 the after-growth of the grass, when the scythe has done its work. 
 They carry it in great bundles on the head. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 107 
 
 The long post-train, at length, stamped upon the 
 boat with the carriage behind. Walt trembled as he 
 looked up, for Zablocki's beautiful daughter sat 
 therein. Her eyes were fixed upon the five islands 
 that the setting sun bathed in a rose-colored light. 
 A mere acquaintance of Walt's had been to him, 
 meeting on this strange ground, like a brother ; but 
 
 now this silent, beloved form it gave him an 
 
 emotion of soul, such as no dream, and no waking 
 phantasie had ever prophesied. 
 
 Walt stood at the east side of the carriage with his 
 eyes cast down, lest she should turn hers round and 
 be disturbed at his ; although he immediately knew 
 that, blinded by the sun, Wina at first would see 
 nothing distinctly, and he thought, that probably she 
 had never looked attentively at him, so as to recog- 
 nise him again. He saw not the sun, nor the lovely 
 islands himself, but created and enjoyed the view 
 through the silent dream with which Wina appeared 
 to rest upon them, and he added a thousand wishes 
 that they might appear to her more splendid, more 
 heavenly, than they really ever could be. 
 
 It seemed to Walt that the horizontal sun-beams 
 imparted to the river and the boat, to men and dogs, 
 the colors of youth, that they gilded every beggar's 
 stafl^" and silvered their years and their ha.ir. But he 
 gave not much attention to them, for the sun also 
 surrounded Wina with a halo like that of the saints, 
 and changed the roses of her cheeks to the roses of 
 paradise. The boat was to him a sweet tone vibrating 
 
108 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 on the sounding-board of life ; the enchanted ship of 
 eastern lands ; Charon's boat, bearing him from 
 Tartarus to the Elysian shores. He appeared to 
 himself strange, unrecognisable, immortal, for the 
 neighborhood of Wina threw a transfiguration upon 
 him. 
 
 A cripple would have related to him something of 
 his necessities, but Walt did not now understand him. 
 He felt an aversion to the man who, on such an even- 
 ing, was not blessed. An evening when the hitherto 
 troubled Wina had become cheerful, and the sun, like 
 a warm sister's hand, rested upon the heart that in 
 many dark hours had been oppressed with sorrow. 
 
 Oh, that the evening had no end, thought Walt, 
 or the Rosana was all breadth, or that they had ship- 
 ped upon its length to bear them to the sea, and on, to 
 the ever descending western sun. 
 
 The sun had now gone below the stream. Wina 
 turned her eyes slowly from the earth, and they fell 
 accidentally upon Walt. He would have thrown a 
 greeting full of respectful words into the carriage, 
 but the boat shot violently back from the shore and 
 scattered what he had prepared. 
 
 The carriage was carefully drawn to land. Walt 
 gave four groschen for his fare. " For whom these ? " 
 asked the ferryman. " For who will," said Walt ; 
 and thereupon more than too many sprang, without 
 paying, to land. The general wished to walk through 
 this beautiful city of gardens ; Walt remained near 
 him. The latter asked if he had not yesterday met 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 109 
 
 a company of comedians. He informed the general 
 that they would this evening play in Rosenhof. 
 *' Good," said he, " you will sup with me this even- 
 ing at the Pomegranate. You rest there to night, 
 I hope, and in the morning see, in my society, the 
 splendid groups of rocks that appear above the 
 city." 
 
 His delight at this rich gift of fortune, Walt ex- 
 presses thus shortly in his journal. " How I expressed 
 my joy, thou, dear brother, can better imagine than 
 I can tell thee ! " 
 
 No. 46. Primitive Garnet. 
 
110 
 
 WALT AND VÜLT, 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 CHARTREUSE OF THE IMAGINATON. BON-MOTS. 
 
 It would be dilFicult to find anything more refresh- 
 ing, than to walk, upon a beautiful evening, with 
 general Zablocki behind the carriage of his daughter, 
 in the lovely city of Rosenhof, wreathed on both 
 sides with gardens of roses, and without anxiety for 
 the supper which was to follow ; and then to look 
 from the broad, clean, hospitable streets, and the 
 lightly passing occupations and amusements of life, 
 to the dark, immovable mountain heights above, that 
 look down from their cold, tranquil summits, upon 
 the houses and towers of an ever-changing life. 
 Walt was particularly delighted with the shaded 
 street where the Pomegranate was situated. " To 
 me," he said, excited and eloquent, "it appears as 
 though I were in Chalcis in Euboea, or in some other 
 Grecian city, where there were so many trees in the 
 streets, they could not see the city. Can there be a 
 more beautiful union of city and country than here, 
 your excellency ? Is not the thought also charming 
 that here, at a far distant time, here, as in Montpellier, 
 all the place was covered with roses, and all the in- 
 habitants reposed upon roses, although just now 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 Ill 
 
 nothing remains but the thorns eh, Herr Gene- 
 ral ? " 
 
 The General, who had not heard a word, cried out 
 to his coachman a heavy curse, because he had driven 
 his carriage almost fast to the wheel of the Fränzel 
 wagon. "These are the actors," said Walt, and 
 proceeded to demand of the Host a chamber for 
 himself. He easily obtained an excellent one, as 
 they took him for the secretary of Zablocki, which 
 in fact he was, so far as the erotic memoirs went. 
 He was astonished, when shewn into his room, at the 
 ostentation of the furniture, and was scarcely prepar- 
 ed to place his beggar's staff with his hat upon the 
 great mirrored table. He walked up and down in 
 the utmost delight of soul at such unusual luxuries ; 
 the paper hangings, the three mirrors, the commode, 
 ornamented with brass work, the window-shades 
 upon rollers ; and, to complete the whole, a bell to 
 call the servant. He rang, for the first time in his 
 life ; determined to be wholly a gentleman. He 
 desired the servant to bring him a flask of wine, that 
 he might live one evening enjoying life as the trou- 
 badours used formerly to do. " Troubadours,*' he 
 said to himself as he sipped his wine, " often slept in 
 gilded, princely chambers, when perhaps they had 
 lodged the night before in moss or straw huts. Like 
 the tones of their harps, they pressed through high 
 and thick walls, and then were accustomed to repeat 
 to the most beautiful ladies of high rank their song of 
 faithful love, and, like Petrarch, love them in ever- 
 
112 
 
 WALT AND VTTLT, 
 
 lasting verse — but never desire them for them- 
 selves," — he added, and looked at the wall of the — 
 General. 
 
 Zablocki's chamber was only divided from his by 
 a doublc-boltcd door in the wall of his own. Walk- 
 ing up and down, (for standing to listen he deemed 
 dishonorable,) he could hear every violent word of 
 the General to his servants, and the sweet tones into 
 which Wina, like an Eolian harp, converted the 
 storm-wind, so that discord became music. Although 
 Walt had hoped in the large public room beneath to 
 meet Jacobine again, and renew his old acquaintance, 
 yet he felt it far more blessed to remain as a guard 
 near the chamber of the nun, Wina, and represent to 
 himself her large, overshadowed eyes, her gentleness, 
 and lovely voice, and the evening repast he expected 
 to take near her. 
 
 At length he heard the General say he was going 
 to the theatre, and Wina request to be left at home. 
 Afterwards she gave her chamber-maid, the profane 
 songstress Lucia, permission to walk out, and amuse 
 herself in the city. All then was quiet. 
 
 Walt looked from the window out upon hers. 
 ,Wina's shutters were open, (they opened upon the 
 street,) and the light from her chamber threw a sha- 
 dow upon the sign of the hotel, that hung opposite. 
 As he could see nothing further, he turned back into 
 his own room, and there, walking, sipping, and dream- 
 ing — "Oh! I am so happy!" he thought, and 
 looked around to find a poor's-box screwed upon the 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 113 
 
 tapestried wall ; for he never forgot, in his moments 
 of joy, to deposite as much as he was able, in these 
 unknown and silent voices of sorrow. But the cham- 
 ber was too elegant for charity. 
 
 It was now quite dark. The early harvest-moon 
 stood like a silver diadem upon one of the mountain- 
 heads. The waiter came with lights. " I shall need 
 none ; I shall sup with the general," said Walt. 
 He wished to keep the moon-light an hour longer. 
 One, after another of the scribbled sentences of pre- 
 vious travellers were brought out as the moon moved 
 on. Walt read, not without satisfaction, the whole 
 wall through of this youthful literature, which collect- 
 ively, with the lead-pencil in hand, commended love 
 and friendship, and expressed deep contempt for the 
 world. " I know as well as another," he wrote in 
 his journal, " that it is ridiculous, if not unfair, to 
 write on strange chamber walls ; yet the aftercomer 
 is delighted to find that one has been there before 
 him, and has left a light trace of the unknown, for 
 the unknown. Indeed, many leave only the name 
 and date, but to a benevolent man even an empty 
 name is dear, without which, a departing traveller 
 remains more an idea than a comprehensible being, 
 less a man than an airy, indeed wholly ethereal hu- 
 manity. And why should we rather read and pardon 
 an empty thought than an empty name But there 
 are often valuable sentences, such as the following, 
 ' We believe always that we are in the middle of 
 
 VOL. II. 8 
 
114 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 the material hemisphere, but in our inward and men- 
 tal view we believe ourselves always upon the hori- 
 zon ; at the rising sun, when we are happy, at the 
 west, or declining sun, when we are sorrowful.' " 
 At last Walt ventured to connect his own and 
 Wina's initials, " W. W., Sep. 179-." He looked 
 again towards her window. Three fingers, and the 
 rim of a white hat projected on the window-sill. 
 Upon these he could live and dream. The beautiful 
 form of the quiet maiden, completed from the three 
 fingers, hovered like the motes in sun-beams, in the 
 broad moon-light of the apartment, and he enjoyed 
 the repast in anticipation, which would disappoint him 
 in reality. Joy flew in, like purple butterflies, and 
 the floor of his room seemed to him carpeted with 
 flowers. Three-quarters of an hour thus passed. 
 
 But man, with a huge joy-cup at his lips, thirsts 
 for a greater, and at last for the whole cask. Walt 
 began to have the thought, that he could, without any 
 impropriety, accept the father's invitation, and place 
 himself at this moment near the solitary Wina. He 
 was frightened at the thought ; blushed with shame 
 and joy, walked up and down more softly, listened, 
 and found that Wina was walking also. His pur- 
 pose, with every succeeding moment expanded its 
 roots and its flowers ; but after an hour of contest 
 and delicate excuses for the temerity of his appear- 
 ance, the debate was closed by the entrance of the 
 general into his daughter's apartment, and Walt 
 hearing his own name called. He drew the bolt 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 115 
 
 from the door of communication, when Zablocki 
 called out, "this one is closed." Feeling his indeli- 
 cacy, he entered by the public door, blushing also at 
 the consciousness of his own wild dreams. Half blind- 
 ed by the glare of light, he saw the slender form of 
 Wina, standing like a flower-goddess near the genial 
 Bacchus, who had a cheerful warmth in every fea- 
 ture. The daughter looked at him continually, 
 pleased at his own joy. The servants must come upon 
 wings with the supper. Walt moved upon his own, 
 through this magical cabinet, his weight not more 
 than that of fire butterflies, so ethereal was the pre- 
 sent moment, and the whole of life in prospect. 
 
 He placed himself with far more facility and po- 
 liteness at the supper-table, than he could have 
 thought possible. The general, who desired a con- 
 tinual conversation, or rather talking, thought it was 
 Walt's part to relate something amusing. It would 
 have been much easier, at that time, to have said 
 something touching. Nothing occurred to him. Few 
 things are more difficult than extemporising the me- 
 mory. It is much easier to improvise the pointed and 
 profound ; to imagine, than to recollect ; especially if at 
 the same time upon all the eminences of the brain the 
 fire of joy is kindled. AValt could have instantly re- 
 peated three thousand bon-mots, had he only heard one 
 from the lips of another ; but they never occurred^rsi 
 to himself, and he was ashamed of them, when he heard 
 them afterwards repeated. Scarcely was this shame 
 necessary ; for the packet-boats of the foreign wit of 
 
116 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 society, bear unusually shallow brains ; upon whose 
 surface, the flowers of wit never take root and grow, 
 that have been gathered and stuck in. 
 
 ' " I shall recollect something," Walt answered to 
 a look of Zablocki's, and besought God for a single 
 joke ; for he found he could only think of thinking, 
 and of the possibility of remembering. Wina, with 
 considerate kindness, handed her father the flask, 
 which he, alone, could unseal (his letters were un- 
 sealed by her). " Do you think this is the growth 
 of 48 or of 83 ? " asked the general, as he filled 
 Walt's glass. Walt drank with his soul upon his 
 tongue, and sought furtively to look upon the No. 
 upon the caption of the bottle ; " It may indeed," 
 Zablocki continued, " be considered rather young." 
 Walt looked in his glass. " It is indeed splendid 
 wine at 83 years old," he said. Zablocki laughed ; 
 instead of hearing an anecdote, he had lived one, 
 which he could easily make go further. 
 
 The general drew him from his inward search 
 after hon-mots^ with the question why he came to 
 Rosenhof. Walt knew no real, ostensible cause, 
 (although this sat opposite to him dressed in white,) 
 except his love of nature and pleasure in journeying. 
 But as there luere no objects of business, Zablocki 
 did not understand him, but believed he concealed 
 his purposes behind some mountain, and was deter- 
 mined to get behind it also. Walt, thus urged, shook 
 from his poetical wings upon the table-cloth the cost- 
 ly hills and valleys and trees with which they had 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 117 
 
 been loaded, as he flew through the heavenly way. 
 Zablocki, after Walt's long expense of pictures, cried 
 out, " The devil ! take something, for else, I cannot 
 eat." Wina, to Avhom in his quick anger he had 
 turned for relief — for fathers are less apt to throw 
 the blame of an uncongenial companion on their 
 daughters, than men on their wives — Wina, frighten- 
 ed, took a great piece of woodcock, the favorite lux- 
 ury of her father, and handed, more politely than 
 Zablocki, the plate to the perplexed Walt, in order to 
 spare him a hundred embarrassments. 
 
 Walt could not understand how, in the midst of 
 such an eloquent and living picture, as he had just 
 presented, of living, almost speaking nature, a wood- 
 cock could be supposed to make a sensation. Poetic 
 natures like Walt's, if found in northern countries, 
 (for a court, or the great world is the natural north 
 of the soul, as the physical north is the glacier 
 of the body,) are like elephant's teeth in Siberia, 
 thrown, incomprehensibly in a country where the ele- 
 phant himself would perish with cold. 
 
 With an insinuating voice Zablocki asked again if 
 nothing had occurred to him, and Wina looked so 
 beseechingly at him, that he w^ould have suffered in- 
 expressibly, if an anecdote had not just then occurred 
 to him. But after his reprieve, he was near forget- 
 ting all again, for the child-like, beseeching eye of 
 Wina took possession of his fancy, memory, and 
 soul. 
 
 " A cabinet-minister who was hard of hearing, 
 
118 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 listened, while at the table of his prince " — " What 
 was his name ? " asked Zablocki. Walt did not 
 know. " A minister who was deaf, heard at the 
 table of his prince a comic anecdote related, and 
 laughed with the whole table immoderately, although 
 he heard not a word. Then he proposed to relate 
 one, quite as amusing, and to the astonishment of the 
 whole company, the very same they had just heard 
 was repeated as a new one." 
 
 The general believed he had not caught the point 
 of the story, and continued to listen after it was fin- 
 ished — but somewhat later he cried out " delicious " 
 — laughed out clearly again, two minutes afterwards, 
 for he required this time to go through the anecdote 
 again, and represent it extensively to himself. Men 
 do not like that the pointy the blank-point of a story 
 should sit too easily near the threshold. An ordinary 
 anecdote strikes him suddenly and happily with its 
 result, if he has been drawn wearisomely into listen- 
 ing to it. We would have histories long, opinions 
 short. 
 
 Walt tried his second anonymous anecdote of a 
 Dutchman, who would purchase a country-house on 
 account of the splendid prospect of the sea, as all 
 the world about him was too poor to possess it. This 
 man, however, loved prospects to such a degree, that 
 he was willing to overcome every difficulty to obtain 
 one sufficiently extensive. He therefore built a short 
 wall upon a hill that overlooked the sea, with a win- 
 dow in the centre, where he could sit in his leisure 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 119 
 
 moments and enjoy the same prospect that his neigh- 
 bors enjoyed freely from their houses and gardens.* 
 
 Even Wina laughed under the shadow of her hat 
 at this folly. The general praised Walt, and went 
 cheerfully from the apartment ; but he did not re- 
 turn. 
 
 No. 47. Titanium. 
 
 * The third anecdote is omitted 
 
120 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE ROSENHOF NIGHT. . 
 
 Neither Jacobine nor the general made a secret 
 of their mutual inclination for each other's society. 
 The relations of neither can institute juristical pro- 
 ceedings against the author of the Twins, if he coldly 
 relates that Zablocki had gone to walk in the next 
 garden, where the actress was laudably studying her 
 part of Joanna Montfaucon in the open air. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 Walt's face became rose-color when at length the 
 father did not return, and he was alone with Wina. 
 Her eyes, that were like sweet flowers under the 
 broad leaf of the eye-lid, were cast down upon the 
 work, a child's glove, which she was knitting. The 
 fear began to seize Walt, that, as the finder and 
 restorer of her letter to the count, she would look 
 upon him with aversion. He did not venture to look 
 often at her, lest she should accidentally raise her 
 eyes to his. Both were silent. Woman's silence, 
 although it is less frequent, signifies much more than 
 man's. 
 
 The exciting effect which the wine would have 
 had in other circumstances upon the notary, was 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 121 
 
 kept down by his desire to appear well in this refined 
 society ; at the same time the situation would have 
 been most agreeable, if every moment, he had not 
 had the fear that it would be the last moment. 
 
 At length he looked long and intently upon the 
 child's glove, and was so happy as to draw from it a 
 thread for converstion. He said he had often looked, 
 for long hours, upon knitting, but could never under- 
 stand it. 
 
 " It is, however, very easy, Mr. Harnish," said 
 Wina, not sportively, but unembarrassed, and without 
 looking up. 
 
 The address, Mr. Harnish, chased Walt's emotion 
 again back into the silent hermitage of thought. 
 
 " How does it happen," he said, at length ventur- 
 ing again to take up the knitting thread, " that nothing 
 is so touching as the little parts of the dress of child- 
 ren — such as this — their little hats, shoes ? It comes 
 indeed to the same question — why do we love them 
 so much ? " 
 
 " It is perhaps," said Wina, and she raised her 
 calm, full eyes to the notary, who stood before her, 
 " because they are innocent angels upon the earth, 
 and yet suffer many pains." 
 
 Lucia entered. Wina asked if the general had 
 left any commands ? Lucia knew nothing, except 
 that he was walking in the adjoining garden. Wina 
 stepped hastily to the window, drew a breath like a 
 sigh, and said quickly, " my veil, Lucia, and you 
 know certainly he is there, and the way to the garden 
 
122 
 
 WALT AND VULT 
 
 also." With a voice softer than that of a Moravian, 
 sister Lucia answered, " Ja, Gnädigste." * 
 
 Wina threw the veil over her head, and while 
 behind this woven air, this evanescent summer, she 
 looked indescribably blooming and charming, she 
 said, with gentle hesitation, " Dear Mr. Harnish, you 
 also love, as I hear, nature and my good father ? " 
 
 Walt had already flow^n for his hat and stick, and 
 stood armed and ready for a journey, and followed 
 them both down stairs. He felt wholly justified in 
 leaving an apartment, that was not his ow^n, in this 
 manner, but when he came near the steps, a contest 
 began within him, whether he durst walk with either, 
 or whether he should follow after both. Wina could 
 not call him to her, even if she desired it, and the 
 contest lasted till they had descended the steps. 
 Then he decided to go with them, and placed his hat 
 on his head, but he trembled not so much from fear 
 or from joy, but from an anticipation mingled of both. 
 Ah, it is an absurd but pure period in life, when in 
 the youth, the old French knighthood, with all its 
 sacred reverence, is revived; when the boldest are 
 precisely the most timid, as his virgin love has de- 
 scended, a heaven-born form from heaven ; her neigh- 
 borhood is the sacred circle of a higher world, and 
 the touch of her hand is, to him, a gift. Wretched, 
 guilty, must be the youth, who is never timid in the 
 presence of beauty. 
 
 * YeSj most gracious. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 123 
 
 The three went through a shaded avenue to the 
 garden. The moon sketched every trembling twig, 
 and also the waving line of the chain of hills, upon the 
 lighted foot-path. As they walked, Lucia described 
 the beauty of the garden, and particularly that of an 
 arbor entwined wholly with blue flowers ; blue gen- 
 tian, blue veronica, blue asters and berth-wort, were 
 crossed and woven into a little dome, in which there 
 was in the autumn no cloud, that is, no faded flower, 
 but open calix and ether cups. 
 
 " If flowers live and sleep," said Walt, after this 
 introduction, "they must certainly dream, as well as 
 children and animals. All beings must, in fact, 
 dream." " The saints and the angels ? " asked 
 Wina. " I should indeed say yes," answered Walt, 
 " in so far as all beings aspire, they must dream of 
 something higher." " One being must be excepted," 
 said Wina. " Certainly, God does not dream. But, 
 if I again think of the flowers secluded, in their tender 
 envelope, a hidden flower, may dream of expanding 
 in the light of day. Their perfumed souls are to us 
 wrapped in darkness, not merely by the enveloping 
 leaves, but in truth organically concealed, as are our 
 souls, and not merely closed by the eye-lids in sleep. 
 If the smallest trace of daylight renews their colored 
 existence and gives them new power, why may they 
 not, in the night, enjoy a dreaming reflection of the 
 day ? The all-seeing will know, and separate the 
 dream of a rose from that of a lily. The rose might 
 dream of the bee, the lily of the butterfly. It seems 
 
124 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 to me certain the forget-mc-not would dream of a 
 sun-beam ; the tuhp of a butterfly ; many flowers of 
 zephyrs. For where then can God's, or the spiritual 
 world cease ? For him the cup of a flower may be 
 a heart, and many a heart a flower-cup ! " 
 
 As Wina continued to grow more silent, Walt 
 became more eloquent, and inspired himself with the 
 baptismal water which he poured over every moun- 
 tain and star, as they passed before him. There 
 were few beautiful objects that he had not the power, 
 as they passed before him, of describing and height- 
 ening. He felt so happy, so elevated, it seemed to 
 him the whole universe was his own, that he could 
 possess and rob it of all ; that he could seize the 
 stars, and form a wreath, which, like white flowers, 
 should rest upon Wina's head and hand. The less 
 he was interrupted and checked, the more elevated 
 became his thoughts, so that at last the whole world 
 seemed to grow up and be formed by himself. 
 Lucia who had hitherto hummed softly worldly songs, 
 paused, as in reverence, for the words of God ! 
 
 Just at the moment they passed before a little 
 chapel completely overshadowed with leaves, the bell 
 for evening mass sounded. Wina passed slowly as 
 though embarrassed, paused, and said something 
 softly in Lucia's ear. Walt was too near her soul 
 not to see into it. He passed quickly on, to leave 
 her to pray, and secretly to follow her example. 
 
 He had heard Lucia tell Wina that onwards on 
 the left, above the dark arbor, was the blue. Here 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 125 
 
 he resolvecl to wait for Wina. As he drew near, 
 Jacobine flew out of the arbor and threw a shawl 
 sportively over his head, and seizing the corners drew 
 him onwards to enjoy, as she said, the splendid night 
 by his side. 
 
 Although he could not have anticipated with what 
 bold parodies the incidents of human life are often 
 thrown into the wildest contrasts, and disunite man 
 with his wishes, the pleasantry and the freedom 
 opposed the whole course of his higher emotions. 
 He explained hastily to the actress why, and with 
 whom he was there, and looked significantly at the 
 chapel, as though he was expected there. Jacobine 
 joked flatteringly with him upon his good fortune 
 with ladies, and olosed his mouth through the over 
 fullness of his heart. While he sought to oppose her 
 pleasantry with the same weapons, and was inwardly 
 reflecting with what pretence, without a real incivility, 
 he could shake off the arm of Jacobine, he saw from 
 the entrance of the garden the general come to meet 
 his daughter, and very lovingly take her hand within 
 his arm. Thus, with that angel and the stars above, 
 he went towards the house. 
 
 Ah ! thought Walt, how quickly the happy stars of 
 men go down, and looked towards the mountain, 
 where, in the morning, he hoped a star might again 
 arise. His thoughts were not sufficiently free for 
 him to ask Jabobine whether she enjoyed the charm 
 of the beautiful night She flew coldly from him 
 towards the house, and vanished upon the steps. He 
 
126 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 needed nothing this night for his waking dreams, but 
 a pillow and a little piece of moonlight upon his bed. 
 Soon after mid-night, while he dreamed, night music 
 began to play under his window, drawn from wind 
 instruments by Zablocki's people. 
 
 The street was immediately converted into a fine 
 Italian city, where he had carried and set down the 
 little Loretto house, after the flash of sound had 
 passed up, as upon the wire of a lightning conductor, 
 and struck upon his ear ; and he had imagined the 
 stars and the moon leaving the music of the spheres, 
 and moving to the sound of this earthly harmony. 
 At this moment Jacobine, who, he fancied, just before 
 that he heard whispering in the next chamber, flut- 
 tered in at the door, and to the window, with unre- 
 strained impatience to listen to the music, without 
 heeding his presence. 
 
 Walt knew not at first whether he should remain 
 quietly in his bed, or slip out of the room. However, 
 he slipped himself secretly and softly, out of his pillow 
 into his clothes and behind the listener. Like kindled 
 flax he had risen to higher regions, without knowing 
 the way he had taken. Not that he feared for her 
 or himself, but he knew enough of the world to 
 anticipate the kissing of the Parterre at every bold 
 maiden, a misfortune from which to spare her, or any 
 other woman, he would willingly have been himself 
 hunted by the trumpet of infamy. He hesitated, 
 therefore, whether he should not slip from his room, 
 and wait till the actress reiurned to hers. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 127 
 
 She heard three sighs — turned round, and found 
 that Walt stood behind her. To his great joy Jacobine 
 excused her appearance there (for he began to fear 
 that his own presence in his own chamber must need 
 an excuse) by saying, that when she heard the dis- 
 tant music she thought, as the bolt was not drawn, 
 that she had entered an unoccupied chamber to listen 
 to the music from a nearer window. Walt swore 
 that no human being could have a better opinion of 
 her than himself. But Jacobine could not, even with 
 this assertion, believe that her purity was sufficiently 
 established. She went on to represent to him, speak- 
 ing very loud under the noise of the music, how 
 intensely she felt music ; that night music especially 
 penetrated her very soul, and excited her beyond all 
 control ; that on the evening of fasts and festivals she 
 was even more excited, perhaps because her nervous 
 sensibility was then more susceptible of impressions ; 
 that she could never remain in her bed when she 
 heard music, and that often, as now, she had thrown 
 the first napkin she could find over her shoulders, to 
 run to an open window to listen to the sweet sounds. 
 
 During this speech a foreign flute had mingled so 
 strangely with, that it travestied the other music, and 
 the musicians thought it more agreeable to suspend 
 their own and listen to the flute. Jacobine continued 
 to speak as loud as before, apparently without being 
 aware of it. " Music," she said, " inspires us with 
 feelings that neither male nor female friend can im- 
 part to the soul." 
 
128 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 " Somewhat lower, dearest creature ! for heaven's 
 sake speak lower," said Walt, for these last words 
 had been pronounced after the music ceased, " the 
 general sleeps in the next chamber, and is awake. 
 Yes, indeed, I can easily understand, that for a sus- 
 ceptible heart a male friend is too rough and unfem- 
 inine, and a female perhaps does not afford the sup- 
 port that the heart needs." 
 
 She answered as softly as he desired, but at the 
 same time grasped his hand with both hers, so that 
 the napkin which she had held with finger and thumb 
 fell from her shoulders. 
 
 Walt felt the torments of hell ! He knew that the 
 moment the door was opened, this whispered con- 
 versation, and their close proximity, would draw upon 
 him the reputation of a libertine, a maiden wolf- 
 hunter, who would not even spare the innocent, 
 among whom he placed Jacobine, because of her 
 soft blue eyes. 
 
 " But by heaven," he said, " you venture too 
 much." " Hardly," she answered, " since you ven- 
 ture so little ! " Walt was reflecting how, with suf- 
 ficient tenderness and delicacy, he could remind her 
 of her own reputation, without drawing upon himself 
 the suspicion of a selfish regard to his own, when he 
 began to suspect her attack ; his honorable parents, 
 his unspotted youth, the bridal crown of purity, worn 
 so long, all flitted through his mind. But he would 
 give up this for the martyr-crown he should wear in 
 its stead. He became terribly agitated ; " Dearest 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 129 
 
 Jacobine," he said, with imploring voice — " it is so 
 late and still — you divine — you understand my 
 wishes " 
 
 " No ! I am no Eulalia ! Look rather at the pure 
 chaste moon," she said, and thus increased his error 
 and confusion. 
 
 " She moves in a celestial path," he said, " that no 
 earthly desire nor reproach can reach. But let me 
 at least bolt my door, then we are safe." 
 
 " No, no," she said softly, withdrawing her hand, 
 that she might replace the napkin upon her shoulders. 
 Walt turned round to draw the night bolt, and at the 
 same moment something was hurled violently in at 
 the door and fell upon the floor. It was the mask of 
 a man. Jacobine shrieked and fled from the room. 
 Walt took up from the floor the mask of the masked 
 gentleman, whom he had taken for his evil genius. 
 
 The moon-beams so crossed and dazzled his fancy, 
 that at last it seemed as though Jacobine had herself 
 dropped the mask as a device to injure his reputation. 
 Walt suffered much. It did not reconcile him to 
 himself to remember the assertion of his brother 
 Vult, that such spots upon the reputation, are like the 
 stains of perfumed waters upon handkerchiefs, that 
 would fade of themselves, if left without the aid of 
 washes or stain-removers. * * * * 
 
 Then he thought of the possibility of some one 
 having seen the poor innocent girl at his window, 
 and that he might unconsciously have tarnished her 
 
 VOL. II. 9 
 
130 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 unprotected reputation, which he settled in his own 
 mind, must have been inexpressibly pure and firm 
 e'er she would have taken a step so opposed to all 
 womanliness of character. At last he remembered 
 the ninth clause of the will, which enjoined such 
 purity upon himself, and so severely punished seduc- 
 tion. He thought of the general, with his sacred 
 collection of letters from the ultra female Platon- ' 
 ists, and Wina, with her eyes from the blue of i 
 heaven — in short — poor Walt passed the most mis- 
 erable night that a poor sinner, who had no eider- 
 down beneath his back, could live through. 
 
 No. 48. Asbestos. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 131 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 CONCLUSION OF THE JOURNEY. 
 
 Sacred morning ! Thy dews revive the flowers 
 and heal the hearts of men ! Thy star is the pole- 
 star of our wandering tempest-driven phantasies ; and 
 its cool beams lead the eye which has been wandering 
 after its own sparkles, to a fixed and steady light. 
 
 There were yet many stars visible in the morning 
 twilight, when the general, with a cheerful voice, 
 summoned Walt from his bed to the mountain party, 
 and then received him so amiably, that Walt smiled 
 even to the roots of his hair. The general, he thought, 
 would have received him differently, if he had known 
 anything of the night. Wina's complexion bloomed 
 like the roses that opened in the sun of paradise upon 
 the morning of creation. 
 
 They proceeded on foot to the divided mountain. 
 The city reposed in deep silence, and only in the 
 gardens, upon its limits, rustled a faint sound, at inter- 
 vals from the beds and hedges of roses ; and columns 
 of the smoke of breakfast fires began to soar above 
 the roofs. Without the city, life was awake. The 
 thrush was heard from the near pine-wood, and the 
 post-horn from the winding road, while from the 
 
132 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 mountain thundered the eternal waterfall. The three 
 pedestrians spake as people in the early morning 
 always do, like nature herself, in monosyllables. 
 They looked towards the east, whence the rose- 
 colored precursor of the day began to bloom, and 
 deepened, slowly, as the breath of the morning fresh- 
 ened before the rising sun. 
 
 Wina leaned upon one arm of her father, who car- 
 ried in the other, a so called, dark mirror, in order to 
 create, as upon the walls of a saloon, or in a hall of 
 sculpture, the beauty of nature a second time. The 
 early dawn, Wina's morning-dress, the dreamy sen- 
 sation that the morning-star awakens, associated as it 
 is with night, while it rests upon the western horizon ; 
 Walt's emotion of the preceding night, and the con- 
 stant fear of the approaching moment of separation, 
 all made him speechless ; gentle, reflective, although 
 agitated, and full of love for that virgin heart so 
 near him, and so full of opening flowers, that he 
 rejoiced on the way before them, to be able to 
 look into the blissful cup, and observe the opening 
 blossoms. 
 
 Wina asked, in a sweet voice, his forgiveness for 
 her last evening's desertion of him. As he would 
 not give back the prayer, he was silent. She bade 
 him also to greet Raphaela, and to tell her that the 
 return through Rosenhof to Leipsic had prevented 
 her from writing. The general, who talked as openly 
 with his daughter in the presence of Walt as though 
 he were the deaf shadow of a man accompanying 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 133 
 
 them, reproached her for her extensive correspond- 
 ence, her universal care for others, and constant 
 sacrifice of self. Wina merely answered, in 51 
 low voice, " Would to God she deserved the re- 
 proach." 
 
 As they entered between the mountains, the night 
 crept back into deeper dells, and under the valley 
 mist, while the day stood with shining front high in 
 the blue ether. Suddenly the general drew them 
 both between the divided pinnacles of some rocks, 
 while high above, upon one mountain horn, was re- 
 flected the bright purple glow of the morning, while 
 the other was shrouded in the veil of night ; between 
 both shimmered the morning star. The youth and 
 the maiden cried out with one voice, " Oh God ! " 
 
 " Is it not so " asked the general, and looked at 
 the sky in his darkened glass, " this, at least is some- 
 thing for my enthusiast." 
 
 Wina assented many times with her head and eye- 
 lids, for she could not turn away from this starred 
 heaven. Silently she pressed her praying lips upon 
 her father's hand to thank him for this happiness. 
 Then he scolded her a little that she was so suscep- 
 tible, and took so readily the impression of feelings 
 to which he wished to lead her. 
 
 He conducted them both now quickly over an arti- 
 ficial path in front of a wall, where the waterfall, 
 like a self-murderer, flung itself headlong, and then 
 like a long, burnished stream, spread itself over wide 
 lands. The stream fell, they could scarcely see 
 
134 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 from what height, far over and deep beneath an old 
 ruined wall. Zablocki cried with a loud voice to 
 ttem, that if they were not afraid of a shower of 
 spray, they could pass close to the wall and through 
 a low door, overwoven with green branches, and 
 could thence see something of the landscape beneath. 
 He went before, and drew Wina with an extended 
 arm after him. As they came through the half- 
 sunken door they saw in the west a plain, full of 
 cloisters and villages, with a dark stream winding 
 through its valley, and in the east mountains piled 
 upon mountains under the high heavens, and crown- 
 ed like Cybele with red glowing cities of ice. They 
 waited for the moment when the sun, which already 
 tinged the snow of centuries with a faint red, should 
 send its burning rays over, and through the moun- 
 tains. As yet the thunder of the waterfall was the 
 only sound. Gottwalt looked from the east up to- 
 wards heaven as a strange golden Schimmer spread 
 over the dewy green, and saw above his head the 
 waterfall waving and burning before the morning 
 sun like a bridge of fire, over which the car of 
 Apollo rolled, drawn by its flaming steeds. 
 
 Walt threw himself upon his knees, and un- 
 covering his head, spread his hands towards hea- 
 ven, and cried aloud, " Oh ! the splendor of God, 
 Wina ! " 
 
 Then there came a moment, neither knew how, 
 nor when, a moment when the youth looked at Wina, 
 and saw that she looked at him, with a new, a 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 135 
 
 strange, and deeply moved expression. Her eyes 
 revealed to him her whole open heart Wina trem- 
 bled — he trembled. — She looked up at the rain, 
 warm and rose-colored, that seemed to sprinkle the 
 tall pines with sparks of gold, and, as if transfigured, 
 she seemed to rise from earth, while the glowing 
 rainbow rested beautifully upon, and lighted her 
 whole form. She raised her eyes again to Walt's, 
 but withdrew them quickly, as the sun at the pole 
 glances, for a moment upon the eyes of men, and is 
 gone. The thunder of the waterfall, and the rushing 
 of the stream, seemed to screen them with wings, 
 and separate them from all the world. Walt spread 
 his arms no more to Heaven, but to all that the earth 
 contained of beauty for him ! He had nearly forgot- 
 ten the presence of her father, and scarcely avoided 
 seizing the hand of the being who had thrown this 
 glance of enchantment over his whole life. Wina 
 pressed hastily both hands upon her eyes to shut out 
 the whole world. Her father had been observing 
 the waterfall in the glass, and now looked round 
 upon them. 
 
 All was ended ! They turned back. — The general 
 wished them to praise more emphatically and more de- 
 cidedly. Neither Walt nor Wina could speak. "Now," 
 said Zablocki, " after such a prospect one longs for 
 some real Turkish music." Gottwalt answered, " Yes, 
 for such parts of it as are piano and quite soft, through 
 which perhaps the enchantment speaks yet more 
 powerfully, as from the spiritual world." 
 
136 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 " It will rain to-day," said Zablocki, " this morn- 
 ing glow spreads so singularly over the whole hori- 
 zon ; but the splendid morning was worth seeing, 
 Wina ? " Wina gave no assent. Silently they 
 reached Rosenhof. Zablocki's carriage, and horses, 
 and servants stood ready for the journey. All sepa- 
 rated at once. The lovers gave each other no sign 
 of the former minute. The carriage rolled away, 
 as youth and holy hours depart from us. 
 
 Walt went back to the Pomegranate, and after 
 some moments spent in his own, he went into the 
 general's apartment. Here he found some me- 
 mentos of Wina ; a torn note, that he kissed without 
 reading, and a forgotten perfume-flask. Preparations 
 for new guests drove him back to his own apartment. 
 He secured the wonderful mask. It was now impos- 
 sible for him to remain there or to travel any fur- 
 ther. He must turn his excited steps back towards 
 Haslau. He longed to enter Vult's apartment with 
 his folio volume of adventures under his arm. He 
 had had enough for his heart, and he needed no Hue 
 sky but that of Wina's eyes. 
 
 Jacobine threw him from the steps, that she came 
 up as he went down, the promise to play in Haslau 
 the next winter. The rose-colored sky became 
 every moment more gray and full of rain-clouds. 
 Walt was obliged to wait long at the ferry — at 
 last it began to rain in earnest. But when the 
 curtain before the opera of love is drawn up, the 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 137 
 
 eyes and ears are filled with light and song, whe- 
 ther it rains or snows upon the roof of the opera- 
 house. 
 
 Destiny seems willing, after a feast of confection- 
 ary, to cut from the shelf mouldy, or worm-eaten 
 bread for men. Rosenthal was full of water. At 
 the window of a beautiful summer-house, the rain- 
 wind played discords and shrieking cadences upon an 
 seolian harp : yet blessedly Walt flew on his way. 
 He had wings at his head, his heart, his feet ; he 
 moved, moreover, like a winged mercury upon the 
 winged Pegasus. Almost without remarking them, 
 he went through the villages he had passed the day 
 before. Like the lightning, his mind ran only on 
 the gilding of the mansions of life. Wina alone, 
 and her eyes, filled his heart. He thought not of the 
 future, of consequences, of possibilities. He thank- 
 ed God that there was yet a present upon the earth. 
 Thus the rolling planet brought him without an ob- 
 stacle again to the sun. 
 
 Towards evening he saw Haslau in prospect, for 
 the miles had again become worsts.* In Härmles- 
 berg he met an old offender that they were driving 
 with broomsticks from the township. 
 
 As he approached Haslau he encountered the re- 
 turning fire-engines, that had happily extinguished a 
 
 * He was so happy, the long miles had become short like 
 wersts. 
 
138 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 fire. He stepped lightly, and yet enchanted, through 
 the gate of Haslau, although drippmg with the 
 shower, and laden with water as m a bathing-dress ; 
 and looking towards the church-tower, he remark- 
 ed with joy that the testator Flitt yet lived ; sound as 
 a fish in water, he peeped from his air-hole. 
 
 No. 49. JSative silver in the form of leaves. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 139 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 DEVELOPMENTS OF THE JOURNEY AND OF THE 
 
 TRIALS OF THE NOTARY. 
 
 Walt seemed to himself, as though like one of 
 the seven sleepers awaking, he was going through 
 the streets of a town that had just been emptied of 
 its inhabitants. This aspect of things was caused 
 partly by his absence of two days, and partly by the 
 fire, which, although without much injury, had taken 
 place in his absence. While yet in the street he 
 seemed to be moving on his journey. The people, 
 too, drawn by the fire from their every-day regular- 
 ity, clustered here and there in detached groups to 
 gaze about, and talk of the danger they had escaped. 
 Walt hastened to his brother, eager first to excite, 
 and then to gratify his curiosity. Vult received him 
 rather coolly, and said, he supposed he looked very 
 much heated, and ascribed his glowing face to the 
 excitement of the fire. 
 
 Walt began with the most exciting parts of his 
 journey, saying, " Oh brother, I have things to im- 
 part — things indeed" — "I too," interrupted Vult, 
 " have met with some of the wonders of the world, 
 which may astonish you. To begin with the first. 
 
I 
 
 140 WALT AND VÜLT, 
 
 Flitt has recovered. — The town is still wondering 
 and astonished at this unhoped-for recovery." " Yes," 
 said Walt, " I saw him as I passed through the Lo- 
 renzo gate, standing at the air-hole of the tower," but 
 Walt wished to hasten on to other subjects, and said, 
 " dearest brother, I would rather listen to your re- 
 marks than to your narrative, for events are all that 
 I have to impart. Your letter, with its wonderful 
 dream, I have received — but what would that be 
 in itself? It has been fulfilled from point to point, 
 from comma to comma — only listen." 
 
 Walt now related the mysterious drama of his his- 
 tory, and then finding himself involved in a confu- 
 sion of incidents, he repeated it a second time. 
 No adventure is so delightful when passing, or so 
 terrible to escape from, as it becomes afterwards in 
 the relation. Alas ! in his impetuosity he might have 
 been betrayed into raising the sacred veil from 
 Wina's loving glance beneath the water-fall ; had he 
 not, during his whole journey, with Wina as it were 
 on one side, and Vult on the other, reflected and 
 pondered upon this bliss of his life ; impressing upon 
 himself the strongest reasons for referring to Wina 
 in the presence of his brother, only in the most cur- 
 sory manner, and while relating facts, to suppress all 
 emotion ; although he would gladly, in all other cir- 
 cumstances, have poured into the only heart open to 
 him, the full stream of his own, divided as it was 
 between friendship and love. 
 
 " As far as your adventures relate to my letter," 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 141 
 
 answered Vult, " I do not think nauch of them — I 
 will present you presently a natural solution of them. ; 
 but of Jacobine — restrain thyself — of her I would 
 gladly hear more." Walt, although reluctantly, im- 
 parted to his brother an exact history of the noctur- 
 nal visit, telling him of all the circumstances of that 
 strange scene, and not omitting to describe his own 
 harrowing emotions. 
 
 " Nothing can be more easily explained," said 
 Vult at length. " Could not then, a fellow, who knew 
 all the circumstances, have glided on through field and 
 forest a few steps behind or before thee ; announced 
 thy coming at the ale-houses and hotels ; ordered 
 and arranged the most minute circumstances, such 
 as that with the picture-dealer, and his Quodlibet^ and 
 his Quod deus Vult est bene f actus, statt factum — 
 and so on ? As to the letter, it was easy enough to 
 write in my name and style, and to prophesy therein 
 every thing which could not fail of being accom- 
 plished ; and to bury the money, only a moment be- 
 fore it was disinterred." 
 
 " Impossible ! " said Walt, " and then the owner 
 of the mask ? " " Have you still the mask in your 
 pocket ? " asked Vult. Walt drew it out. — Vult 
 placed it before his face, his eyes flashing angrily 
 through, while he cried out in the well-known voice 
 of the mask, " Ah, is it I > Who are you > " " Hea- 
 vens ! what is that ? " exclaimed the terrified Walt. 
 Vult gently raised the mask again, saying — " I do 
 not know what you think of the matter, I am 
 
142 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 convinced that the mask-wearer, the flute-player, the 
 letter-writer, and myself are one and the same per- 
 son. In short, it was I," concluded Vult. 
 
 But Walt could not easily believe in his own 
 astonishment. Something wonderful," he said "is 
 yet concealed behind all this jugglery ; and then, why 
 should you have taken so much pains to deceive me 
 so strangely ? " 
 
 But Vult explained to him that the object was in 
 part to afford him some amusement, in part to 
 save him from something unpleasant. He asked, 
 with rather a sarcastic expression of countenance, 
 whether he did not throw his mask into the room at 
 the right moment, just before Jacobine would have 
 let her's fall ? Finally, he declared plainly, that the 
 clause in the will that punished sins of this nature, 
 by cutting off half the inheritance, was well known, 
 and Walt's innocence, alas, was as well known ; 
 adding that nothing was more frequently a mark to 
 be shot at in a contest, than a white horse, on ac- 
 count of his color of innocence ; the seven heirs, 
 like skilful generals, cover their encampment with a 
 morass ; in short, dove-merchants often deceive ef- 
 fectually, by giving out two female doves as a pair 
 of mates — might it not have been so with you and 
 the actress, had I not followed you closely ? " Walt 
 blushed deeply with shame and anger, and said, 
 looking round for his hat : " Oh harsh, beyond exam- 
 ple ! Is it thus you think of a poor innocent girl, 
 and of your own brother ? " He rushed out, saying 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 143 
 
 with bitter tears, " good night ; for I have not a 
 word more to say." — He left no time for answer, 
 and Vult was almost angry at this unexpected re- 
 pulse. 
 
 "/ — I!" — he repeated in the street, feeling 
 himself deeply wounded, " / could allow myself to 
 sin at a time when God had granted me the most 
 delightful evening of my whole journey, and when 
 the lovely Wina was so near me ? God would not 
 permit that ! " 
 
 But when at last he entered his little chamber, a 
 new and peculiar blessedness was infused into his 
 existence, before which all sorrow seemed to vanish 
 away. A new emotion is more deeply felt in a fa- 
 miliar place. Wina's glance beneath the waterfall 
 illumined his whole existence with the golden beam 
 of morning, and made all the dewy blossoms of life 
 glisten beneath its light. Many things about him 
 had now become, in a wholly new sense, his own. 
 The park below, in whose alleys he had once seen 
 her walking — Raphaela in the same house, who 
 was her friend — these now, with the avarice of a 
 miser, had become the inmates of his own breast. 
 Even the romance he was writing, appeared to him 
 altogether new. He could scarcely recognize again 
 his pictures of a loving heart ; for this evening he 
 first understood what he could lately have wished to 
 express. Never could a passionate author have 
 found a more intelligent reader than himself to-day. 
 
 He immediately began to construct for himself a 
 
144 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 cabinet of favorite pictures, for the representation of 
 the scenes in which Wina might be engaged this very 
 evening. — Perhaps at the theatre, or in the Leipsic 
 gardens, or in a select musical party. Then he 
 painted the scenes in glowing colors, merely for his 
 own delight, — that to-day she might be at Gluck's 
 Iphigcnia in Tauris. Afterwards he made blissful 
 poems about her, and then held these papers, full of 
 the thoughts of Paradise, in the flame of the tallow 
 candle, and consumed them wholly ; for he thought, 
 " I cannot understand by what right I may, without 
 her permission, reveal so much respecting her to 
 paper, or even to myself." 
 
 As he went to bed he determined to have the 
 same dream as Wina. " Who can forbid me," he 
 said, " to visit her dreams, or even sometimes to 
 lend or inspire them ? Is sleep then more reasonable 
 than waking hours Ah ! might she only in its 
 wild illusions, imagine that we were standing to- 
 gether beneath the waterfall ; that united in gentle 
 bonds, we were floating away, swimming, folded in 
 each others arms, upon its flowing waves of burnished 
 gold ; that we were rushing with the waves to our 
 death in this world, and then, transformed into divine 
 beings, we could continue to float on in ihe midst of 
 flowers and sunbeams, her wave blending into mine, 
 and thus glide on forever ! Ah, could you but thus 
 dream, dear Wina ! " 
 
 Then he saw, quite clearly and distinctly traced 
 upon his pillow, for in that uncertain period which 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 145 
 
 precedes dreaming, the real fades away, and all the 
 images of the soul become more intensely colored, 
 and pictured forms open their dim eyes ; then he 
 saw before him, Wina, with that glance beneath the 
 waterfall, beaming out gloriously in the dark blue of 
 night, like the moon, which the garish day had reduc- 
 ed to a little cloud ; and he sank into that clear eye, 
 as a saint sinks into the eye by which God is some- 
 times represented. How light and evanescent is a 
 glance, especially one that is only remembered ! 
 Scarcely is it the Alpine rose that man brings down 
 and cherishes, as from the utmost elevation of his 
 life! And yet the soul — the soul, clings in the 
 midst of the infinity of worlds and planets, to 
 the little space that an eyelid covers ; to a vanishing, 
 a scarcely discerned glance, and upon this celestial 
 nothing rests its earthly paradise, with all its perfum- 
 ed flowers, with all its waving trees ! Thus are 
 spirits ; the invisible is their world, and imagination is 
 their reality ! 
 
 In the morning, sunshine and bliss lay all around 
 him. All the blossoms of the apples of strife had 
 fallen to the ground. The first hour of morning is 
 of gold, the purest in the world. The rising sun 
 takes away the dross, and leaves the virgin ore in our 
 hearts. The dark residuum, especially that of hatred, 
 is removed. He who loves, forgives, at least, when 
 he rises in the morning. Walt asked himself how 
 he could have been so angry with his brother the 
 
 VOL. II. 10 
 
146 
 
 WALT AND VüLT, 
 
 day before, at the very time of their meetin* again 
 after their separation ? " Ah, my poor brother," he 
 continued, " for he has no beloved one, whose glance 
 rests in his heart like its central fire." And he went 
 on to place himself, according to his instincts, which 
 always forced him into the soul of another, from 
 thence to take his survey — he placed himself there- 
 fore in his brother's place ; considering that he knew 
 nothing, (namely, of the waterfall,) that he meant it 
 all in kindness, at least towards himself, and had 
 only acted with a little imperious harshness. 
 
 In this temper of mind, he resolved to go to his 
 brother, not to say a word about the subject of dis- 
 cord, but to take again that hand which had so long 
 been united with his own, and talk calmly of other 
 things, especially of what he should do next, in order 
 to secure the inheritance. Vult had left town. A 
 note for Walt was fastened to the door. 
 
 " Dearest, I departed early this morning, in order 
 to blow the flute at my promised concert in Rosen- 
 hof. In future I shall work much more diligently. 
 At present I do too little for our double romance ; 
 especially as I really do nothing at all. It does not 
 help us that I love better to talk, swimming along in a 
 swiftly running stream, than to write. But this is 
 not well, either for literature or for profit. In schools, 
 the same master answers for writing and arithmetic ; 
 on the other hand, an excellent writer of books is sel- 
 dom a good accountant. Unfortunately, I am neither 
 the one nor the other, and yet I am in want of money. 
 
 Adieu, V. H." 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 147 
 
 " My poor, persecuted brother," said Walt. " Now 
 he must go and play on the flute for the money that 
 he so thoughtlessly sported away into my hands. 
 Why should I always fall so heavily upon his good 
 heart ? " And Walt made the serious resolution, 
 never again, as had sometimes happened, to give way 
 to his stormy and impetuous temper. 
 
 But Rosenhof (the residence of Wina) diffused a 
 serene light upon every thing, and, as it were, con- 
 secrated the flute-^player ; whom he saw in imagina- 
 tion, walking through its dewy meadows, in the re- 
 flected splendor of the brilliant morning sunshine. 
 
 Walt recommenced his business as a notary with 
 more courage than before, as his employment steadily 
 increased, while he drew near the end of the labors 
 which he hoped would secure to him the inheritance. 
 It was to him perfectly indifferent, so joyfully did his 
 heart rest in his bosom, for what he drew an instru- 
 ment, whether for the succession of a court preacher, 
 or the ownership of an old oil-cask, or even to deter- 
 mine the result of a wager. His thoughts were al- 
 ways at the house of the general, or at the waterfall, 
 or at Leipsic, and it was quite indifferent to him, for 
 indeed he did not give his thoughts to what he trans- 
 cribed as a public Imperial notary. 
 
 Thus brilliantly illumined by the after-summer 
 of the heart, he passed from September to October, 
 in which month he was to lay before the executors 
 of Kable's will, the account of his notary business, 
 and all that he had done to entitle him to the inherit- 
 
148 
 
 WALT AIVD VULT, 
 
 ance. Upon this subject he felt no anxiety, for 
 Wina's eye had kindled so fervid a glow about his 
 heart, that the fountain of life, thus kept warm, de- 
 fied all the outward coldness of destiny. 
 
 Lucas, his father, had sent him many copies of his 
 own original letters, that the Schulze had indeed in his 
 possession, because in manuscript letters, the copy is 
 far more legible than the original, and together with 
 these, his anxiety about the backwardness of the no- 
 tary, and his indifference regarding the conditions of 
 the inheritance. The repetition of the same ideas, 
 dried up and withered as they were, that choked 
 the expansion of any new and fresh ones, was a 
 severe trial to Walt, and he wished for nothing so 
 much as the old freedom, the power of thinking of a 
 hundred things at any time. " Why then is the mis- 
 taken path of life so vexatious ? " " Because it 
 stretches forever before us," he answered, " with 
 the wearying and worn-out ideas of the withered 
 path itself, till we again catch and enter the right 
 one. The common miseries of life give us less pain 
 at their birth, than during their formation, and the 
 real day of sorrow is ever twenty-four hours sooner 
 than others." 
 
 The first step that Walt took upon the appointed 
 morning, the step that led him to the council-cham- 
 ber, made him a different man ; the event was al- 
 ready passed, for him, when it was decided upon. 
 He came too early, but waited very cheerfully in the 
 ante-room, composing a Streckvers^ with all the 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 149 
 
 warmth that the season admitted, upon some well- 
 designed groups in bas-relief upon the cold stove in the 
 council-chamber. As the privy council were still in 
 session, Walt had time for some associated ideas ; 
 whether, for instance, a whole romance, especially a 
 comic one, might not be conceived and arranged out 
 of the stucco-work of a stove. Thus a man, before 
 an important crisis in his life ; (but not a woman be- 
 fore a ball,) before a battle, a coronation, a duel, or 
 a suicide, can poetize, jest, or sleep. 
 
 At length the Pfalzgraf Knoll, as advocate of the 
 disinherited heirs of the Kable estate, came in, and 
 all went on before the Mayor Kuhnold. 
 
 Never could Walt have believed that he could 
 feel so light-hearted in a council-chamber. He 
 could have ' balanced himself upon the stamen of a 
 lily ; but he soon fell from his lily to the earth, when 
 the advocate brought forth, and supported, the pro- 
 position, " that this publicly sworn notary had hither- 
 to managed his business most absurdly." That he 
 had firstly, and scondly, made two abbreviations in 
 one instrument. Thirdly^ that he had not only ex- 
 ecuted an instrument m the night, but also with two 
 kinds of ink, (Flitt's will upon the tower,) but, fourth- 
 ly, with one candle instead of three ; fifthly, he had 
 made one erasure ; sixthly, he had not recorded that 
 he was expressly desired to prepare the will ; also, in 
 the seventh place, he had omitted to mention the 
 hour ; eighthly, the petition of N. N. against N. N. 
 was tied with a dark brown instead of a yellow rib- 
 
150 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 bon, such as the protocol required. Ninthly, he had 
 neglected to cause the house servants to acknowledge 
 the duty they had formerly sworn to their master, by 
 the giving of hands, at the same time that he showed 
 them the act of dismission ; in the tenth place, he 
 had mistaken the day of the month in a bill of ex- 
 change ; and eleventhly, and lastly, he had not scru- 
 pled to draw up an instrument on the 31st of 
 September, a day that had no existence. After this, 
 he was asked point blank, what he had to say in 
 reply. " I know nothing myself about it," Walt 
 answered, " I rely therefore much more upon the 
 memory of the opposite party than on my own. But 
 as to the affair of the family witnesses, I hold it as 
 arbitrary, and even impossible, to take away or give 
 them back their duties, by a mere word from my 
 mouth." 
 
 To this Mr. Kuhnold replied, " that his reason was 
 rather a noble, than a legal one," and referred it to 
 Mr. Fiscal Knoll. " Nothing could be more absurd," 
 was his answer, and he threw out ten or twenty un- 
 meaning, empty words, in order to hasten what was 
 already understood would take place at this time, 
 the opening of the secret articles, by the principal 
 executor of the will. 
 
 Before Kuhnold did this, he declared to the Pfalz- 
 graf, that lawyers did not universally require three 
 candles for drawing up contracts in the evening, 
 and desired, as Knoll insisted upon his own position, 
 merely the promtuarum juris of Hemmel or IMuller 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 151 
 
 as the nearest proof, to be taken from the shelf. 
 The library of the council-chamber did not go be- 
 yond the 4th volume, and was destitute, as most public 
 libraries are, of a catalogue. Knoll adhered to what 
 he had asserted ; Kuhnold, on his part, did not give 
 up, but proceeded to read the tariff of penalties — 
 namely, that for every legal error in his office of 
 notary, the. young Harnish should forfeit to each of 
 the seven heirs a fir-tree in the Kable woods. As 
 he had fallen into ten sins, without the disputed 
 question of the candles, these ten, multiplied by the 
 seven torments, demanded at one blow the sacrifice 
 of seventy trees ; so that the light the little forest 
 would gain thereby, fell darkly upon Walt. 
 
 " Ah ! " said Walt, throwing out both his arms, 
 " what is to be done ? " He knew well how to con- 
 sole himself for all the accidents of life ; like the 
 boot-maker, who brings to his customer a pair of 
 new boots, if they are too small, he says they will 
 soon stretch ; if they are too large, the dampness 
 will soon draw them in — thus thought Walt. — 
 " TAis," he said, " enlightens me — now I can make 
 out all my notary instruments without the fretting 
 embarrassment of these secret mysterious articles." 
 But the Fiscal Knoll soon turned the poetical and 
 divine nectar of his heart into a vapid and heavy 
 vinegar, by insisting, without being in the least de- 
 gree turned from his point by the acquisition of his 
 fire-wood, upon his protestations in regard to the 
 three candles. The presence^ even, of a person who 
 
152 
 
 WALT AND VüLT, 
 
 has a fixed dislike to one, oppresses and constrains a 
 loving spirit, like the heavy atmosphere of a thunder- 
 storm, whose real shock disturbs us less than its ap- 
 proach. Mortified, even by Kuhnold's gentle reproof, 
 which spoke of such venial, almost unavoidable er- 
 rors, as if they were unpardonable, he went home, 
 where he already anticipated Vult's jests and his 
 father's reproaches. 
 
 The first thing he did in the house was to spring 
 out of it. The beautiful, tranquil heights of the 
 October nature invited him to escape from his father, 
 and his severe judgment ; for he was quite sure the 
 justice would pick up every fragment of the broken 
 jar of fortune, to throw upon his devoted and unlucky 
 head. 
 
 While standing upon a little peaceful height op- 
 posite the Kable forest, and employed in changing, 
 by a poetical imagination, the salutary miserere of 
 fate into a musical one, he plainly saw, that already 
 several of the heirs, with experienced wood-cutters, 
 were already surveying the bequeathed forest, in order 
 to select and agree upon which trees each should 
 have, for his share of the legacy. Finally, Flitt can- 
 tered into the wood, at the head of a wood-cutting 
 gang, with axes, saws, and measuring-rods in their 
 hands. " It is right, after all," thought Walt, " that 
 I should in some way, however feebly, express my 
 gratitude to the kind-hearted Flitt, for his selection 
 of me as his heir, were it even by my mistakes. 
 May he have much pleasure, without any malice, by 
 his acquisition of fire-wood." 
 
OR THE TWINS, 
 
 153 
 
 Walt's satisfaction at the loss of his trees was 
 somewhat embittered, when he saw the old magis- 
 trate, Lucas, striding out of town towards the wood, 
 and bearing the crown and sceptre of martyrdom. 
 Lucas, when he entered the forest, ran hither and 
 thither, asked questions about the trees that were 
 marked to be felled, objected to every one, without 
 any right to do so, and flew, like an itinerant forest- 
 tribunal, to each bush, to every saw and axe, while 
 the desert of his face became every moment, upon 
 the arrival of every succeeding heir, drier than the 
 Arabian desert. Then he looked up despairingly, at 
 every noble tree that came under the axe, and could 
 accomplish nothing, but the assertion of his right to 
 direct the way in which the tree should fall, so as 
 not to injure the underwood. 
 
 Walt looked on piteously. Easily as he had hith- 
 erto changed the dark colors of fate into imaginary 
 picture colors, still he could not, because the pres- 
 ence of his father disturbed him, transform this wood- 
 cutting into anything poetical. He waited till his 
 father had gone ; then he could not even turn his 
 eyes towards the most beautiful sunset, that glowed 
 in the west, but was lost in the consideration of which 
 of the required duties, that would be most agreeable 
 to his father, he should now enter upon, in order to 
 secure the inheritance. He missed the flute-player, 
 who might have helped him to a decision. At length 
 he chose that, which could be accomplished in the 
 shortest time, namely, the seven days sojourn with 
 one of the heirs. 
 
154 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 This condition is mentioned in clause 6th of the 
 Testament, where it is required, that the heir, acord- 
 ing to the requisitions of the will, must live with one 
 of the gentlemen who are associated in the will, and 
 fulfil for the time being, (unless inconsistent with 
 hoDor,) all the wishes of his patron. 
 
 So simple a task, and for so short a time, Walt 
 fondly hoped to accomplish with some cleverness, 
 and even with dexterity, so that his brother, when he 
 returned, should not be able to detect either great 
 faults, or small errors. 
 
 After the choice of the dutij^ he must decide to 
 which of the heirs he should first propose his ser- 
 vices. From a sense of gratitude, he selected for his 
 first weekly residence Mr. Newpeter, under whose 
 roof he had dwelt since he came to the city. " He 
 requires from me," he said, " some favor and grati- 
 tude." 
 
 No. 50. A worn-out justice-role. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 155 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 GENTEEL LIFE. 
 
 In the morning Walt had prepared the most elo- 
 quent address, with which he was to present himself 
 before Newpeter. The latter received him in his 
 office, where he was sitting before a lighted candle, 
 with his seal at his lips, wetting it before he sealed 
 his dispatches, and at the same time saying, " it was 
 post-day.'''' 
 
 Walt, who had really come to take leave of him, 
 pronounced behind his back a speech of much tender- 
 ness and gratitude ; when Newpeter, having finished 
 his letters, and snuffed out his candle, turned round 
 with the question, " What do you want ? " Alas, 
 the whole discourse had vanished from the notary's 
 mind. 
 
 No one can repeat the same speech twice over. 
 In his haste, he could only give out a faint pencil- 
 sketch of what he had said before. The court-agent 
 however, merely requested him not to disturb people 
 with such absurdities. 
 
 Walt had supported all the errors of his office as a 
 notary, far better than he could this blow, of having 
 the door of the person in whose house he had lived, 
 
156 
 
 •WALT AND VTJLT, 
 
 thus thrust against him. To confer honor upon any- 
 one, by offering his services for a week, never oc- 
 curred to him ; but if there were any good, but poor 
 devil among the heirs, whom he could accommodate 
 by sharing with him, rather the bread of repentance 
 than that of heaven, he would go to him. The said 
 poor devil had long been present to his mind, — 
 namely, Flitt from Alsatia. Walt resolved to go to 
 the Nicholas tower ; but he offered with much diffi- 
 dence the proposal of his first week of service and 
 trial. 
 
 The Alsatian embraced him most joyfully, and 
 declared, that as he was wholly restored, and no 
 longer required fresh air, he would leave the tower 
 that very day. " I will hire," he said, " for our use, 
 a couple of beautifully-furnished rooms, in the Caf- 
 fatier Fraisse. Ah ! there we will live comme il 
 fauty Walt was but too happy. 
 
 In less than half an hour, Flitt had packed every- 
 thing in and out, and adorned the passages of the 
 lodgings that he left, as well as those he entered, 
 with his goods and chattels, like a spider spinning 
 his threads, which consisted of locks of hair taken 
 for remembrance, and billet-doux, from one door to 
 the other. He ventured now to descend from the 
 tower that had been his Bastile, or the frontier castle 
 of his creditors, down to an unfortified coffee-house ; 
 partly, because he had inherited his own testament, — 
 namely, the credit of it, — and partly from the share 
 which Walt's errors, when he made his own will, had 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 157 
 
 given him, viz. the ten fir trees in the Van der Kable 
 forest. It has already been mentioned with what a 
 retinue he went through that wood, sown ^^ ith the 
 stony harvest of faults, to crack and pick out the 
 kernels for himself. 
 
 Walt departed upon this most beautiful morning in 
 autumn, half sadly, from his hermitage. It seemed 
 to him that his room, without himself, would be weari- 
 some and empty, especially his chair ; but when he 
 entered his new lodgings in the Caffatier Fraisse, 
 and his eyes fell upon the splendid furniture, the 
 long mirrors in which the guests were reflected at 
 full length, the glass drops, hanging like diamonds 
 from the girandoles, he was astonished and terrified. 
 Flitt smiled. Walt wished to be an economist, — 
 especially where others were concerned, — and that 
 the Alsatian had hired such a palace, confounded and 
 displeased him. He feared the expense was incurred 
 on his account, not knowing that Flitt belonged to 
 those spendthrifts who, like the German emperor, 
 swear to leave nothing for posterity ; neither kingdom 
 nor estate, and, like the Athenian servants of their 
 country, bequeath to it only their fame, and their 
 debts. 
 
 Walt drew out, without hestitation, from the old 
 purse of Kable the gold pieces appropriated to the 
 payment of this week of service, and placed them 
 upon the table with these words, " I wish they were 
 more, but this is the appropriation of my benefac- 
 tor." Few men have been more roughly put to the 
 
158 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 question than was Walt, when Fhtt upon this asked 
 him, " was he not, then, in the devil's name, his own 
 guest." 
 
 There was now a still more dilficult point to settle ; 
 namely, the object of the testator in appointing this 
 week's residence in the house of one of the heirs. 
 " It is naturally difficult," Walt said, " in these 
 costly and cheerful rooms, and in your society, to 
 think of anything so juristical as the clauses of the 
 testament ; I could sacrifice my own interest, but 
 not my obligation to my parents, and I must pray 
 you, although with reluctance, to tell me the design 
 of this expense, that I may commit no error — 
 indeed, it is more difficult for me to ask, than it will 
 be to act." 
 
 The xVlsatian could not immediately enter into his 
 delicate scruples. " Bah ! " he said, " what is there 
 then to be sacrificed ? We will talk and dance to- 
 gether. Old Kable has nothing to do with that." 
 
 *• Speak and dance," said the baffled Walt, " and 
 together ? I can only say, Herr Flitt, that it opens 
 an unlimited prospect of errors, for one or both of 
 us. But—" 
 
 " Sacre ! Why, then, are we so precise ? Will 
 any man upon this earth pretend that he is going to 
 run to the long-nosed burgomaster, and tell him 
 how we have enjoyed ourselves ? " 
 
 They breakfasted together, talking gaily over their 
 affairs. The long windows and glasses filled the 
 room with a splendid light, while the cool blue sky 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 159 
 
 smiled upon them. Walt became aware that, for 
 the first time in his life, he was living in aristocratic 
 luxury. Flitt read aloud two insertions that he had 
 prepared for the Imperial Advertiser. In the first, 
 he demanded of the general paymaster of the army, 
 nine hundred and sixty thalers, for wine, to be paid 
 within six months, if he did not wish to be posted in 
 the Royal Advertiser. The other contained a little 
 more uncolored truth, viz., that he desired a partner 
 with twenty thousand thalers, to join him in the wine 
 trade. Walt was delighted that the good-humored 
 rogue could command so much coin, and raise this 
 gilded lightning-rod of life so high in the air. 
 
 Flitt asked, " Tell me truly, if you see no faults of 
 style in these little things. I wrote them in a mo- 
 ment." 
 
 Walt answered, that the smaller an insertion was, 
 so much greater was the difficulty ; that he could 
 much easier himself, work out a whole sheet for the 
 press, than such a twenty-fourth part of one. 
 
 He now untied before Walt, whose honest applause 
 and simple confidence had penetrated his heart with 
 an agreeable warmth, a bundle of love-letters to 
 himself, in which his heart and his style were very 
 much commended. Flitt had received the packet 
 for safe keeping from a young Parisian. Walt could 
 scarcely cease expressing his admiration at the elo- 
 quence of the fair writer, so that at last the Alsatian 
 nearly believed the letters luere written to himself. 
 Walt did this pardy to avoid speaking of love ; for 
 
160 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 like an inexperienced youth he thought love should 
 dwell beliind the cloister-grate of the heart, or, at 
 least, in the cloister garden. He said only, generally, 
 " love, like incense, both are so pure, will penetrate 
 the heaviest air, and the densest cloud. 
 
 Flitt went still further, and showed his guest the 
 most delicate love madrigals that he had had printed 
 in centissimo. They were little leaves of verses 
 taken from French confectionary^ whose plagarism 
 he betrayed, by saying, he had eaten the binding. 
 
 Why do the Germans leave to the French the ad- 
 vantage of a sweet and spicy envelope for their 
 poetry^ while, on the contrary, our sugar and drugs 
 are packed and concealed within^ is a question one 
 might ask, if this was a place for an answer. 
 
 Over every enjoyment, either of taste or appetite, 
 that man benevolently prepares for another, hangs 
 the chance of exception ; but for the enjoyment of 
 praise, the ear and the heart is open at every season, 
 and every hour ; we say to ourselves, " Praise is air ; 
 the only thing that we can, and must perpetually 
 swallow." It was so with Flitt. Newly refreshed, 
 he drew Walt into the streets, to give him in his turn 
 some enjoyment. As his old creditors hunted him 
 as zealously as his new, he had learned the maxim 
 of the Romans, which, after Montesquieu, was to 
 carry the war as far as possible from home. Thus 
 he was rarely at his lodgings. Both walked through 
 the environs, and Walt was very happy. Then, 
 Flitt would show him the city. He had a passing 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 161 
 
 word to say to every one. He nodded to the 
 daughters of the houses, as they sat in morning 
 dresses, sewing at the windows, and after, without 
 further question, wafted a kiss within ; a degree of 
 ease, which Walt thought only some favorite of 
 French society could reach. Did a gentleman canter 
 by, Flitt sent a word after the horse. Was there a 
 carriage ready at a door, he paused till the travellers 
 entered, and then called out, that he should soon 
 follow them into the country. Walt was presented to 
 every one, and spoke many times. He went with 
 Flitt to the postmaster, that he might ask his usual 
 question about the non-arrival of his Marseilles let- 
 ters ; and explained to the clerk a difiicult French 
 superscription, whereby "Walt honestly praised his 
 accent and pronunciation. It would be difficult to 
 believe, that they afterwards made so many visits, if 
 we were not quite sure it was so. A fter visiting the 
 bobbin, the lace, and the carpet manufactories, they 
 went from thence to the boarding school for young 
 ladies, with which Vult had made his brother well 
 acquainted. 
 
 Flitt could not be approached in the fluency of his 
 compliments to the young girls ; but it was enough 
 for Walt merely to look at these beds of spiritual 
 lilies, so close together that one foot-print seemed to 
 tread on the heel of another. " Ah, ye dear ones," 
 he said in his heart, their voices were so gentle and 
 affectionate, (are women ever otherwise ?) " ah, ye 
 
 VOL. II. 11 
 
162 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 dear ones, in the midst of the impure life of the 
 world, where all the streams are foul, ye live sepa- 
 rated, and filled with your own purity. In the salt 
 ocean, ye are a little island where fresh water may 
 be found." 
 
 When they came out, they found spread upon a 
 golden salver light cakes, rolls, and confectionary. 
 This salver, a present from an old king, was twice a 
 year polished and ornamented, and carried into the 
 market-place to be admired ; but always under the 
 guard of a small company of foot-soldiers, to pro- 
 tect it from the careless hands of the common chil- 
 dren. 
 
 From the boarding school for young ladies they 
 went to the Marchande des Modes, and were sur- 
 rounded with the splendor of female costumes and 
 fashions. 
 
 Never had Walt passed so gay, so delightful a 
 morning. One Pegasus after another had been har- 
 nessed to his small triumphal car, and had borne him 
 onward. He looked upon Flitt's life as a perpetual 
 dance, continuing from breakfast to supper ; his own, 
 he merely considered as a dance upon the present 
 wave of life, and he enjoyed it more on Flitt's ac- 
 count than his own. He enjoyed, indeed, so much 
 in Flitt himself, that he thought him inspired with 
 his own spirit. The sun-inspired aroma from the 
 Alsatian fell upon him as a poetical fructifying fa- 
 rina, and, as he walked by his side, he made upon 
 him the following epitaph. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 163 
 
 " EPITAPH UPON THE ZEPHYR. 
 
 " Upon the earth I sported and played ; sometimes 
 with the flowers, sometimes with the blossoming 
 branches, and sometimes even I aspired to play 
 with the little sailing clouds. In the land of shad- 
 ows, also, I shall flutter about the funereal flowers, 
 and sport in the shades of Elysium. Stay not, 
 wanderer ! but hasten on in joy, and play as I 
 do." 
 
 About one o'clock, Flitt brought him into the 
 neighborhood of the court. " We are going," he 
 said, " into the Champs-elisees, there to take a de- 
 jeüner dinatoirey These, so called Elysian fields 
 had been formerly a royal garden, and had opened 
 the way to other public gardens in the country. As 
 they walked on, they met with warning tablets, ex- 
 cluding children and dogs, and at length found 
 everything forbidden. Even in paradise itself, were 
 never so many forbidden trees, and prohibitions 
 against touching fruit or flowers ; and upon all the 
 paths bloomed above, or grew beneath, prison di- 
 plomas. 
 
 ***** 
 They both took their dejeuner dinatoire, of morn- 
 ing bread and morning wine, in a gay, open kiosk, 
 not far from the house of the gardener. Walt was 
 beyond measure delighted. The ascending and de- 
 scending terraces, with their shadows like day and 
 
164 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 night, with their evanescent pleasure groups, present- 
 ed the appearance of a perpetual spring morning ; 
 then the little groves, out of which gay-colored sum- 
 mer-houses were peeping like tulips ; the painted 
 bridges and white statues ; the regular lines of hedges 
 and walks ; all these filled him with an admiration 
 that he could not express to the Alsatian in suffi- 
 ciently lively colors. It was easy enough for Flitt 
 to express his admiration ; he sketched off his Claude 
 Lorraine's quite courageously with one stroke and 
 word, Superb ! " Each one has, however, his own 
 select shade of admiration ; one says, angelic ! an- 
 other, heavenly ! the third, divine ! the fourth. Ach. 
 der Teufel ! and so on. 
 
 Walt however said, although to himself, " This 
 morning we have lived, or I am terribly mistaken, 
 the true, fashionable life of people of the world. 
 We have been exactly as in Versailles, or Fontaine- 
 bleau, and Louis quartorze still reigning. It would 
 be difficult to point out the diffisrence." There had 
 remained in Walt's mind, heaven knows from what 
 early association, a most romantic idea of the youth- 
 ful period of life, of the gallantry, the liberality, 
 the women, and the court of the victorious Louis 
 XIV. ; so that his youth, with its festivities and 
 enjoyments, hovered before his imagination as if 
 it had been his own. Every fountain transported 
 him to Marly ; every ornamented walk to Ver- 
 sailles ; and the wretched prints of this place, 
 nailed upon the boundary walls, of the royal palace, 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 165 
 
 and even the little card pictures upon his writing-table, 
 carried him upon their wings to that happy time of 
 courts, if not of people. By these means he en- 
 joyed in this garden a very dilFerent pleasure-arena, 
 which has nov/ passed away. The fantastic image 
 of the past hung like fireworks over the real image 
 lying before him. Flitt, fortunately, for he always 
 sought a new companion rather than the one he was 
 with, did him the favor of falling into discourse with 
 the curator of the garden, and thus endowed him 
 with a little precious solitude, in which to indulge 
 his dreaminu; excursions. His forenoon had been 
 hourly refining from pure water to the breath of 
 zephyrs, and from this to the ether, which holds 
 nothing in solution, and flies like light from planet 
 to planet. He would gladly have had his brother 
 with him. He saw again, in a brighter light, 
 Wina's glance beneath the waterfall. He was 
 happy, he scarcely knew how or why. His torch 
 burned with a st ady flame directly upwards, and 
 no little breeze caused it to waver. He did not 
 make a single line of poetry ; it seemed to him as 
 though he were himself all poetry ; and he readily 
 used, as his own, the words of another enthusiastic 
 poet. 
 
 As he stood in this inward harmony, before a pe- 
 culiar little garden, enclosed in the larger, he touched, 
 unconsciously, a little bell. It had scarcely given 
 one or two strokes when a portly court chamberlain, 
 
166 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 richly dressed, came, uncovered, towards him, to 
 open the gate for some one of the royal family. But 
 when the courtly attendant found no one at the gate 
 but the simple notary, he scolded the astonished 
 bell-ringer in one of the longest speeches he had 
 ever made ; as though Walt, without cause, had 
 sounded the tocsin of alarm. 
 
 But Walt's inward being was so lightly and firmly 
 guarded, that nothing outward could penetrate to 
 weigh down his aerial ship. He turned immediately 
 back to Flitt. They went home. The great dinner 
 bells called the town together, as, two hours later, 
 the smaller one, would the court. They scattered 
 Walt's romance ; but he had eaten sufficiently, and 
 did not now go to dinner. 
 
 If there be a true follower of the clock, or, 
 rather, a clock of itself, it is the stomach. The 
 darker and more earthly the being, the more does it 
 know of time ; as is proved by animals, children, 
 and insane persons. It is only a spiritual nature that 
 can forget time, for spirit alone creates it. If, then, 
 the above-mentioned stomach, or follower of the 
 clock, sets his dinner clock an hour too fast, or an 
 hour too slow, he leads the spirit so far astray that it 
 becomes romantic ; for the spirit itself, with all its 
 celestial stars, must follow these corporeal revolu- 
 tions. The breakfast that had been made a dinner, 
 threw Walt so far from the trodden path in which 
 he had walked the last ten years, that every stroke 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 167 
 
 of the clock, the position of the sun, the whole 
 afternoon, presented a strange and new aspect. 
 Perhaps this changing of all time into irregular 
 ebbs and flows, as in actual battle, makes war to 
 the disciplined soldier a season of romantic enjoy- 
 ment. 
 
 Walt now wished for society again, and he ac- 
 companied Flitt to a billiard room, where he was 
 surprised to hear the latter count the numbers in 
 German rather than in French. He escaped from 
 the unmeaning spectacle, and went alone to the 
 beautiful bank of the river. As he saw the poor 
 people there, who on this day were permitted by the 
 laws of the town to fish, although without a net, and 
 to gather wood, although without an axe, he excused 
 his own pleasures in observing theirs ; for the thought 
 had been tormenting him, that his pleasures to-day 
 had been too idle and aristocratic. " I, too," he said, 
 " have revelled too luxuriously, and have not written 
 a word of the romance. To-morrow, I will stay at 
 home all day." The long evening shadows on the 
 shore, and the long, red clouds, were to him like 
 wings that bore him along. 
 
 He traversed the dim twilight streets, prepared 
 for all sorts of adventures, till the moon arose, and 
 became his lunar clock. Then the confusion in his 
 mind disappeared, and his stomach knew the hour. 
 Backward and forward, before Wina's lighted apart- 
 ment, he bore his excited heart, till there sank down 
 
168 
 
 WALT AND VÜLT, 
 
 within it a silent aspiration, as if from heaven ; and 
 the earthly day was crowned by the most sacred 
 hour of heaven.* 
 
 No. 52. Ä worn out ßy-catcher. 
 
 * The next chapter relates only the attacks of Flitt's numerous 
 creditors, and his stratagems to elude or get rid of them. As 
 there is much the same relation in the first volume, I have 
 omitted it, except the last sentence, to connect the narrative with 
 the twentieth chapter. — TV. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 169 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 PAINTING. BILL OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 In the evening of the second day, the Caffatier 
 Fraisse came into their apartment, merely for the 
 purpose of politely observing, that it was his ancient 
 and invariable custom, to present his account every 
 evening to his guests from the town, that they might 
 look it over, and keep the balance. 
 
 Walt saw now, for the first time, a French or Al- 
 satian quarrel, such as he could never have imagined, 
 without blows. It was the rushing of a war-carriage, 
 armed with the scythes of death, looks, oaths and fierce 
 pantomime. At length, the money was thrown at 
 Fraisse's feet, or rather at his head, and they prepared 
 for their departure. With melancholy steps they went 
 to the empty house of Dr. Hut, who was absent upon a 
 journey. Walt only made the flame of Flitt's wrath 
 burn more intensely, by the bellows of his peace 
 sermon. An intervening hour was the only Epicte- 
 tus (or peace-maker) for Flitt. 
 
 Gaily and lightly flew the hours, both within and with- 
 out the many-roomed house of Dr. Hut, laden with 
 honey when they returned from without. In this sunny 
 island of innocent joy, there was no politely-vulgar 
 
170 
 
 WALT AND VT7LT, 
 
 Fraisse to annoy them, no money-hunters, nor money- 
 finders, aiming at the game enclosed by contract ; none 
 of the five classes, the Pentateuch of creditors, remind- 
 ing them of the decay and consumption of life. 
 They heard only little songs, and sounds of joy. 
 There were many little avenues in this New Jerusa- 
 lem, where they could hide from the Jews of the 
 old, and also from Christians of the new ; and Flitt 
 could take refuge from these arsenic-kings of metal, 
 that were a true poison to him, in some sullen corner 
 of the house. 
 
 Walt, however, was not so blind as not to remark 
 something of all this. " I would I were less clear- 
 sighted," he said to himself, " when I think how gay 
 and free-hearted the generous man is in the midst of 
 all his difficulties, and how perfectly so he would be 
 without these torments — for really some people need 
 only to be rich, to be perfectly virtuous. — Then how 
 charmingly he talks of being rich ; in truth, I could 
 see no fairer day than that in which the poor fool 
 should find his apartment filled with bags and chests 
 of gold. How easily would such a man be helped 
 by the interest of the interest, of the interest of the 
 national debt of England ! " He asked why, since 
 all classes of sufferers have their holidays, there 
 should be none set apart for the German debtor ; 
 while in England, every Sunday is a day of rest to 
 the persecuted ear of the debtor, as even to the 
 damned, for according to the religion of the Jews, 
 upon the Sabbath, the feasts of the new moon, and 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 171 
 
 the weekly hour of prayer, Hell dies away, and a 
 soft, cool Indian summer of the past life hovers over 
 the burning abyss. 
 
 Flitt and Walt lived on, through the week, ever 
 more genially and lovingly together. They would 
 rather have repeated the trial than come to the end 
 of the week of probation. The warm, affectionate 
 nature that surrounded Walt, like an electrical at- 
 mosphere, was something new and attractive to Flitt, 
 so that at last he could not leave him, or go out of the 
 house without him. Walt dwelt so much the more 
 upon this passing time, as he felt that neither could 
 truly benefit the other. Their nervous sytems had, 
 as it were, entwined themselves together ; they had 
 become united like polypi ; yet each selected and 
 supplied himself separately whh food, so that neither 
 could receive nourishment nor support from the 
 other. 
 
 The last day of the week of service, and of their short 
 honey-moon, arrived. Walt avoided all last words, 
 all sharp endings, even a parting sigh. A pianofortist 
 belonging to Vult's musical company, had announced 
 his return to Walt, and Dr. Hut was also expected 
 that evening. Flitt entreated him, upon this last af- 
 ternoon that they should be together, to accompany 
 him to Raphaela's, who was to give him a short sit- 
 ting, for a miniature portait, for her mother's birth- 
 day. " We three shall be superb together," he add- 
 ed. " When I am painting, I do not say much, and 
 yet the face of a friend animates the countenance of 
 
172 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 the sitter inconceivably." Although Walt did not find 
 it very courteous to be dragged in as an exciting ma- 
 chine before the face of a sitter, yet he followed. 
 He had been accustonned already, for a week, to be 
 frequently astonished at the want of delicate and re- 
 fined feeling, not only in the market-place of the city, 
 but in the best houses, which had externally a bril- 
 liant aspect, 
 
 Raphaela smiled on both, from the top of the stairs, 
 and led them hastily into her writing-room ; here 
 they found, already prepared, wine, ices, and cakes. 
 A woman can more easily guess at the appetite than 
 the heart of a man ; yet, after all, she does not know 
 what beverage to present at four o'clock in the after- 
 noon. One servant after another looked in at the 
 door, to ascertain and execute her wishes, and the 
 whole domestic choir seemed to consider hers the 
 golden rule of Saturn. The evening sun streaming 
 fuller and fuller into the room, and the light of hap- 
 piness upon each countenance, heightened the pecu- 
 liar charms of the maiden, and of the situation. 
 Flitt, was not wholly false towards Raphaela, but 
 almost a fifth part true^ a fifth part gallant, a fifth, 
 kind, a fifth, selfish and avaricious, and a fifth, he 
 knew not what. She said, much to Walt's satisfac- 
 tion, " You must not flatter my face, it will be of no 
 use, make it only so that ma chere mere may recog- 
 nize it." 
 
 Walt secretly rejoiced that he now stood under his 
 own hired roof, at the same time guest and tenant ; 
 
OR THE TWINS 
 
 173 
 
 and that moreover, he felt not the least embarrass- 
 ment, while the most aristocratic perfume, and the 
 most incomprehensible furniture was in every corner. 
 " Could I, as a peasant's son in Elterlein, have ima- 
 gined such things?" he thought. 
 
 Flitt now took out his easel and brushes, and told 
 his model, that the more freely and naturally she 
 sat, the better it would be for the painter. She, 
 however, might as well have been sitting at the north 
 pole, while he took his station at the south, the like- 
 ness would have been quite as successful ; being no 
 wonderful artist, FHtt could only hit olT the drapery* 
 She, however, sat down, and put on the sitting face, 
 which people always assume when their portraits are 
 taken. The masque nolle which is put on under 
 such circumstances, is the coldest into which their 
 features are ever moulded, so that the living face is 
 much less frequently a likeness when painted, than 
 the bust or statue. 
 
 Walt soon became full of excitement and warmth, 
 but rather to portray himself, than to assist at the 
 painting of another. He poured out admirably well, 
 extracts from his last journey round the world ; and 
 insinuated among them the circumstance of having 
 seen her friend Wina near the waterfall. Of all 
 story-tellers, the narrators of travels are the richest 
 and most acceptable. In the compass of a journey 
 over one-millionth part of the world, they can bring 
 in the whole world, and none can contradict them. 
 Walt wished to exhibit his talent at the picturesque, 
 
174 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 in summer and autumn painting. Flitt's portrait fur- 
 nished the winter landscape. Raphaela was com- 
 pletely enchanted by it, but soon brought back the 
 discourse to her friend Wina, in order to carry it on 
 alone. She described with excessive warmth the 
 charms of her person, and the beauty of her actions. 
 She pointed to a small mahogany casket where her 
 letters were deposited, and showed the so-called 
 Wina's corner in the apartment, where she usually 
 sat to look at the setting sun through the avenues of 
 the park ; and while thus talking, her countenance 
 became wholly brilliant and amiable. To judge by 
 the silent eyes of the notary, he was listening to all 
 this, although within his silent heart he was shouting 
 loudly, carrying on artes semper gaudendi ; acting a 
 comedy ; pronouncing a blessing over Wina and 
 himself ; he even so far forgot himself as to sit, as it 
 were accidentally, in Wina's corner. 
 
 Flilt could not tell how he had, all at once, reach- 
 ed the felicity of having, instead of the usual ennui, 
 so much lively talk going on at the last sitting, and of 
 getting Raphaela into such a state of enthusiasm. 
 Walt accidentally drew back the window curtain, and 
 the sun threw a warm tint upon Raphaela's counte- 
 nance, so that she turned it aside. Flitt sprang up, 
 showed her the picture, and asked if it were not half 
 stolen from her beautiful eyes } " Half! Wholly ! " 
 said Walt honestly, but simply, for she might as well 
 have sat for a likeness with the back of the head, 
 and her steel comb towards the painter. The 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 175 
 
 Alsatian gave her, at this remark, a few kisses. 
 They were too abrupt, and unreserved — emotions 
 that are seen, as well as those that are described, 
 must have, for the spectator, a sufficient motive. 
 Walt looked hastily into the park, and then arose. 
 " I should be a mere Satan," he thought, " if I were 
 not willing another should kiss her ; " and then slip- 
 ped away, under the pretence of looking at the land- 
 scape, to his own room. As soon as the door was 
 closed, Flitt turned from the beautiful lips, and began 
 painting them again, most industriously, while Walt 
 in his own room, said, " how must they^ so richly 
 blessed, be now exchanging their vows of love, and 
 the evening sun shedding a glory upon them." The 
 cornucopia of evening roses was overflowing with 
 richer colors, and more profusely even, in his own 
 mean apartment, although his small rooms, his living 
 and his sleeping chamber, presented a strong contrast 
 to the ornamented ones he had just left, and he mea- 
 sured silently the abyss that divided from them, his 
 outward fortune. He became soft-hearted, and 
 merely from the longing he felt, at least, to witness 
 affection, he was about to go down again, when Vult 
 hastily entered. 
 
 Upon his heart, into his heart, Walt flew. " Ah, 
 it is so heavenly that you should have come just 
 now ! " Vult, turning away, but with a gentle voice, 
 began (after his usual manner) to ask about the 
 adventures of others, before telling his own. Walt 
 related freely and gaily, the result of his notary 
 
176 
 
 WALT AND VULT 
 
 affairs, and the loss of the seventy trees. " It is 
 a pity, however," said Vult, coolly, " that I am 
 myself a spendthrift, and despise money, otherwise, 
 I would show you from reason, conscience, history, 
 how much and how justly 1 execrate my likeness to 
 another, even to yourself. Contejnpt of money 
 makes far more, and far better people miserable, 
 than a too great value for riches, hence men are 
 often made known to others pro prodigo, never pro 
 acaroy 
 
 " Rather a full heart than a full purse," said Walt 
 gaily, and began immediately to speak of the new 
 condition of the will he had been fulfilling, and of 
 the charming week with Flitt, ending with the praise 
 of the Alsatian. " How often," he said, " in our quiet, 
 winged, festive hours, did I wish for thee ! you would 
 have learnt to judge him less harshly — for indeed, 
 you are hard upon him, dear brother ! " 
 
 " Flitt, then, seems to you of an elevated, spiritual 
 order, or something of that sort, and his levity mere- 
 ly the wings and sails of his poetical nature ? " asked 
 Vult. 
 
 " No 1 have certainly," answered Walt, " well 
 
 understood the difference between his beautiful gaiety 
 of temperament, that lives, only in the present 
 moment, and the poetical nature, only lightly hover- 
 ing over it ; he enjoys, not much indeed, by reflec- 
 tion." 
 
 " Has he caused you to make no great mistakes 
 in the probation week, which you selected for your- 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 177 
 
 self without foreign council, that may cost you a few 
 more trees ? " 
 
 " No," said Walt, " he has helped me to get rid 
 of many errors in speaking French," and Walt went 
 on to ask if Flitt had not shown him the delicacy of 
 the language, for example, that one should seldom 
 or never, when asking an explanation, say comment 7 
 but more politely, Monsieur 7 or Madame ? Did he 
 not clearly explain to me how stupid it is to say 
 porte-chaise^ when we may choose between chaise d 
 porteur, and porteurs de chaise ? " 
 
 " I do not suppose," said Vult, " that these les- 
 sons in the French language will cost you more than 
 the remainder of the Kable forest ! " 
 
 " Ah ! I wish the poor fellow had fewer credit- 
 ors, and more money," said Walt. " That is the rock 
 upon which you will split," said the other. " Who 
 is poor, makes poor ; the ruined, ruins ; were it only 
 that he has every day to invent a new lie for the 
 same, or another creditor. Every day, another^ and 
 a different have I often heard a debtor repeat to 
 his hand-pledged creditor ; and have wished myself 
 to possess the unpremeditated poetry and music by 
 which he plays such endless variations upon the same 
 theme — " 
 
 " I will let you finish," said Walt calmly, and, 
 after a succession of sarcasms and reproaches from 
 Vult, he said, " I can tell you, for I am sure of it, 
 that the man is not so bad, and far enough from 
 
 VOL,. II. 13 
 
178 
 
 WALT AND VÜLT, 
 
 being hard-hearted ; through the poor themselves, as 
 you say, he has become poor. I paid, but without 
 his knowledge, and merely through sympathy with 
 him, two tailorcsses that he had employed from 
 pure compassion, (for he required a tailor only ;) but 
 thus it always is, the unfortunate are reproached for 
 their misfortunes." 
 
 At this, the anger of his brother broke forth. " A 
 devilish way of proceeding," he cried. " It is 
 like setting a house on fire in the middle of Decem- 
 ber, that the poor may divide some of the burning 
 brands among them. None are more liberal in pres- 
 ents than those who hesitate not to defraud others. 
 Nothing is more deceptive than a fair morass, where 
 if one ventures, one sinks. Tyrants, and sentimental 
 robbers can sing and complain like seraphims ; and if 
 there is anything hateful upon earth, it is this union 
 of stealing and giving, of plundering and present- 
 ing." 
 
 O God ! " said Walt, " how can a mortal judge 
 so severely ? Is not a man then permitted to love 
 and favor himself a little, when he is compelled to 
 live the whole time with himself; to talk, to listen, to 
 think only of himself ? This perpetual companion- 
 ship would at length make me indulgent to the lowest 
 animal or devil, and almost reconcile me to their 
 society. Who then, throughout all eternity, will 
 take so much interest in him, as this poor devil must 
 take in himself ? I know very well what 1 am say- 
 ing, and all the objections you would urge ; but pray 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 179 
 
 tell me, if in cold blood, without the excuse of pas- 
 sion, you thus condemn these unfortunate men, what 
 would be the case in a state of warm excitement, 
 when every sentiment is exaggerated ? Perhaps, 
 like the watch of which you told me, where the point- 
 ers are true and faithful to the index in cold weather, 
 but are expanded so much by the heat as to stop the 
 machinery." 
 
 " Have you not been drinking ? " asked Vult, 
 " you talk so much to-day — although, indeed — very 
 well." 
 
 At this hint, Walt invited his brother to go down 
 and take wine with them ; and to convince himself 
 with his own ears, that the life he had passed with Flitt 
 had not been so very contemptible. " Merely for the 
 sake of the folly, I will do it," he said, " although I 
 am sure the two simple citizens will get up a jubilee 
 of vanity at the condescension of my nobility ; but 
 you, with a delicacy that cannot be appreciated, will 
 know how to excuse me." 
 
 " Herr Von Harnish," said Walt, as he introduced 
 him, " found me in my chamber, and I could not 
 more delightfully express my satisfaction at his visit, 
 than by imparting it, at the same moment, to him, 
 and to you, Mademoiselle ! " He threw in this 
 excuse so lightly ; and, partly from the effect of 
 Flitt's polishing-wheel, that the wine had helped to 
 oil, moved so easily about the apartment, that Vult, 
 although secretly angry, could but laugh. Our own 
 vanity is not wonderfully complacent the first time 
 
180 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 a man, whom we have hitherto, through that very- 
 vanity looked upon as helpless, helps himself, or sur- 
 passes us. 
 
 Vult M'as very courteous ; talked of painting and 
 sitting ; praised Flitt's miniature, as, in point of art, 
 apparently a likeness, although in point of color, the 
 face presented only the flush and pallor of fever ; 
 and thus allured his brother on to the expression of 
 sincere praise, and, as he thought, of flattering ten- 
 derness in the words, " that Raphaela was not 
 indeed far from Raphael." 
 
 They attacked the flute-player warmly about his 
 music, then fell quickly upon his blindness, and inquir- 
 ed very anxiously about the present state of his eyes. 
 Vult cut them short with the remark, that was 
 merely one of his jokes, and is past. " Herr Notary, 
 how can we both stand so idle, without helping on the 
 painting Cannot one of us read aloud, and I will 
 blow the accompaniment } Is there nothing there ? 
 How often in my travels have I seen people sitting 
 for their portraits, who have been immediately elevat- 
 ed, and all the countenance unfolded, as it were, by 
 music ; for nothing so expands the physiognomy into 
 that fair life that the painter can seize upon, as the 
 reading of something exciting, that can be accompa- 
 nied with music." 
 
 Raphaela said she should receive most gratefully 
 the double gift of declamation and music. Vult 
 seized upon an Almanac of the muses that was lying 
 near, turned over the leaves^ and said, " he must 
 
OR THE TWINS. 181 
 
 complain, that in all the late musical annuals, as in 
 the works of Jean Paul, the serious contrasted too 
 severely with the comic ; but perhaps with the flute 
 he might draw harmony from these discords ; " and 
 reaching the book to Walt, he desired him to read an 
 elegy, and then to go on without pause, to a satirical 
 epistle, and a drinking song. 
 
 They were suddenly interrupted by a very differ- 
 ent discord, of four feet in height, that politely, with 
 hat in hand, entered the apartment. It was the tra- 
 velling clerk of the merchant in Marseilles, with 
 whom Flitt had long been connected, who presented 
 him a bill of exchange which had become due. 
 
 Flitt instantly lost the color he had lent to Rapha- 
 ela's portrait, and was a moment silent, when it 
 returned in a richer glow, as he asked the clerk, 
 " why he presented the bill so late in the day upon 
 which it became due ? " 
 
 The clerk smiled, and answered, " that he had 
 sought him in vain, much to his own inconvenience, 
 for he must depart the moment the note was paid." 
 Flitt drew him aside for only one word, but in the 
 midst of that word the stranger returned, shrugging 
 his shoulders, with the remark, " that the Saxon laws 
 with regard to debtors were good in Haslau." Rather 
 would Flitt have been sent to the place of condemned 
 spirits, for there, at least, is good society, than into 
 the hermitage of a prison ; and he strode without a 
 very composed countenance, up and down the room, 
 murmuring short interjections, and low curses. At 
 
182 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 last he whispered a few words in French in Rapha- 
 ela's ear. She requested the clerk to have patience, 
 till she received an answer to the little note she was 
 writing to her father, praying for his security. 
 
 Flitt sat down again gaily, to paint, but this pride 
 was only the foil, of which the clerk possessed the true 
 jewel. Walt fluttered as anxiously about his cage, 
 as Flitt did within it, and followed all the motions of 
 the imprisoned bird. Vult, meantime, observed sharp- 
 ly the travelling clerk. " Have I not seen you 
 before," he said, " in the environs of Spalletto, from 
 whence, it is well known, the ancient Romans brought 
 their sacrificial animals, on account of their color, of 
 pure white " *' I was never there," he answered ; 
 " I travel merely to the north. My name indeed is 
 Italian, for my grandparents were of that country." 
 " He is called Mr. Paridisi," said Flitt. 
 
 At last came Newpeter's answer. Flitt looked 
 eagerly with Raphaela into the open note. " I 
 believe thou art intoxicated ! Thy father, P. N." 
 Deeply wounded, Raphaela cast her eyes to the 
 earth. Paridisi stepped politely before her, and be- 
 sought her forgiveness for interrupting her, and her 
 friends in the precious hour consecrated to painting ; 
 " but Herr Flitt," he added, "is in fact somewhat to 
 blame." " O, sacre ! how am I ? " he asked. " You 
 will return this way from the north ? " asked Rapha- 
 ela, " and when } " " In six months, from Peters- 
 burg." She looked at him, and then at Walt, with 
 most beseeching eyes. " Herr Paridisi, I will ven- 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 183 
 
 ture a word with you," she said. " The army- 
 paymaster, who has had services from Herr Flitt, 
 must then have paid him ; will you not then accept 
 of bail, till your return, noble Signor? Mr. Har- 
 nish," she said, and drew Walt into her sleeping 
 apartment. 
 
 " Only one word, Herr Notary ! " cried Vult. 
 " Immediately^^'' Walt answered, and followed Ra- 
 phaela. 
 
 " Ah ! good Harnish ! she began, in a low voice, 
 " I beseech you, even with tears. I know you have 
 a noble heart, and that you love poor Flitt so truly ; 
 for I am assured of it from himself, — and he de- 
 serves it. He would go through the fire for a friend. 
 With these tears I — " but the deafening sound of 
 the drum, for new recruits to the army, compelled 
 her, reluctantly, to be silent. 
 
 During the noise, Walt took her white, wax-like 
 hand, and looked into her large, round, tearful eyes, 
 that he might, if possible, guess her wishes. " With 
 joy, I would do all — everything," he cried, charmed 
 by the perfumed cabinet, now full of evening sun- 
 light, with the group of Love and Psyche, and gilded 
 time-pieces, over which genii hovered, " aZZ, knew I 
 only what." 
 
 " Your security for Flitt," she began, " else he 
 must this very day — go to prison," she added. Here 
 in Haslau there is not a man that will give him 
 either credit or bail ; not even my dear father. Oh ! 
 
184 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 were my Wina here ! or had I only my pin-money 
 again ! * 
 
 " Herr Notary Harnish," cried Vult from the 
 painting-room, " you are wanted here." 
 
 " I am, in fact, most happy," said Walt, " to be 
 able to do what you desire," and took the hands she 
 had raised. " These valuable toys, also, upon the 
 table, did you make these for children ? " " Ah ! I 
 would rather that I had the money they cost," she 
 answered. 
 
 " With what sentiments," said Walt, " I shall 
 give my security to Mr. Paridisi (for I shall become 
 bail for Flitt), I need not express to you in this 
 chamber ; trust in me." She started back from an 
 almost half embrace, offered by herself, pressed 
 Walt's hand, and led him joyously back to the com- 
 pany, whom she informed of all. The travelling 
 clerk was profuse and earnest in his thanks to the 
 lady, but delicately insinuated the question, who 
 would answer for the security being paid She 
 wrote hastily a petition to her father, whom the clerk 
 had long known to be firm and solid, that the bail 
 should be secured upon Walt's future inheritance. 
 Paridisi departed, kissing her hand, and promising 
 another visit. 
 
 Vult now asked the notary, in a friendly manner. 
 
 * This term, in German, is not applied, merely to the money 
 allowed to a wife, but to any money appropriated to a young 
 lady's personal expenses. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 185 
 
 to go with him, for one moment, to his own cham- 
 ber. Upon the stairs, he cried out, " Heaven ! hell ! 
 are you mad ? Open the door ! quick ! Hasten, I 
 beseech you. Oh, Walt ! what have you done in 
 that sleeping chamber ? The lock will not turn — 
 there is a crumb in the keyhole — knock it out. Is 
 man then eternally a dog, that he must be forever 
 watched ? What have you done in that chamber ? 
 Another folly? a repetition of thyself? But thus 
 thou art ! always, everywhere the same ! Thank 
 God ! tiie key turns." The room was open. 
 
 " I am completely astonished — " Walt began. 
 " You did not observe," Vult continued, " that all 
 was a snare of Satan, by which they would make 
 you responsible for the bail, ensnare you into the 
 stocks, and, according to that foolish article in the 
 will, make you pay interest as long as you sit 
 there."* ''I fear nothing," said Walt. "You 
 hope, indeed, that the old merchant has already cut 
 off your credit, and that they will not take your se- 
 curity ? " " Heaven forbid ! " said Walt. " Then 
 you will be his bail ? " " By heaven ! yes ! " 
 
 The flute-player sank down upon a chair, as if 
 stunned, and stared straight before him ; resting his 
 hands upon his upraised, right-angled knees, mur- 
 muring to himself, in a low tone, " Now God have 
 
 * In the ninth clause of the will, it is said, that day's journeys, 
 and the time passed in prison, cannot be deducted from the season 
 of probation. 
 
186 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 pity, if he will ! This is the vintage that I gather ; 
 and, after all my hurrying exertions to be here, the 
 devil manages as he pleases ! This is the result of 
 my forced marches, sometimes before, sometimes 
 behind, like a provost of the army, suffering every 
 inconvenience. I swear, I had rather a thousand 
 times take the sailors from a wreck, in the midst of 
 a storm, with a rope tied to their beards, than be 
 tormented with a poet, who disarranges and spoils all 
 reasonable plans. I had rather mount the Brocken, 
 the very last of the corpse bearers, supporting the 
 tail of the procession, than follow a poet up and 
 down through all his whims. This honest brother of 
 mine, who is not, indeed, wholly a fool, believes a 
 poet inferior to these thievish villains, who surround 
 and tread upon him, as the potter upon the clay." 
 
 " I wish to understand you," said Walt, in a very 
 serious tone ; for the most indulgent spirit may, at 
 last, become severe against one who always judges 
 men with severity or injustice. 
 
 " As I said before," continued Vult, " that can the 
 poet not do. In vain does a favorite twin-brother ride 
 after him, as Suwarrow rode after a Cossack ; it is 
 of no use, he only exhibits his folly, and that to the 
 whole world." 
 
 " To believe in humanity," Walt replied, " to 
 trust in another as in one's-self, through one's own 
 heart to know and esteem a stranger, is all that con- 
 cerns my honor and life. The devil take the rest ! 
 How } greater men, in greater dangers, have trusted 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 187 
 
 Others, both in life and in death. An Alexander has 
 drunk the apparently poisoned cup, while his phy- 
 sician was reading the letter that accused him of 
 treachery ; and should I not believe in the warm 
 tears of a benevolent girl ? No ! I would rather 
 take this staff, which is indeed a beggar's staff, and 
 let it go with me as far as my feet can bear me — " 
 
 " No beggar can go farther," said Vult, " but you 
 interrupted me. Once more, patience, brother ! You 
 would sacrifice, with perfect indifference, father, 
 mother, twin-brother, aZZ, to people of whom — I will 
 say no more ; reflect upon all ; seventy notarial trees 
 already felled ! such an unexpected linking of so 
 many chains with so many of your errors upon that 
 journey to Rosenhof! and, in fact, to-day you are 
 excited through the wine — but to conclude, you 
 hovered, with the wings of the falcon and the kite, 
 about the affianced heart of the sitter, and made use 
 of the wretched pencil of the bridegroom as a decoy 
 bird ; you ! mocking-bird and bird of prey in one ! 
 Ah, now you blush ! * What signify Raphaela's 
 tears ? believe me, loomen have deepe?^ sorrows than 
 those at which they weepJ' 
 
 " God ! how much more melancholy then ! " cried 
 Walt. " Women and millers," continued Vult, 
 " hold secret vents, with which to reduce their corn 
 to meal, while others toil at the grinding." 
 
 * Vult's error, that Walt is in love with Raphaela, begins here. 
 
188 
 
 WAl.T A\n VI IT, 
 
 On my own account,'' said Walt, " I gave a 
 lady my woi"d. I shall keep it. And I thank God, 
 that he has given nie an opportunity to show the 
 confidence one should cherish in man, if he would 
 not lose his own seit'- respect. Should it even hap- 
 pen — suribr me to go on, ibr I could not speak more 
 truly — should it even happen, Üiat I am deceived, 
 and my faith in man should perish, and wounded 
 love bleed, I should rejoice that / only had received, 
 and not given the wound. I am decided to give bail 
 to Fliti. My father's anger — but how. can he, in 
 his village, understand my relations here .- My 
 mother's scorn ; imprisonment, want — all may come ! 
 I shall keep my word. You are angry. It is well ! 
 I am bail, and shall go down ! *' 
 
 Vult kept his temper, surprised as he was, and 
 thrown out of tl>e saddle by Walt's bolting and cur- 
 vetting, who, like the generous steed, became the 
 more obstinate, the more he was spurred and driven. 
 "You go!" he said, "I beseech you now, with 
 perfect calmness, reflect upon what you are doing. 
 Go not, like a bewildered bird, directly into the 
 snare ! Turn back, I beseech thee, brother! " 
 
 '"And did I go to prison, also, I must keep my 
 word," he said. 
 
 " There you will become gmy ; I cannot help it," 
 said the other; "and I would not resist it, if the 
 clearest reason and consent supported your right to 
 do so. But, that those villa'ms should triumph ! And 
 in the end it will be known that we are related ; and 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 189 
 
 I shall be so cursedly laughed at, as one of us ! 
 Friend ! brother ! listen ! devil ! " But he went. 
 *' Oh, thou true lefter ! " * cried the flutist, glowing 
 with anger : " yet I will follow, and see you scatter 
 the winter seed, that will yield a splendid summer 
 harvest of thistle-heads for chaffinches ! " 
 
 As they entered the room below they found the 
 betrothed lovers alone, much to Vult's displeasure, 
 who had lengthened his business above, to induce 
 -delay, that the travelling clerk might have come and 
 gone. Walt's face glowed with excitement, and his 
 voice trembled, while he cast anxious glances at 
 Vult, as though entreating him not to be rude. But, 
 contrary to all his expectations, the flute-player had 
 become a true flute ; he looked on with easy in- 
 difierence, and spoke in a refined and calm voice. 
 " Ah ! continue to paint," he said to Flitt, " and 
 upon this occasion, each can sing his own song, upon 
 his own penitential text ; some of us possess whole 
 psalm-books of them. I have myself, in this very 
 collection, the three men in the fiery furnace, all on 
 one key, which I could, upon this occasion, play in 
 the most expressive manner, if it would serve to 
 divert us. 
 
 # # # « # 
 
 At this moment. Signer Paridisi opened the door. 
 He entered cheerfully, and after throwing a polite 
 glance towards Walt, thanked Raphaela very ex- 
 
 * In Elterlein, a subject of the nobleman. 
 
190 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 pressively for her letter to her father. He immedi- 
 ately took the security offered by Walt. Earely had 
 the latter been more happy, and at the same time 
 more unhappy. Vult's parodies and cynical re- 
 marks, which had seemed to the others mere absurd- 
 ities, were to him bitter satires ; while it gave him a 
 new pleasure to be the succor and protecting guar- 
 dian to the others. The business of the exchange 
 was coolly and completely effected before Vult's 
 eyes, although he was secretly surprised, and angry 
 at the ease with which one thing succeeded another. 
 Powerful men, like him, are not easily reconciled 
 to the strength of others, or its consequences ; be- 
 cause, perhaps, every one has more to fear, than to 
 hope from others. 
 
 As soon as the business was completed, the flute- 
 player took a very courteous leave from the com- 
 pany, especially from Walt. The latter did not 
 follow him, but asked Flitt if he would not spend the 
 few hours that remained of his week of probation in 
 his own apartment. Flitt joyfully assented. Ra- 
 phaela pressed, gratefully, her own soft hand into 
 Walt's. He went back into his quiet apartment. 
 As he crossed the threshold, he felt as if he should 
 burst into tears ; but whether of joy, or sorrow, or 
 from the excitement of the wine, he knew not. At 
 length, he forgot even his anger. 
 
 No. 53. Kreuzstein. Stone with a cross upon it. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 191 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 SORROWS OF YOUNG WALT. WINTER QUARTERS. 
 
 The notary for one long night could neither sleep, 
 nor love his brother ; but anger was with him only a 
 dream, and the reasons for not quarrelling, arising 
 every night before him, warmed him in such mea- 
 sure, that if Vult had ventured to visit his bed, he 
 had been capable of saying, " I can speak with thee 
 now, brother ; but seat thyself, not upon the sharp 
 frame of the bed, but more upon my pillow," He 
 thought the faculty of inflicting martyrdom, even upon 
 such men as Flitt and himself, both incomprehensi- 
 ble and unpardonable. He had often attempted, when 
 reflecting upon the history of the world, to place 
 himself in imagination, among those powerful men 
 of granite and glacier nature, who cheerfully shine 
 on, and prosper in the midst of the hatred of a whole 
 court and nation ; but it was in vain, he could never 
 succeed in such characters. It would have been as 
 easy for him to have given himself a heart of mar- 
 ble, by swallowing a statue. A human face instantly 
 touched his soul, and did it appear on the chrysalis of 
 a night butterfly, or upon a child's doll, he could not 
 have coldly injured either. 
 
192 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 He arose from his bed, and looked out upon the 
 smoothly-shorn harvest day. He would, as he was 
 accustomed to do, indulge, and not repress that secret 
 emotion, love, but he found nothing to love. He 
 reflected therefore upon his causes for anger, that 
 he might place himself in his true position. A 
 heart that is full of love can forgive all severity 
 towards itself, but not towards another ; to pardon 
 the first is a duty, but to pardon injustice towards 
 another, is to partake of its guilt. 
 
 He took, therefore, the weary path to the council- 
 house, there, as hitherto, to receive cheerfully the 
 penalty for his sins and mistakes, in his probation 
 week with Flitt. That mocking-bird, his yesterday's 
 bird of ill omen, for he possessed nothing upon earth 
 but time, was already there, together with Pasvogel, 
 the bookseller. Walt looked at the Alsatian with an 
 eye as full of welcome, as if the latter had been bound 
 for him. Never had he been capable of throwing a 
 glance of purgatory upon the innocent instrument that 
 had kindled it for him ; he preferred rather to remain 
 alone there, and show others how to avoid the fire. 
 
 Herr Kuhnold opened the secret regulation tariff 
 upon the seventh clause. It was, in fact, therein 
 ordered, that for every Germanized French word, 
 that Flitt upon oath would testify the heir had used 
 during his week of probation, the possession of the 
 inheritance should be delayed one day. Flitt imme- 
 diately answered, " that he knew no one who posess- 
 ed so fine an organ for the French language, or so 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 193 
 
 beautiful a caligraphy for writing it, as Herr Walt ; 
 and that he recollected no important fault." Walt 
 endeavored to take his hand, and said, " How delight- 
 ful it is to me that you prove yourself such as I 
 thought you. But my joy is more disinterested than 
 it appears." 
 
 The chief executor was rejoiced for once to wish 
 him joy. The bookseller also, who asked him, what 
 would be his next choice in the probation ordained 
 by the will ? 
 
 It is unfortunate for this history, that the world does 
 not know the sixth clause of the will by heart ; begin- 
 ning, " a mere johe it may appear to the heir^'''' for 
 upon this, as the chief pillar, the whole structure 
 stands. Walt knew it well, and the bookseller best 
 of all. But Walt, in that soul intoxication, deriv- 
 ed from a sense of rectitude in not having erred in 
 the good opinion he cherished towards Flitt, could 
 not immediately read the directions of the will. Pass- 
 vogle approached, and reminded him of the clause 
 letter C, which says, he shall go through 12 sheets, 
 as corrector of the press. " Excellent,^'' cried Walt, 
 immediately comprehending and agreeing to this. 
 Upon his heart, fretted by a night of anger, the 
 smallest expression of human benevolence fell like a 
 healing balsam. 
 
 As soon as Walt quitted the council-room, he found 
 his affections turned again towards his brother. Flitt 
 was justified ; he was himself excused, and in the 
 
 VOL. II. 13 
 
194 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 degree that he found himself right, he pardoned, in 
 tlie mass, all others. After he had written hastily to 
 his anxious father, the favorable result of his week's 
 trial with Flitt, he began, according to iiis old cus- 
 tom, to place himself seriously in the situation of 
 another, and asked himself, can then Vult shape 
 his actions upon any other jn'inciple than his own, 
 and can he act ditferently towards me, than I, if I 
 were himself, should act towards him ? Every one 
 desires justice from others, and afier that, a little 
 added favor. Ah well, he perhaps would give both 
 to others — that also will I do." He found in Vult's 
 resolute firmness, the opposite of his own yielding dis- 
 position. But friendships and marriages are formed, 
 like the telescope, by the nice adaptation of convex 
 and concave glasses. 
 
 But of what use was his now open heart No 
 one came into it. He waited in love s timidity, hop- 
 ing Vult would allow, if no more, a quarter of an ell 
 of the white flag of peace to flutter, that he might 
 draw it, with love's ej-es, towards himself. Not a 
 finger's breadth did the other display, but sent him 
 extracts for the double romance, without adding a 
 word to them. AValt also sent him many chapters, 
 that he had written while his heart was cloister- 
 ed, for Passvogle delayed sending the proof-sheet 
 to be corrected, and the city withheld the notary 
 business, that might have disturbed, but also enriched 
 him. One day, soon after, Vult sent him the most 
 elaborate digression, and mentioned cursorily the 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 195 
 
 enjoyment he had derived from writing it, and the 
 true artistic warmth with which every chapter had 
 been created — but — nothing more. "Now," said 
 Walt to himself, " I know very well how I stand. 
 I am, indeed, very unfortunate. The heaven that 
 opened for me, is indeed past. My brother is to 
 me forever dead and buried." — He wrote a long 
 chapter, and sent it with the following faithfully 
 
 transcribed letter — " Brother ! within 
 
 Thy Brother G." 
 
 Vult made no answer, and Walt, for a quarter of 
 an hour, was angry. 
 
 Soon after, in a cold November afternoon, he 
 walked to the Wirthshaus with the sign of the Wirths- 
 haus, where, it is well known, like meeting a genial 
 May after a life-long winter, he had first found his 
 brother. As he entered, the Hernhutt host was beat- 
 ing his wife out of the house ; and throwing his 
 children after her, he cried, that if he were not a 
 Christian, he should treat her very differently, but as 
 he was one, he restrained himself, and no injurious 
 word should pass his lips. 
 
 Walt flew to the Hernhutt burying-ground, where 
 he had been so happy, at the moment, when to him 
 the sun went down, and the brother arose. The 
 rees, instead of scattering their leaves to clothe the 
 buried skeletons, stretched out their own naked arms 
 above them ; rain and snow were mingled ; the 
 clouds rather than the sun descended towards the 
 west, and the evening and night were hardly dis- 
 tinguishable from each other. 
 
196 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 From thence, he bore himself on the same path, 
 but with what different feelings, than on the splendid 
 morning when he followed on foot to the city the 
 horse ridden by his father. As he passed over the 
 bridge, and was environed only by the water and the 
 dark night, two heavy clouds parted from each other, 
 and the clear moon appeared to lie like a silver ball 
 in the bosom of a cloudy mountain, and a long path 
 of light descended to him. 
 
 Walt went on, still anxious for his brother, towards 
 the street where he dwelt, drawn by the echoing of 
 his flute, whose waves of harmony flooded all the 
 open, rough precipices of his actual world. The 
 melancholy November evening, the brutal Moravian 
 host, the empty ebb of life, sank beneath the splen- 
 did billows of sound. As it was now quite dark, (in 
 the day-time he would not have ventured down the 
 long street,) Walt approached, concealed by the sha- 
 dow of the moon, close to Vult's lodgings, and as he 
 pressed his hand upon the knocker, he thought how 
 often the brother's hand must have been there. 
 
 As he stood in the shadow, with the light reflected 
 opposite, he observed that Vult must be by the music- 
 desk that stood near the window. The deep shadow 
 of a cloud passed over the street, he stepped across 
 to the other side, and looked up. Behind the lighted 
 desk, he saw the so long desired countenance, and 
 wept bitterly. He would now have gone gladly up 
 to him, with the brother's old, open heart ; but he 
 said, " No — I know his music as well as though I 
 
OR THE TWINS, 
 
 197 
 
 myself were the performer. No, his heart is not yet 
 mine — he is always the reverse of his music, and 
 often the most severe when he plays the most ten- 
 derly. I will not disturb him in his spirit's dream, 
 but rather put my own upon paper, and send them to 
 him in the morning." 
 
 He went to his home. The flute tones of his 
 brother fell beautifully in unison with his own excited 
 feelings ; and he allayed the mental storm, by the 
 creation of two short poems, like those pillars of sta- 
 lactites, which, as is well known, are formed by the 
 continual falling of liquid drops. 
 
 STRECKVERSE. 
 
 " The dew-drops sink softly in the hollow moun- 
 tain, but are petrified into hard and sharp angles. 
 More beautiful is the human tear. It penetrates and 
 wounds the eye, but the wept diamond is liquid, and 
 when the eye seeks it, behold, it is like the dew in 
 the cup of the flower." 
 
 SECOND. 
 
 *' Look into the deep grotto, where little silent 
 tears have created the pillars of the earth, and the 
 splendor of heaven now plays upon them. Thy 
 tears and griefs, oh, man ! will soon shine as stars, 
 and bear thee up like the pillars of this temple." 
 
 At receiving them, Vult answered ; — " The rest 
 verbally, dearest ! Thou knowest, better than I, how 
 
198 
 
 WALT AIvD VULT, 
 
 much our so diligently-advancing work rejoices 
 me ! " 
 
 " The devil take him," said Walt, " our quarrel 
 has cost me more repentance than himself — for I, 
 alas, love so differently ! " He now felt all the 
 misery that unrequited love upon this earth can inflict. 
 Wholly deprived of society or business, he continued 
 to weave his romance as the only thin light cord that 
 could connect his own apartment with that of his 
 brother. 
 
 At last, upon an evening when the full, perfect 
 moon shone clear and soothing, he thought whether 
 it would not be suitable to take a formal leave of his 
 brother. He wrote the following note : — 
 
 " Take it not ill, if about seven o'clock this even- 
 ing I come to thee ! Indeed I will only take leave ; 
 every thing upon this earth parts violently, without 
 leave taking ; but man should say adieu to man, if 
 no storm, no earthquake, suddenly parted those near- 
 est in soul ! Be as I am, Vult ! I will see thee only 
 once, and then not again. Answer not, as I fear 
 myself." 
 
 He received no answer, and became yet more 
 fearful and melancholy. In the evening he went to 
 his brother, but felt, as he entered, as though the 
 parting had already taken place. There was no 
 light in Vult's chamber. ^Vhat a burthen did he 
 bear over the steps, to redouble, not to lie it down 
 above them ! No one said " come in." The cham- 
 ber was empty ; the door stood open. Upon a lantern 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 199 
 
 a glimmering light, was nearly extinguished. The 
 bed-alcove, like the manger of a stable, concealed 
 only refuse ; where straw, scattered papers, shavings, 
 broken letter-envelopes, fragments of flute-arias, were 
 the sediment of past days; it was the relic, or char- 
 nel-house of a living man. 
 
 In the first madness of his fright, Walt imagined 
 that, if not already there, Vult would soon be be- 
 neath the waves ; and, half unconsciously, with large 
 tears dropping from his eyes, he was gathering to- 
 gether the paper relics, when he heard the coarse 
 voice of the wife of the theatre-tailor crying out, 
 " who was above there ? " " Harnish," he answered. 
 She ascended the stairs, scolding, that it was not the 
 voice of Harnish. As she found Walt in total dark- 
 ness, having extinguished the expiring light, pre- 
 ferring darkness, as one prefers death to dying, he 
 involved himself in an unfortunate strife of words 
 with the lady ; first, upon his intention to steal ; and 
 secondly, upon his falsehood in calling himself Har- 
 nish. He had in his haste said that Vult was his 
 brother ; * and yet asked when, and from whence 
 Vult had returned. 
 
 Confused, he returned to his own apartment. As 
 he ascended the stairs, he found the house illumi- 
 nated, and full of people. The court-agent gave 
 this evening a dancing tea-party. He found his 
 
 * Vult, as will he recollectedj had been very careful to conceal 
 their relation sliip. 
 
200 
 
 WALT AND VüLT, 
 
 chamber open, and a man with a hammer, at work, 
 to improve and new furnish his dweüing-place. It 
 was Vult ! 
 
 Most welcome ! " said Vult, and continued to 
 nail upon a theatre curtain. " But, good evening ! 
 most wished for ! I was thinking, will no one come ? 
 just as you, at last, entered. Since it struck seven, 
 have I been vexing myself to have everything ac- 
 complished and arranged in the best manner, that 
 neither of us may grumble nor fret afterwards. Will 
 you but support and help me with the common fur- 
 niture ? But how you look at me, Walt ! " 
 
 " Vult ! how ? speak only ! " cried Walt. " There 
 may then, at last, be something delightful ! Wel- 
 come ! welcome ! with my whole heart, welcome ! " 
 and he ran to embrace and kiss him. Vult, with 
 the nail in one hand, and the hammer in the other, 
 could only present his face, and answered, " The 
 principal thing now is, that you should listen to a 
 reasonable word upon the subject ; as the thing in 
 hand is for our mutual pleasure, and we shall be un- 
 willing to change, when once everything is nailed 
 fast. It seems to me right, that you should take 
 the possession and whole government of one window, 
 and I, of the other ; a third is wanting." 
 
 " I know not, indeed, what are your intentions ; 
 but do what you please, and then tell me," said 
 Walt. "We do not understand each other. Have 
 you, then, received no letter from me " asked Vult. 
 " No," said the other. " I mean that of this morn- 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 201 
 
 ing," he continued, " in which I said I would take 
 your silence as an assent to my prayer, that we, like 
 a pair of birds, might dwell together in one nest ; 
 or quartered together in one apartment, even this. 
 How ? " " Nothing," said Walt. " But you do, 
 indeed, desire this ? Oh ! why, then, did I confide 
 so Httle in your goodness ? God punish me for it ! 
 Oh ! art thou, indeed, thus ? " 
 
 " In that case, I must still have the letter in my 
 pocket," said Vult, and drew it out. " My especial 
 wish is," he continued, " that this wall of fire should 
 blaze between us, and the scenery of the stage divide 
 our bodies so happily, that our spirits may remain 
 united. The partition-wall, upon your side, is painted 
 with a beautiful series of palaces. Upon mine, is an 
 Arcadian village ; and I have only to throw up this 
 palace-window, from my own writing-table, to see 
 thee at thine. We can converse with each other 
 through the wall and the city." 
 
 " That will be heavenly ! " said Walt. 
 
 " We can work day and night in our double 
 cage, upon our double romance ; for winter is the 
 best time to brood, both for authors and crossbills ; 
 and we, like the black hellebore, (for what are 
 authors but hellebore for the world ?) can bloom 
 best in the frost." 
 
 " Oh, splendid ! " said Walt. 
 
 " For I must, alas, acknowledge, that hitherto, in 
 consequence of one extravagance or another, or 
 from levity itself, I have prepared little, and accom- 
 
202 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 plished less ; but we will both write and compose, 
 that we may smoke ; we will live only for books and 
 manuscripts, namely, for the copy-money we shall 
 get. In fourteen days, my good friend, a very pretty 
 piece of work may be finished, and sent from the 
 stocks to an editor." 
 
 "Oh, delightful!" said Walt. 
 
 " If such a brooding together in one nest, I, as a 
 dove, tliou, as a dovess, does not n the end produce 
 a phoenix, or some other winged work, that will be 
 so precious in the eyes of posterity, that they will 
 ask of their ancestors, ' Who v/ere these brothers ? 
 how did they live ? what was their height and 
 breadth ? how did they eat ? how sneeze ? what 
 were their manners, their furniture, and their fol- 
 lies ? ' — if, I say, this does not happen — why, then, 
 I have been joking." 
 
 " Ach Gott ! " cried Walt, in ecstasy. 
 
 " I will devour my own tongue with hunger," 
 Vult continued, "if we do not live together a long 
 time before we quarrel, especially if certain things 
 do not happen, of which more by and by." 
 
 "By heaven! you give me new life and hope," 
 said Walt. 
 
 " Will it please you," said the other, and led him 
 into the sleeping-room, " that our beds are obliquely 
 divided by this Spanish wall (Spanish castles are for 
 dreams), I should see you in bed, but for this old 
 bed-screen." 
 
 " You know my feelings on that subject," he an- 
 swered. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 203 
 
 Vult now sketched the difficult steps by which he 
 had effected his entrance, and went on to the chart 
 for their future life. He had long, he said, partly 
 from love to him and their romance, partly to divide 
 the rent, and partly from other causes, wished to 
 come to him. Lately, in a promenade with Rapha- 
 ela, he had won back her good opinion ; and with 
 that, as with a long-armed lover, he had moved her 
 father. He had been there an hour with Purzel's 
 old scenery, and had found the key in the well- 
 known mouse-hole. " Now," he concluded, " it 
 remains but to break the seal of my own letter." 
 Upon the envelope was written, " To Herr Walt, de- 
 livered by myself" 
 
 Walt did not remark, that his own seal was placed 
 near Vult's, and that it was the old letter, in which 
 he had forewarned him of his sullen spirit and his 
 jealousy, that he might afterwards be excused. This 
 letter the reader has read earlier than Walt.* He 
 put it hastily aside, thinking Vult was preparing him 
 for some future quarrel ; but when he showed him 
 the date, and that it referred to the past, Walt seized 
 both his hands, and, looking in his eyes, exclaimed, 
 in a tone of emotion, " Vult ! Vult ! " The flute- 
 player had some drops in his own eyes, which with 
 his imprisoned hands he could not dispense. " I am 
 no^m^," he said, " let me go to my own chamber; " 
 and he fled behind the stage-scene. 
 
 * See Vol. I., pp. 17S - 133. 
 
AVALT AND VüLT, 
 
 A\ alt went backwards and ibrwards in his own 
 part, and related his own {)ast exertions to rekuit the 
 baptismal-bond of their souls. Then he passed llie 
 dividing-wall, and iielped Vnlt to put his housekeep- 
 ing in order. He was so helptul, so active, he would 
 give his brother so nuich more than his share of 
 window-light and I'urniture, that Vult secretly scolded 
 himself for a fool, in the late business of the ex- 
 change lor Flitt, for so uselessly and severely press- 
 ing his selfish opposition. AValt, on Iiis side, had 
 placed the llute-player in the focus of a shining light. 
 That on his account he should overcome his aver- 
 sion to Kaphaela, was an excess of merit that he 
 could scarcely understand. He determined, there- 
 fore, to learn all Vult's merits by heart, that he 
 might always recur to them when inclined to grum- 
 ble. The mutual housekeeping, or room-fraternity, 
 was established within the strictest limits, so that in 
 the morning each might begin to live in his own 
 peculiar way. Vult remarked, that they must give 
 ill-humor and anger ample room within, to be hunted 
 and run dead against the inner walls of brain and 
 heart ; for it was easy, if the wolf in the heart was 
 killed, to be outwardly like lambs. 
 
 Another remark might here be made. The strong- 
 est love will feel, and then forgive, the greatest faults 
 against itself ; while the repetition of many little 
 otfences against friendship wound and fret deeply ; 
 so that we often owe to them a disposition averse to 
 all mankind, that upon trying occasions makes itself 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 205 
 
 the mirror where all is reflccteci. The highest love 
 knows no middle point. It is only yes^ or no ! It 
 can dwell in no purgatory. It makes a heaven or 
 hell. And it has this misfortune, that the feelings 
 and dispositions to which it gives birth, are in them- 
 selves purgatory, tlie portresses of heaven or hell. 
 
 As Vult, behind the screen, stepped into his bed, 
 he said, " Do not answer me upon this subject, but I 
 do believe, that, in future, T shall know how to love 
 you better." " No ! I you," cried Walt. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 No. 54. A woodpecker. 
 
206 
 
 WALT AND VÜLT, 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 DOUBLE LIFE. 
 
 " Heaven consists probably in first days, hell 
 perhaps, also, so much does this miserable nest exalt 
 my spirits,*' said Vult, the next morning, at breakfast. 
 Each returned afterwards to his dwelling, and to his 
 work. Vult wrote a little in his journal, and then 
 cut out two useful extracts for the double romance. 
 Then he looked from the window and spoke to the 
 friendly Raphaela, who, at the orders of her father, 
 stood guardian over the statues, that, like chests of 
 oranges, were borne to their winter quarters. When 
 he found that Walt could hear him from his window, 
 he snowed down upon her some little frozen ice- 
 flowers, in allusion to love, hoping that Walt's and 
 Raphaela's mutual warmth Avould convert them into 
 beautiful variegated dew-drops.* With a joy that 
 was without jealousy, she gave him hopes, in answer 
 to his question, as to when the general and his daugh- 
 
 * On account of Walt's zeal in assisting Flitt, at the prayer of 
 Raphaela, Vult had become possessed with the idea, that he had 
 acted only from his love to this lady. This conviction rendered 
 him blind to Walt's passion for Wina. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 207 
 
 ter would return, of a very speedy meeting with 
 them. 
 
 The brothers had scarcely begun again to write, 
 when Vulf murmured, but so that Walt could hear 
 him, " I know not why I should not take a walk, and 
 visit my solitary brother. The way from here to 
 him is as firm and plain as a turnpike." Then he 
 opened the little window in the painted stage curtain, 
 and cried, I should have great pleasure in visiting 
 thee, if thou art alone." " Ah, thou villain ! " He 
 then travelled as with difficulty and half steps around 
 the wall, and with outstretched arm^ paid, "the 
 snow-storm without would fain have frightened me 
 from seeking thee in thy solitude, but perhaps I can 
 change it into a double or laughing hermitage." 
 
 " Brother ! " said Walt, rising from his writing- 
 table, " could I do justice to the comic, or dared to 
 sketch the character of a friend in outline, 1 would 
 draw every stroke of the pencil from you ! But I 
 hold it not delicate to lay the heart of a beloved friend, 
 as a spectacle, bare, before the poetical market. But 
 — am I too warm when I write ? " " No," answer- 
 ed Vult, " not for the truth — but I must return to 
 my own house, there to utter my jokes for the amuse- 
 ment of the world, and of posterity. Is it accident, 
 that even in this room you are again a Lefter, while 
 I am in the right ? " * 
 
 * As in the village of Elterlein, the subjects of the prince were 
 on the right side of the brook, and the subjects of the noblemaa 
 were called Lcfters, 
 
208 
 
 WALT AND VüLT, 
 
 Walt considered it his duty, soon after, to return his 
 brother's visit, to relieve his imprisonment in so small 
 a space. He reminded him how many accidental 
 events had, as it were, united for their happiness. 
 That to-day was the first fall of snow, that was 
 always to him something secret and domestic, re- 
 minding him of his childhood, like a May-flower in 
 the midst of winter ; and that to-day he had first 
 heard the thresher, that voice and music-waltzer of 
 winter. " You mean the flail," said Vult, " only it 
 disturbs the harmony of my flute." " As it comes 
 only at intervals, and is indeed, so simple a verse, 
 the time being beaten by three flails, it has some- 
 thing charming for my ear. 
 
 " In the winter, my Gunter, 
 Thus thresh they the field ; 
 
 When cold 'tis — not old 'tis, 
 All freshly congealed." 
 
 " It may be, that the verses are excellent of their 
 kind," said Vult, " and who can tell from whence 
 they have come ? " 
 
 In the evening, towards four o'clock, Walt heard 
 Vult say to Flora, " Before you make our beds, 
 beautiful child, go to Herr Notary, my neighbor, and 
 tell him I invite him this evening to tea, to a The mar- 
 chanty and bring a light to me only, as he will need 
 none." 
 
 It was the first time in his life that Walt had taken 
 tea for other than medicinal purposes. Vult gave 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 209 
 
 with it wine, that he never forgot to take upon credit. 
 " If the ancients," he said, " watered their acorns 
 with wine, how much more should we our laurels." 
 Then followed a discussion, as to how far men should 
 follow out their natural characters. Vult said, " I 
 speak with infinite ease, hefore I attempt to put the 
 conversation on paper. A thousand things come to 
 one's mind, when we argue or dispute, therefore, in 
 academies, disputing is dignified, and permitted to 
 be called teaching ; while in courts, the same thing is 
 called flattery." 
 
 Walt observed, " that thus familiar letters, which 
 were the echo of conversation, became so valuable" 
 — " and," said Vult, " to philosophy, a second human 
 face is far more helpful than a bare wall, or a sheet 
 of paper." " Yes, you are right," responded Walt, 
 " but it is not so favorable to poetical inspiration, as 
 to philosophy ; conversation is necessary to you, si- 
 lence to me." " Winter is the harvest-time of letters ; 
 the snow-balls are frozen to printer's ink-balls," said 
 Vult. " But, on the contrary, how a man journeys 
 and flies in the summer ! Now, were description 
 easy ! The Easter fair,* however, is the best proof." 
 " The winter," said Walt, " is as if a man were 
 environed and enclosed in mountains of clouds, with- 
 out a heaven or earth — so completely alone — no 
 sound of bird — no color in nature ! I would say, 
 
 * The great Easter book-fair in Leipsic. 
 VOL, 11. 14 
 
210 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 that in the absence of all outward objects, one must 
 create from the inward soul — " " Drink only this 
 cup, Walt! — Oh, very true — although to-day we 
 have not written much, I, indeed, nothing." 
 
 Both now deplored that their delightful community 
 of goods must be somewhat disturbed through the 
 total want of goods. Of gold, what they had in 
 hand was reduced to the gold upon the ring-finger. 
 Vult could not help them with the instrument that he 
 blew, nor Walt with the instruments that he was 
 rarely called upon to make. They must appeal to 
 charity, and each be the almoner of the other, or 
 take some more decided step. Yes, to-day, upon 
 this very spot, with a magician's wand, must a master- 
 stroke of irreparable consequences be made. It was 
 done ! They sent the first chapter, and first digres- 
 sion of their Romance, The Hearty to an editor, the 
 Magister* Dyk, in Leipsic. A work may thus 
 remain with its conclusion growing in the snail-shell 
 of the writing-desk, while it creeps with its feeling- 
 horns upon the post-road. They had the highest 
 hopes of a favorable reception from the Magister, 
 for a bookseller, who was himself a learned man, 
 would have a more instructed taste for manuscript 
 works, than one who must depend on the judgment 
 of another learned man. 
 
 In the letter sent with it, written according to Vult's 
 worldly-wise advice, Walt must place himself in 
 
 * A person who has taken the first degree only at a University. 
 The title is now obsolete. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 211 
 
 a proud position, and demand all the privileges of an 
 editor, " If Milton," said Vult, " received only- 
 twelve guineas * for his Paradise Lost, we will show 
 them in Leipsic, how little we compare ourselves 
 with him, and demand eight-and-forty." Walt was 
 completely astonished, that an author, and particular- 
 ly himself, could prescribe to the editor, the paper, 
 type, form, and even the number of copies, namely 
 3000, which he would permit to be printed. Vult 
 himself bore the manuscript to the Saxon post, to 
 see, as he said, once more, a little of the world. 
 
 The day after, both worked most zealously. A 
 young author believes that all he has sent to the editor 
 is already printed, and writes on with a new spur to 
 his industry. No visits, no festivals, no individuals, 
 no letters disturbed them. Vult had no money, and 
 Walt was born to sit still. Poets, like the people of 
 Africa, cultivate their bread-fields under music, and 
 measured sounds. How often Walt, in his excess of 
 happiness, rose from his seat, pen in hand, (while 
 Vult looked at him over the Spanish wall,) paced 
 the apartment and looked out of the window, but saw 
 nothing, and then returning to his seat, he could hard- 
 ly bring the sweet tumult in his breast to flow calmly 
 upon the paper. Then he would say, in the midst of 
 his rapture ; " continue to blow the flute, Vult, you do 
 not disturb me, but give a general glow to all that I 
 write." 
 
 * This is a mistake of Vult's, he received but five pounds. 
 
212 
 
 WALT AND VÜLT, 
 
 At dinner, sometimes in Walt's, sometimes in 
 Vult's apartment, the time of which they lengthened 
 to the utmost ; this dinner consisted of one portion 
 for two persons, as no host would guarantee a second. 
 It gave a purer motive to their dining together, 
 that a higher taste than that of appetite was consult- 
 ed, and that more sentiments than morsels went over 
 their tongues. They amused themselves with calcu- 
 lating the very moment when their manuscript would 
 reach the Magister Dyk ; how it would animate him, 
 and indeed shake him out of all propriety ; and then 
 how far the printing had proceeded, and if it did not 
 go on so fast that their writing could scarcely keep up 
 with it. Vult remarked that if a romance-writer 
 knew certainly that he should die, he would rarely 
 venture upon splendid unfoldings, of which he did 
 not himself see the solution ; if he left his work un- 
 finished, every one would bring out the probable 
 development in a different manner. " Do you then 
 certainly know, Walt, that you will live to finish this 
 romance ? Otherwise, there is much to do ! I look 
 round our apartment, and think how it would be, 
 should we both, under these triumphal arches of 
 glory, write ourselves into the Pantheon of Immor- 
 tality ! How our nest would be sought and visited. 
 Every scrap that you had scratched upon the wall, 
 as it was from Rousseau's Island, would be copied and 
 printed. The city itself would probably receive a new 
 name ; in imitation of Ovidiopolis^ they would call it 
 Harnishopolis. But it would embitter all personal 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 213 
 
 immortality to me, that my name is not long enough 
 to last long.* Oh, if one could know at his baptism, 
 that he should make himself a great name, he would 
 give himself one that would be gladly quoted by the 
 learned, because it would fill a line for the type- 
 setter, and a line for the purchaser. Apropos, why 
 does not the seven-heired Pasvogel send you the first 
 proof-sheet, in order to fulfil the conditions of the 
 will ? " " The author improves yet in his hand- 
 writing, he told me yesterday," said Walt. 
 
 Afterwards, they both snuffed the air. It is aston- 
 ishing how many traits of the higher ranks Walt 
 caught for his romance, in passing through the 
 streets. The manner in which a court cavalier 
 sprang from his carriage, or a countess looked out 
 of the window, could be romantically described ; 
 and one could stand or fall for a whole class ! It 
 was wonderful, that with these colored grains of 
 sand, the peasant's son could build a romance, in 
 which it was easy to study the character and habits 
 of the highest ranks. For this purpose, he always 
 went to the court-chapel, and kept his eyes open. 
 
 They went back to their separate rooms, and 
 worked as long as the light lasted. They lengthened 
 out the twilight, partly to spare candles, as well as 
 to indulge the flute, and interminable conversation. 
 When Vult drew exquisite tones from the flute, Walt 
 sat in the darkness, looking into the blue, starred 
 
 * Long- refers to space, as well as to time. 
 
214 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 firmament, and thought of that morning at Rosenhof, 
 behind the waterfall ; of Wina's noble heart ; and of 
 her speedy return, which would convert his sterile 
 life into a paradise. He would not disturb the flute, 
 to tell his brother how the minutes, clothed in bridal 
 dresses, and linked together with chains of roses, 
 danced about him ; but when the flute ceased, he 
 looked searchingly at Vult, and asked, " Are you, 
 then, satisfied, brother, with this narrow strip of life ; 
 and with the . orchestra tones, and the imaginary 
 enchanting forms, that we, perhaps, have to-day as 
 inwardly enjoyed as others have in any splendid 
 court ? " " Our life is, indeed, a true chart of hea- 
 ven," said Vult, " and just now its blank or reversed 
 side is up ; yet if one would lay a dollar upon the 
 map, I should not look upon it with displeasure." 
 
 The next morning, Walt spoke of his visions du- 
 ring the nightingale twilight of the flute, and his 
 preparation of an anecdote for the romance. " The 
 hero had been blamed because he rejoiced at the 
 promise of a sick and deaf old woman, who, on ac- 
 count of his kindness to her, had said she would 
 remember him every night in her prayers. He 
 replied, that it was not for the effect of her prayers, 
 even if they could be answered, upon himself, 
 but that the poor, old, frozen being could thus 
 every evening enjoy one moment of elevation and 
 warmth. — Is not that a true feature of myself, 
 Vult.?" "It is true of yourself," he answered; 
 in art, as in the sun, the hay only becomes warm, 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 215 
 
 not the living grass." Walt did not understand him. 
 It often happened, that he caught the meaning later 
 than the words of Vult's observations. 
 
 The next evening, it was that of a festival, Vult 
 went back to his old custom of perambulating the 
 streets during the lighting of the lamps, to invite an 
 adventure with an actress, drink Burgundy (which, 
 when sugar was added, Walt thought the worthiest 
 of wines), unite his flute with others in the street; 
 and, at last, in the coffee-house, fret himself half- 
 dead, that he had become entangled in conversation 
 with those he looked upon with the most fixed con- 
 tempt. Walt remained joyfully at home, finding in 
 the smallest little flower that thrust itself through the 
 snow, as much honey äs he needed. As the days be- 
 came shorter, he rejoiced in the length of the evenings ; 
 forgetting that he should rejoice just as much when, 
 later, the days began to lengthen. Upon one who 
 had been accustomed to so little, weighed no im- 
 portunate desires. He possessed the clear crystal- 
 lization water of phantasy, without which, the lightest 
 forms of joy fall into ashes. Yet his heaven was 
 not always removed far above the air of this earth. 
 It was sometimes as real as the blue sky of the 
 theatre ; as secure as the canopy of the bed. In all 
 Sunday sounds, in the court-gardens, in the winter 
 concerts, as wandering through the streets he lis- 
 tened, he took a more spiritual part than he, who 
 bore a jewelled star or key, and failed in both signs 
 within. On Sunday, he bought at a fruit-house one 
 
216 
 
 "WALT AND VULT, 
 
 of tlie best Borsdorfer apples, and, in the twilight of 
 evening, he said, " Certainly, at this moment, in the 
 difierent courts of Europe, Borsdorfers are placed on 
 the tables, but only as a part of the dessert. I must 
 make it serve for my supper. But, if, oh, thou good 
 God ! I desired more or better, I should not deserve 
 thy bounty, that, with a quiet, deep joy, like a per- 
 petual fountain, has overflowed my soul."" 
 
 In the transparent net of his imagination, every 
 joy-shooting butterfly was caught ; every star there, 
 sparkled clearly ; Italian flowers, whose German con- 
 servatory were the ladies' shawls worn in the street ; 
 a Canary-bird, who, in the midst of a German win- 
 ter, brought the sunny Canary islands to his door ; 
 and Flora, the bed-maker, as she flew with warbling 
 notes over the stairs, was to him the Prima Donna of 
 the age. He took the song of a young Jew, from the 
 next house, for tliat of the true nightingale ; an im- 
 material error, for the Philomele that sings to us, 
 nestles nowhere but in our own breasts ! Quickly, 
 as by the touch of an enchanter, the steep and rocky 
 walls of necessity were wreathed and overgrown 
 with ivy and flowers. The moonbeams seemed to 
 hang every common object in the chamber with a 
 festival tapestry ; and the heaven itself to rest, with 
 a still more celestial aspect, upon the earth. "Thus," 
 he said to himself, many times, " thus it was once 
 before, on that memorable evening when I walked 
 in the quiet moonbeams of Wina's chamber, in Ro- 
 senhof and he improvised the following 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 217 
 
 STRECKVERS. 
 
 " ' Lovest thou me ? ' asked the youth, every 
 morning, of his beloved. Blushing, she cast down her 
 eyes, and was silent. She grew paler, and he asked 
 again ; but she only blushed, and was silent. At 
 length, as she was on her death-bed, he came again, 
 and asked, but only to relieve his pain, ' Dost thou 
 not love me ? ' she answered, ' yes ! ' and died ! " 
 
 He continued to sing more inwardly ; time and 
 the world had vanished, when Vult came cheerfully 
 back, and brought the news that Wina had returned ; 
 and he concealed, gaily, the importance of this news 
 in his own eyes, by a second, at which he laughed 
 heartily. This was, that in passing he had called 
 upon his shoemaker, to ask, whether in fourteen 
 days he had found no fifteenth to rehabilitate, to re- 
 store his boots (their soles, alas ! pressed out) to 
 perfection. He had met the man only, upon his 
 return, who kept continually turning him to the shad- 
 owed side of the road. After a long sermon, of 
 which the boots had been the penitential text, he 
 saw that the man carried the boots about on his own 
 legs, to step them out a little more, before he re- 
 paired them. " Was not this joke worth as much 
 as the best pair of boots ? " " Is it, then, so won- 
 derful ? " said Walt, dreamingly. " Why," asked 
 Vult, " do you look so strangely ? Have you been 
 melancholy in my absence ? " " I was blessed, and 
 
218 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 now am far more so," he answered, without further 
 explanation. 
 
 The ecstasy of delight, like the intensity of pain, 
 makes one stern and serious ; and a man is calm, 
 with a pale countenance, but within, full of celestial 
 dreams. 
 
 No. 56. Wintei^ plover. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 219 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 Walt expected nothing less, the next morning, than 
 a servant, out of breath, from the General Zablocki's, 
 to summon him, hastily, to the writing-table. Nothing 
 came. The man of middle rank believes, that the 
 man above him stands one step higher on the social 
 ladder, merely to overlook him. This one, however, 
 has his eye less upon the man beneath, than upon 
 the back of the one preceding him ; and thus it is, 
 up and down. The middle man receives from the 
 higher no other forgetfulness, than he again throws 
 upon the one beneath him. 
 
 Vult could scarcely wait for the twilight, to flutter, 
 like a twilight-butterfly, out into the evening. Walt, 
 also, counted upon the evening, to act at home, but 
 in a spiritual manner, the part of Psyche^ the day 
 and the night butterfly ; and, heavens ! he succeeded 
 so well, that when Vult came, late, and not in very 
 good humor, home, he found Walt gay — youthfully, 
 almost childishly gay. 
 
 " I swear," said Vult, " you have had company 
 this evening ; I know not whom ; perhaps the most 
 agreeable (he referred secretly to Raphaela) ; or 
 
2-20 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 perhaps the Magister Dyk has written ? " "I passed 
 the whole evening with memory ; even as far back 
 as childhood ; I had no other company," said Walt. 
 " Teach me this art," cried Vidt. 
 
 The little schoolmaster Wutz, of Jean Paul, goes 
 back to his childhood as I do. Thus, a poet will 
 gtiess at the inmost soul. I could, indeed, listen for 
 whole long days to descriptions of the little spring- 
 blossoms of early life. In old age, when a man is a 
 second time a child, docs he hrst permit himself to 
 be so for the first time, and to look back into the 
 early glow of lite. To you, I would say, Vult, that 
 I think beings more exalted in the scale of existence, 
 that is, angels, are less blessed than man, because 
 they can remember no childhood ; although God, 
 perhaps, has granted to every creature a period like 
 that of childhood, never to be forgotten ; for w^as 
 not Jesus himself a child from his birth ? Does 
 not the life of childhood consist of joy and hope, 
 brother ? and its April rain, of tears, passes quickly 
 over." 
 
 " Early rain is a sign that old women will dance, 
 and so on. The sorrows of the young, and the 
 pleasures of the old, and so on,"' said Vult. " But 
 do your recollections of to-day include any thing 
 touching me ? I stand by you now^, with, new linea- 
 ments." 
 
 " A new feature from childhood is a golden pres- 
 ent," Walt answered ; " but you will to-day find 
 them too childish, perhaps. I will take only two 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 221 
 
 days, nearly the shortest and the longest. The first 
 happens about the time of Advent. In the winter a 
 village is beautiful; we can see more of it, for we 
 live more together. Take, for example, Monday. I 
 had rejoiced all Sunday at the prospect of the school 
 of Monday. Every child must come, by starlight, 
 about seven o'clock, with his little light; I and thou 
 had beautiful ones of painted wax. Perhaps I carried 
 under my arm, with more pride, a quarto volume, 
 some octavos, and a little Sedez work." 
 
 "I remember," said Vult, " when you brought our 
 mother wheat from the Wirthshaus, you expounded 
 Greek to Markus and his oxen." 
 
 " Then the delightful hour of singing began in the 
 sweet, warm school-room, and the A, B, C dwarfs 
 had permission to speak loud to the candidate, and 
 to get up, and walk round a little, without reproof. 
 Now the map was hung up, and we were so de- 
 lighted that Haslau and Elterlein and the around- 
 lying villages were upon it : or if the master spoke 
 of the stars, and their inhabitants, I inly resolved to 
 repeat the same to our parents and servants, in the 
 evening ; or if he called us to read aloud — " 
 
 " You remember," interrupted Vult, " that, let 
 him say what he would, I always read the word 
 Sacrament with an accent, as though I cursed ; the 
 same with Donnerwetter. I, also, was the only one 
 who in repeating the prayers, in common with the 
 others, composed a species of tune." 
 
 " I would willingly have given the poor man some 
 
222 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 pleasure, If I had been able," said Walt. " I often 
 prayed, softly, an our father^ that God would give him 
 a finch, when he watched so secretly behind his 
 snares ; and you will remember that I always brought 
 him our principal dish, with meat, and you, only the 
 porridge-pot. How I always rejoiced at seeing him 
 again in the school." 
 
 " Does any one find me severe against the school- 
 master, I will merely tell them that he once took a 
 pipe, as a forfeit, from me, and in the very hour 
 smoked it out, publicly, before my nose," said Vult. 
 " Is this exemplary, moral behavior for schoolmas- 
 ters.? Then, they forbid us fishing and bird-snaring, 
 and like princes take all the game themselves." 
 
 " Oh, that precious school-time," Walt resumed. 
 " I desired to know all that was taught, and all that 
 was forbidden. The least of the sciences was full 
 of novelty for me. Then came the Pastor, with his 
 great eyebrows, in his priest's ornaments, and con- 
 founded the schoolmaster, as an Emperor or Pope 
 would confound a Land regent. How terrible was 
 the sound of his bass voice ! How every one wished 
 to be highest, and every word of the master had three- 
 fold weight through his. I believe we are happier in 
 childhood than in age, because it is easier to find, or 
 to choose a great man. One who is truly a great 
 man to us, gives us a foretaste of Heaven." 
 
 " In so far," said Vult, " I would be a child again, 
 that I could be able to admire. A flea easily finds 
 his elephant. Does one become old, he finds in the 
 future, not even a dog to admire." 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 223 
 
 " Now came eleven o'clock, when we both ran to 
 the tower, to hear the sound, and see the rolling of 
 the bell. I remember well that you ran up to hang 
 by the rope as the bell revolved, although many said 
 you would be carried through the sounding-hole. I 
 could myself have flown through, could I have seen 
 from thence the village full of noisy threshers, and 
 the dark mountain road that led to the city, and 
 beyond, the distant snow-field, the hills, and meadows, 
 and the blue heaven over all — yet at that time, a 
 heaven was not necessary to the earth — behind me, 
 I had the earnest bell, with its ice-cold tongue, and I 
 thought with terror, how in its solitary, frosty midnight, 
 it would speak to my deep heart, in my warm bed." 
 
 " By heaven, thou art right, Walt ; and never do I 
 hear that sound without a shudder, such as wakes the 
 miller at midnight, as soon as the rushing mill-wheel 
 stands still. Our life has its wood, and its water 
 world. Meantime, this does not suit the present 
 moment." 
 
 " Do not take back the serious emotion, brother ! 
 Should I answer your comparison with another, I 
 would say, this repose is like that upon the summit of 
 the Gotthart mountain ; all there is silent — no bird, no 
 breeze stirs the deep repose ; the one finds no branch, 
 the other no leaf ; but a powerful world lies around, 
 and an infinite heaven, with all the other worlds, 
 moves above ! Shall we now go further into our 
 childhood, or rest till morning ? " 
 
 " Now, by all means, now," he answered. 
 
 " In the afternoon school," continued Walt, " the 
 
224 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 sky was so filled with snow-flakes, that we could 
 scarcely see in the dark school-room to read the little 
 bible. We were dismissed early, and every one 
 sprang, and measured his idle limbs in the new-fallen 
 snow. You threw your book in at the door, and 
 remained out till the sound of the vesper bell. I 
 rarely followed you. God knows why, I was always 
 more childish, domestic, and helpless than you. I 
 did my foolery or mischief alone, you with strangers, 
 as their leader." 
 
 " I was born for a man of business, Walt." 
 
 " But in the vesper hour I preferred reading. I 
 had upon the shelf many descriptions, partly of the 
 north pole, partly of ancient northern times, and the 
 earliest wars of the Scandinavians ; the more horri- 
 bly cold I found everything in the geographies and 
 histories, so much more snug and domestic was 
 everything about me ; and even now, the old northern 
 histories seem like the childhood of the world, the Gre- 
 cian and Roman more like the future. Our people 
 came rubbing their frozen hands from the garden, 
 where they had been covering the trees and beehives 
 with straw. The fowls were driven into the room, be- 
 cause in the warm smoke they would lay more eggs. 
 The lights were spared, as we waited anxiously for our 
 father. You and I stood at the head or foot of the 
 cradle of our blessed sister, and in the midst of our 
 violent rocking, we sang the cradle-song of the green 
 woods, till the little soul opened her dew-shimmering 
 eyes. At last the tormented man stepped over the 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 225 
 
 threshold, laden with snow, and before he had laid 
 down his saddle-bags, a thick candle was on the 
 table. What splendid news, money, and other things 
 he brought us, together with his own joy ! " 
 
 " Who doubts his joy less than I ? " said Vult, 
 " when he beat me for expressing my own in a noisy 
 way ; for a dog is never more troublesome, than when 
 he springs joyfully at his master's return." 
 
 " Joke not, but think what he brought us — me a 
 sheet of writing-paper for my own money ; at that 
 time I could not believe a thing so broad and pure 
 could cost no more than a farthing — an A, B, C 
 book for the sister, with gold letters upon the cover. 
 — But the best was the new almanac — I felt that I 
 held the future in my hand, like a tree loaded with 
 fruit. If the next day, when the candidate came to 
 dinner, we heard for the tenth time, with delight, the 
 many stories our father had brought home. You, 
 afterwards, would scratch upon a shingle violin, with 
 waxed threads of twine, and I turned a glimmering 
 spark into a wheel of fire ; I, and thou, and the tall 
 servant, whose face comes before me now as beauti- 
 ful ! (perhaps to all children, those they have been 
 accustomed to are beautiful,) played and sang 
 
 * Ring, ring, rey — here are children three 
 
 Sitting in an elderbush, crying all musch, musch, musch. 
 
 You are out. 
 
 * There sits the lady with the gold ring, and her 
 Little children three — What will they eat? 
 Little fish — What will they drink? Red wine. — 
 
 You are out.' 
 
 VOL. II. 15 
 
226 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 With true delight I lately read the little, simple, 
 childish thing, in Grater's Bragur. I shall begin my 
 history in a wholly different manner." 
 
 " Do not think of it," said Vult. " Life always 
 begins like the Grecian drama, with a simple come- 
 dy. But before you grow up, let us have the promised 
 summer day." 
 
 " It shall be the festival of the Holy Trinity, and 
 the very week that you went from us. Upon this 
 festival, that falls in the most beautiful time of the 
 year, you will not have forgotten that our parents 
 always went to the holy supper. That on Sunday, 
 as always on a fast-day evening, our dear parents 
 appeared kinder, and conversed more with us child- 
 ren than usual. God grant they may at this moment 
 enjoy the happiness that fills my heart at its remem- 
 brance. The mother prayed out of the little dark 
 communion-book, I stood behind, and prayed uncon- 
 sciously with her, merely because I turned over the 
 leaf, when she had got to the bottom. Our peasant's 
 apartment was as clean and as much ornamented for 
 this Sunday, as upon the holy Christmas evening, but 
 far more beautifully, and with a richer perfume, for 
 the odor of the garden blossoms penetrated the whole 
 house, through every window and roof-tile ; and the 
 heavens in the evening were full of stars and incense. 
 The Generalin* walked so late, with her child in her 
 hand, upon the castle wall, that although I could then 
 
 * lu German ihe wife hears the title of her husband. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 227 
 
 speak Latin, she appeared to me, in her white dress, 
 like the virgin mother with her blessed child." 
 
 " Had General Zablocki then a son ? " 
 
 Walt answered, much embarrassed, " at this dis- 
 tance of time, her daughter comes back to me as 
 such ; and I could now, if you would not laugh, weep 
 for joy at the change — " 
 
 " Weep then, in the devil's name ! Who then 
 can laugh, but Satan himself, when a man is honesty 
 itself? " 
 
 " I loved my father more on Sunday, than any 
 other day, because on Sunday he always shaved. 
 The festival of the Holy Trinity was always a blue 
 morning, full of larks, and the perfume of the birch 
 trees. Beneath, I found our mother, who usually 
 went to church in the afternoon only, already dress- 
 ed, and our father in his sacrament coat, and thus 
 they both appeared to me highly respectable. Thou 
 and I followed them to the evening service, and I 
 recollect how the devotion of my parents filled my 
 whole heart during the sermon." 
 
 " I was never happier," said Vult, " than on a 
 communion-day, for I knew my father held it a sin 
 to beat me before sundown — but does it not remain 
 glowing in your soul, is it not painted there with 
 burning colors, that this very Trinity Sunday, seated 
 in the choir, I drew with a pocket-glass, the sun- 
 beams, that were like a bird of paradise, through the 
 whole church, and flashed them upon the closed eyes 
 of the pastor, while I looked and listened calmly at 
 
228 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 him — and now I remenfiber all — that the candidate 
 whipped me, and my father, from mere devotion, 
 suffered me to be imprisoned, instead of which, I 
 should have much preferred his beating me half 
 dead." 
 
 " But yet, in the church you were on the right side 
 of the altar-cloth, with the oblation, and I on the left, 
 with the cup — I shall never forget how humble and 
 touching our pale father appeared to me upon the 
 scarlet steps of the altar, while the pastor, speaking 
 very loud, held the golden cup to him — Ah, how I 
 wished he would drink a great deal of the wine ; and 
 then the deeply bowed mother ! Ah, I wished the 
 wine might be good for her. Childhood knows only 
 the innocent white roses of love ; later they become 
 red, and blush with shame. But before our mother 
 could kneel, stepped up the majestic, tall Generalin, 
 with her dark, lustrous, silken dress, to the altar steps, 
 sinking her knees, and her long eye-lashes, as in the 
 presence of God ; and the whole church echoed with 
 her tones, so silent were they in the devout presence 
 of this, for our village, ideal duchess." 
 
 " Does the daughter look like her, Walt ? " 
 
 " The mother is, at least, like her," he answered. 
 " As they left the church, the organ played very 
 loud, and every one bore home upon his countenance 
 the hopes of a long, happy day. The easy, gilt 
 coach of the Generalin rattled through us all, and the 
 clean, richly-dressed servants sprang up — " 
 
 " She did not come too often," said Vult. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 229 
 
 " Our father went, in his Sunday coat, to dine 
 with the pastor, witli our mother behind him ; and I, 
 who saw the pastor's door open, and the turkey upon 
 the table, looked upon both with respect. When I 
 saw my fatlier sitting down low at the pastor's table, 
 I thought with satisfaction, that if I was ever any 
 things I should look back upon him as a very dis- 
 tinguished man." 
 
 " That reminds me," said Vult, " how often I 
 also have sworn to think of my honorable descent; 
 and, if I arise to any thing very high in public esti- 
 mation, to do nothing to mortify you or our parents. 
 One cannot too early accustom himself to modesty, 
 as he cannot tell how infinitely great he may be in 
 the end." 
 
 " At length, we, with all the respectable guests, 
 went home. Our father laid aside his scarlet waist- 
 coat, and, with me and our mother, went to walk 
 till evening, when we should sup in the garden- 
 house. I cannot believe there was ever such a 
 splendid evening ; all the world, dressed and orna- 
 mented, were in the free air ; Madam Zablocki and 
 other respectable people were walking, with red silk 
 parasols ; but a heart that beat in a brother's bosom, 
 could not bear that you should be a prisoner — " 
 
 " Sacrement ! " said Vult. 
 
 "And it was natural, that I and the servant should 
 place a ladder against the chamber-window, that you 
 might come down and enjoy the pleasures of the 
 village. No ! no promenade with men is ever so 
 
230 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 delightful as that a child takes with his parents. We 
 went through the high, green cornfields, where I led 
 the little sister behind me, through the furrows. We 
 drew muscle-shells from the river, on account of 
 their shining surface. The floating timber, in piles, 
 from distant cities, shot past us, and I had willingly 
 shipped with them for distant places. The sheep 
 were already shorn, and, because they were naked, 
 they were nearer to my heart than if their wool had 
 divided us. The trees inclined towards each other, 
 as the clouds moved dropping over them, as the men 
 had before done at the holy supper. We went into 
 the garden-house — that within and without is white ; 
 but in the morning glow of life, this little house, 
 with its lovely name, rises over all proudly-roofed 
 and ornamented dwellings — all the windows and 
 doors were open ; sun and moon looked in ; the red 
 and white apple-buds pressed in upon their stiff 
 branches, and sometimes a snow-white apple-blos- 
 som. O, Vult, I would willingly give the apple for 
 its blossom ! The bees gave signs of a near swarm- 
 ing. I imprisoned, in a box, a golden beetle, for 
 which I had long saved some grains of sugar ; till 
 this day, the gold and emerald of this German bird 
 of paradise shines before me. I carried home slips 
 of trees, from the garden, to plant a grove under 
 my window, the height of my knee. The birds 
 sang, as though they had agreed to meet in this little 
 garden, which consisted of five apple-trees, two 
 cherry, and a few plum-trees, together with good 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 231 
 
 currant and hazle-bushes. There was the melody 
 of a pair of finches, of which, my father said, one 
 sang a high glee, the other, the song of the bride- 
 groom ; but I preferred then, and even now prefer 
 the golden thrush,* which my parents said sang in 
 the wheat, and that if I passed through with a sickle, 
 I should cut him in two. 
 
 " What, then, is that mystery in the human heart, 
 that makes me, as I pass through the meadows, and 
 hear the song of the thrush, as he hangs beneath the 
 leaves, prefer it to the divine nightingale (who, in- 
 deed carries little purely through), and spring to 
 seek it ? Then the whole garden rises before me, 
 all its branches colored by the evening rose-color, 
 and it hangs, like a temple of the sun, with towers 
 and pinnacles in the sky ; and the stars are May- 
 flowers ; and the broad earth becomes a weaving-stool 
 for golden dreams. 
 
 " We wandered late to the house. The clear 
 glow-worm hung like golden dew-drops in the shrubs, 
 and the whole village was enjoying its festival ; even 
 the little cowherds, at last, in their Sunday dress ; in 
 the alehouse there was singing, and music upon the 
 castle-terrace. 
 
 " And did not my father," continued Vult, " when 
 he found me partaking of these joys, seize me by the 
 hair of my head, and beat me ? Oh, that the devil 
 would fetch all education, so that he himself could 
 
 * Emberiza citrinella. Lin. 
 
232 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 give none ! What now can take from me the effect 
 of those beatings, and that imprisonment ? You can 
 easily remember with satisfaction, and draw with 
 pleasure, the repeating-watch of recollection from 
 your pocket ; but, ach Gott ! what have I to soften 
 my recollections, but the transient aurora of a shoot- 
 ing star ? Oh ! how happy, how happy is it in one's 
 power to make a child ; but try it upon a villain, 
 gray, at forty years ! One day of childhood admits 
 of more variety, than a whole year of manhood ! 
 Look, how it has converted me, if I may use the 
 expression, from a tender, white-faced child, to one 
 brown, smoked, and heated, like an old pipe's-head. 
 Do not try to warm me again, Walt ! What do I 
 see in your Elysium, and in your Elysian fields, but 
 a couple of chairs, our bed, and our screen ? You, 
 good millionaire, rich only with the coinage of mem- 
 ory, and a wooden seat of the blessed Oh ! I 
 
 would — but here comes . Perhaps he brings 
 
 us yet, Walt, a celestial messenger, to open the 
 gates of heaven ! " 
 
 At this moment, the yellow postmaster entered, 
 with the Romance of the Heart under his arm, that 
 the Magister Dyk had sent back, with the words, that 
 he would willingly be the editor of some kind of plea- 
 santries, but not of such as those. " Now is not that 
 a sunbeam struck from our heaven ? " asked Vult. 
 " Ah ! " said Walt, " I believe I have hitherto been 
 too happy, and, therefore, comes always a little trou- 
 ble. It was well the work was not wholly lost by the 
 post." 
 
OR THE TWINS. 233 
 
 Vult sat down upon the spot, and, in his wrath, 
 wrote an unfranked letter to the magister, in which, 
 the politeness of the epistolary style was wholly 
 omitted. 
 
 No. 57. Poisonous Chitterlings. 
 
 The translator has somewhat abridged this chapter of childish 
 recollections, which she thought might be, to the reader, like the 
 repetition of earlier parts of the book. 
 
234 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 PKOOF-SHEETS. WINA. 
 
 The next morning came another manuscript, 
 accompanied by a strange printed sheet. The com- 
 positor of the Passvogel book-concern handed him 
 the first proof-sheet, that the heir of the Kable estate 
 might thereby fulfil the article of the testament. 
 The title of the work was, " The Literary Men of 
 Haslau, alphabetically arranged," by Schiess — now 
 in everybody's hands. It was written with Latin let- 
 ters, in good German, but wholly illegibly, and includ- 
 ed every Haslauer who had written for his country, 
 or the world, more than one page, that is, two pages, 
 or one leaf ; together with a short appendix of the 
 learned of the country, who had died when children. 
 When we reckon the multitude of authors that Fiken- 
 scher has excluded, merely on that account, from 
 his learned Bayreuth; that he has admitted none who 
 have not written more than one sheet, or that, if they 
 are poetry, do not extend to two without the preface ; 
 and, that Meusel, in his learned Germany^ thrusts 
 all out who have written only one pamphlet, and 
 admits those only who have written two ; every one 
 
OR THE TWINS 
 
 235 
 
 must indeed wish to be born in Haslan, merely to be 
 included among its learned men. 
 
 Walt immediately began his corrections. He had 
 long been acquainted with the proof characters, but 
 he found instead of hillocks, cliffs to surmount. 
 Schiess wrote at the same time a learned and an un- 
 learned hand. The proof-sheet was woven out of 
 names, titles, dates, and things that have no cohe- 
 rence, except in God. It is therefore the common 
 opinion, that Passvogel undertook the press-work of 
 the book, merely for the oppression of Walt. Vult 
 would indeed have helped him, but Walt considered 
 all foreign help as faithless and false to the conditions 
 of the will, and corrected alone. 
 
 In the mean time, both lent, before all other things, 
 wings to their romance ; for hope never lingers so 
 long upon its death-bed, as when it concerns a book. 
 They sent it to Herr Merkel, in Berlin, the letter- 
 writer and author, that he might recommend, and 
 impose the book upon Herr Nikolai, also a learned 
 man. 
 
 In the midst of their newly excited hopes, a drizz- 
 ling rain again fell upon them ; the limping notary, 
 the well-known functionary of the seven heirs, came 
 with Schiess' corrections of the corrected sheet. 
 Walt had left one-and-twenty faults. It was shown 
 from Schiess' manuscript, that he had left a c instead 
 of an e, an e for a c ; a comma for a semicolon ; a 6 
 for a 9, etc. Walt looked at it, and thought, and 
 said, sighing, " It is well it is no worse ! " 
 
236 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 Poor proof-correctors ! who has ever seriously con- 
 sidered the difficulties of your life ? So little, that mil- 
 lions from all parts of the world go out of it, without 
 having learned what a proof-corrector has to suffer. 
 I mean not merely that he must hunger, and thirst, 
 and learn nothing but the art of sitting ; but if he 
 would read a book, (that he has before him twice, 
 both as manuscript and proof,) in order to correct, 
 he follows, like a reviewer, every letter, and the 
 sense is perfectly plain, while he grows sadder and 
 more thirsty ; for he could as well strive with the 
 mist-cloud that rises upon the Alps, to quench his 
 thirst. — But would he enjoy the sense, he rushes 
 blind and smooth over the letters, and leaves all 
 standing. Does a book charm him, like the second 
 edition of Hesperus, he sees no longer any printed 
 nonsense, but takes it all for written, and says, 
 " now first will the divine author be rightly under- 
 stood." * 
 
 At length, the sweet-voiced chamber-maid, from 
 General Zablocki, brought not only Raphaela a letter 
 from his daughter, but one flight of stairs higher, the 
 request to Walt, from the father, that he should 
 write the whole day with him. " Oh God ! certain- 
 ly," he answered, and followed the maiden down 
 three steps. 
 
 Vult smiled expressively, and said, " He was going 
 
 * The spcrnd edition of the author's //esperus was admired, 
 after the first had been ridiculed. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 237 
 
 to copy the memoires erotiques with, and without a 
 pen, and hunt after maidens; he, poor hound, on 
 the contrary, like the chrysalis of the naturalist, in a 
 box of an apartment, must unfold the wings of a 
 butterfly, while Walt could frolic in the free air. A 
 condor, a basilisk, such as 1 am, may have love- whims 
 as well as a phoenix like thee." Walt blushed deep- 
 ly, he saw his own and Wina's heart, held at the 
 same time against the clear, free light of the sun. 
 "Take thy flight either three steps higher, or three 
 steps lower ! The maiden pleases me also," said 
 Vult, " she should rather dwell in a palace, than be 
 a chamber-maid." Red with shame and anger, 
 Walt, who began to guess his mistake, answered, 
 " you are wrong — you know how this girl displeas- 
 ed me at first, although with the sweetest musical 
 voice." 
 
 As Walt entered the great Zablocki palace, before 
 which stood many empty carriages, and found him- 
 self among the cold herd of domestics, Vult's joke, 
 that his love should be either gunpowder under the 
 roof, or like oil, lie still in the cellar, took a deep and 
 unpleasant hold upon him ; and he was now first 
 astonished that he loved Wina, and could so strange- 
 ly have preserved the memory of her morning's 
 glance. His happiness bled like the naked petals of 
 a flower, upon a stem stripped of every enfolding 
 leaf. The recollection of the cause of his summons 
 to the old writing apartment, came late to his mind ; 
 still later, the general entered. 
 
238 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 " Truly," thus Walt, approaching him, began the 
 conversation, " do I wish you happiness of your 
 happy return, as formerly, in Rosenhof, (if you 
 remember so slight a thing,) I did of your journey. 
 I trust your Leipsic journey was only a continued 
 pleasure-course." " Much indebted," said Zablocki. 
 " You will oblige me, if you will consecrate your 
 day to me, and bring the copying of the well-known 
 letters to an end." " Why not ? " said Walt. 
 " Pardon me the bold question, but I hope the season 
 of the year was not unfavorable to the happiness of 
 your journey ? " 
 
 " For the late time of the year, the weather was 
 good enough," he answered. 
 
 Walt knew nothing more difficult, than to ask 
 questions, that is, to angle in an ocean ; nothing 
 easier than to reply to questions, as the question 
 usually embraces the answer ; he held it the duty 
 also, of every inferior speaker, to impose only the 
 easier burthen of conversation upon his superior. 
 ***** 
 
 He set himself diligently to the copying of his 
 beloved manuscripts ; but his soul dwelt, with all its 
 nerves, in the shell of his ear, to catch every sound 
 of the concealed being who was the Hfe of his soul. 
 He wrote no page without turning round, and ob- 
 serving the sacred chamber, that for a whole day 
 was to be to him, if not a temple of the sun, at least 
 that of the moon, where nothing failed but the moon 
 itself. The blue, drying-sand, full of grains of gold ; 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 239 
 
 the blue-white inkglass and paper ; the blue seahng- 
 wax, and the perfume of flowers, wafted from the 
 adjoining chamber, consecrated his quiet, ethereal 
 festival with hope. In love, the harvest festival of 
 joy, is divided by only half a second from the seed- 
 time and spring festival of hope. 
 
 As he continued to write, he painted to himself 
 how his heart would beat, that already beat so vio- 
 lently, if the dear form, so long in his memory and 
 his dreams, should spring, like a living goddess, into 
 life, and stand before him. Nothing came, but the 
 hated chamber-maid, with an embroidery-frame ; 
 but soon after followed the rose, and the rose-festival, 
 at the same moment, and the blooming Wina entered. 
 It is difficult to say what he murmured, for he had 
 not confidence to speak to her. Wina bowed as 
 deeply before him as had he been the golden figured 
 head upon the general's staff of office, said to him 
 the most polite and cordial expressions of welcome, 
 and then placed herself at the embroidery-frame. 
 " Could she not have had a hundred excuses, such as 
 ladies find," Walt thought, " for her presence in the 
 writing 'apartment ? Had she not her blue dress to 
 fetch from the wardrobe, or the white, or her veil ; 
 or to seal a letter by the electrical lamp, or to seek 
 her father, in vain ? But no, she entered calmly, 
 and without excuse, placed herself before the em- 
 broidery-frame, and the writer was dizzy with joy, 
 as in a celestial presence. Like an invisible per- 
 fume breathing from a rose, Wina's presence was a 
 
240 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 gentle music about him. He looked, at length, 
 boldly, with longing glances, at her eyelids, cast 
 down upon the embroidery ; at the seriously-closed 
 lips, as he saw them reflected in the glass at his left; 
 and, secure, as he thought, of his own invisibility, 
 where she sat, he rejoiced, that, accidentally, as it 
 were, whenever he looked at her in the glass, a 
 warm blush overspread her reverted countenance. 
 Once, he caught the glance itself in the glass ; em- 
 barrassed, she drew softly a veil over it ; then again, 
 as he met her open' eye, she smiled like a child ; 
 Walt turned directly to the original, and caught the 
 smile. 
 
 " Has it been well with you since Rosenhof, Mr. 
 Harnish ? " she said, gently. " As with the blessed ; 
 as 7102^," he answered. He wished, indeed to have 
 said something different, something more recherche^ 
 but the present displaced the past, and witnessed in 
 its name. He, however, gave back the question. 
 " I lived," said Wina, " with my mother — that was 
 enough ; you are yourself, doubtless, acquainted with 
 Leipsic and its amusements ? " Of these, as a 
 starving son of the Muses, and of a poor country 
 justice, Walt had known little, and of the roses of 
 the mercantile RosevaUey^ he knew only the thorns ; 
 for he entered it not oftener than a master-mason 
 does a princely hall, to which he has entrance only 
 as long as he is building it. The higher ranks do 
 not more easily comprehend the lower, than they 
 do those shepherds' and peasants' huts, of which 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 241 
 
 they have models in the French Gcssner ; the lower, 
 much less, the others. 
 
 >' Spring and autumn are there, heavenly," he said, 
 " the latter, full of nightingales, and the spring, full 
 of tender perfumes. Only the place is destitute of 
 mountains, which, in my opinion, should always en- 
 close, but not interrupt a landscape. Upon a high 
 mountain, indeed, there is no landscape, except such, 
 again, as distant mountains make beautiful and grand. 
 The Leipsic view seems to narrow in the limits of the 
 eye, for its boundary, or rather its boundlessness 
 leaves nothing for the phantasy ; which, as far as I 
 have learned, is the case with the ocean, where the 
 horizon is lost in the ether of the heavens." 
 
 " Wonderfully," answered Wina, " in this case, 
 does the habit of the outward eye decide the power 
 of the inward. I had a friend from Lower Saxony, 
 who, for the first time, felt herself as much lim- 
 ited in prospect, by our mountains, as we, by their 
 plains." 
 
 Walt was so much struck by her philosophical 
 manner of speaking (which, in a woman, removes 
 her further from the heart of a man than it enlight- 
 ens his head), that he scarcely knew what to say in 
 reply. 
 
 "Did you visit the bathing-places about Leipsic?" 
 she asked, somewhat later. Walt understood, not 
 the pleasure Brunnens in the neighborhood of Leip- 
 sic, but the bathing-places in the river, for the ac- 
 commodation of the students. Such a question from 
 
 VOL. II. 16 
 
242 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 female lips obliged him to use much circumspection 
 in the answer. " The Leipsic magistrates," he said, 
 " at the time he was there, had, on account of the 
 many accidents in the river, appointed private bath- 
 ing-places." Wina was again misled by his misin- 
 terpretation of her question. Thus, in Germany, as 
 everywhere else, one who mistakes in speaking, may 
 count upon being misunderstood in the hearing of 
 others ; so few ears are there, although they stand 
 double on every head, for our present language ; 
 and it is far more difficult to find open ears, than 
 short ones. 
 
 Suddenly, the general sprang, with a white, pale 
 face, from his powdering-room into the apartment, 
 holding a picture in his hand, and dropping the pow- 
 der, as though it were tears, from his eyelids. " Tell 
 me who it is most like, the mother or the daughter ? " 
 he exclaimed. " It is, in fact, bravely retouched." 
 The picture represented Wina, as she bent down 
 her face upon the cheek of a little daughter, ex- 
 tremely resembling herself, who was playing with a 
 butterfly. The expression of the mother was ab- 
 sorbed in interest for the child's occupation, rather 
 than in a desire for the child to look from the but- 
 terfly to the mother. In the excitement of the artistic 
 execution, the general asked Walt, "Is not, then, 
 the mother extremely well taken, my Wina, namely, 
 whose resemblance we again find in the child ? An- 
 swer as a third person." Walt, embarrassed at his 
 blushes, called up merely at the thought of a child 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 243 
 
 of Wina's, answered, " The resemblance is, indeed, 
 just." " And upon both sides," said Zablocki, with- 
 out informing the notary of that, which, according to 
 the expectation of all people of rank, should be well 
 known to him, and was as follows. The general 
 wished to send to his separated, banished wife a 
 memento of his tenderness, a mirror, that reflected 
 herself warmly, and could remain a permanent pic- 
 ture ; but, alas ! from former coldness, he had never 
 allowed her to sit. Fortunately, Wina was now so 
 like her, the few ten years excepted, that sought to 
 divide the mother from the daughter, that the present 
 Wina could be painted as the former mother, and 
 the former little Wina placed in her arms. The 
 child was painted with an auricula in the left hand, 
 upon which, with the right, she sought to place a 
 white butterfly. This twice - repeated portrait of 
 Wina, as a picture, and as the original, would the 
 general send, like an oil-painted heaven, opened 
 upon canvass, to his wife ; exciting her utmost aston- 
 ishment, that, at forty miles distance, she could sit to 
 a painter. 
 
 When the father was gone, Walt, yet deeper in 
 astonishment and incredulity, remarked to Wina, 
 that she seemed so like that beautiful child, as, in 
 his eyes, only to have outgrown the portrait. " O ! 
 we remain like ourselves only in the most striking 
 traits," said Wina. " I was then, also, with my 
 mother; I believe, the very day of the painting, you, 
 or your brother lay ill and blind with the smallpox ; 
 
244 
 
 WALT AXD VÜLT, 
 
 for I went with her, on that day, to your house. 
 Precious time ! I would willingly take upon myself 
 the one resemblance, could I thereby restore the 
 other to my mother." * 
 
 Tlie notary started, blushing, back from the illu- 
 mined abyss before him. and feared his folly might 
 lead him again, against his will, to the extremity, 
 as he said, I, also, would willingly go back to that 
 blindness. Night is the mother of the immortals," 
 he added, and would have touched playfully upon 
 the thought of the auricular bride. Wina under- 
 stood of this, only the tone and the glance ; it was 
 enough, and passed rapidly away. 
 
 Dinner was announced, Walt thought that he 
 should be invited, as at the Rosenhof Wirthshaus, to 
 dine at the general's table. He rose, therefore, to 
 be ready to otier his arm to Wina. She continued 
 her work, and he drew near the embroidery-frame, 
 and looked down upon the beautiful head, in which 
 his world and his future life dweh, concealed, as it 
 were, in that exquisite beauty, where the fruit- 
 wreaths of the mind were overshadowed by the 
 flower- wreaths of the form, at the same time con- 
 cealing and enhancing the beauty. She arose, and 
 Walt presented his arm, to lead her forth. " I will," 
 said Wina, gently, " return after dinner, and bring a 
 petition for your heart." She looked, at the same 
 
 * She would become again a child, to restore to her mother the 
 happiness of having her with her. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 245 
 
 time, at him with a little embarrassment in her large, 
 benevolent eyes, and, as an answer to his asking 
 arm, with her left hand pressed slightly his own. 
 
 More he needed not ; in love, a hand is far more 
 than an arm ; as a glance is more than an eye. He 
 remained, possessed of all the riches of the world, 
 at his solitary dinner, which the servant placed upon 
 the writing-table. His hand, was now to him, as 
 though consecrated by that being, who had hitherto 
 only touched his soul. Who can say why the pres- 
 sure of a beloved hand sends a deeper, a more en- 
 chanting warmth into the soul, than even a kiss, if it 
 be not the simplicity, the innocence, and the faithful- 
 ness of the token ? 
 
 He dined as at the table of the gods ; the world 
 was to him the temple of the gods, for he thought of 
 Wina's approaching request. To ask a favor of one 
 who loves, is to give more than to receive. But why 
 in love alone is this an exception ? Why is there no 
 enlightened world, where all human requests would 
 be considered favors ; and the asker be thanked, 
 rather than the benefactor ? 
 
 He perplexed himself about Wina's request, which 
 he thought he should have known, for he felt that 
 she was to him a transparent jewel, without a cloud 
 or flaw. It is the nature of love to believe that the 
 ^ beloved is more penetrable to him than to herself ; 
 so, that through her the blue heaven is visible, and 
 all its stars. Hatred, on the contrary, perceives only 
 night about him, needs it, and produces it. 
 
 * ♦ 
 
046 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 As lie kissed the beams that came from the stars 
 her needle had left in the embroidery, his heaven 
 opened, as through a cloud, namely, the folding- 
 doors, and VVma again appeared. He would have 
 said, I beseech you for your request,'' but he held 
 it indelicate to call that a request, and not a com- 
 mand, that Wina had so called. Thus, he had tlie 
 highest courage on her account, but not in her pres- 
 ence ; and of the long prayers to his saint, which 
 at home he composed and repeated, he brought to 
 the idol itselt\ when upon his knees, only yes, and 
 amen ! 
 
 Are you sometimes at the tea-parties of this 
 place " began AVina, and made, as is tlie habit of 
 people of rank, the customs of their own class appa- 
 rently the custom of all. " Recently, at my room, 
 with the excellent flute-player, whom you certainly 
 admire." " I heard of that to-day, by my maiden," 
 she said, meaning the news of tlieir dwelling to- 
 gether. But Walt understood only that she had 
 heard of their miserable tea-drinking togetlier. 
 
 I mean, particularly, are you often w ith the tal- 
 ented daughtei-s of the Herr Court Agent } I speak 
 especially of my friend Raphaela." 
 
 He related, but without touching upon the neces- 
 sity of bail for the bill of exchange, the evening, 
 when she sat for her picture, for her motlier's birth- 
 day. " How beautiful ! " said Wina, ** she is even 
 so. Once, when she was with me in Leipsic, she 
 fell into a long illness, but would not let her mother 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 247 
 
 be informed, till she were either better, or could re- 
 turn to her. It is for this love to her mother, that 
 she is dear to me. I know not how a maiden, who 
 loves neither mother nor sister, can really love any 
 thing else, not even a father." 
 
 Walt would willingly have turned this remark, in 
 the most delicate manner, upon herself; but he 
 made only the rather common-place remark, that 
 daughters who loved their mothers, were certainly 
 the best and most feminine. 
 
 " It is not worth a subterfuge, as you will hear, 
 Mr. Secretary ; receive, therefore, at once, my 
 simple request, kindly." It was this; that, as Ra- 
 phaela's birth-hour occurred in the night, or early 
 morning of new-year's day, she wished, by the as- 
 sistance of her sister Engelberta, to awake her to 
 the festival of a new life, by soft music and singing ; 
 but, as she thought her own voice inefficient, she de- 
 sired the accompaniment of the flute ; and to whom 
 could she so favorably turn, as to Mr. Von Harnish. 
 Walt assured her, joyfully, that Vult would play 
 most willingly. She asked about the composition of 
 the music. Walt assured her again. " But for the 
 verse I must also go to your worthy friend," she 
 said, with an indescribably lovely smile, " for I know 
 him, through the newspaper, as a tender poet of the 
 heart." 
 
 Gratefully surprised, Walt asked, what Vult had 
 printed ? when immediately she repeated to him the 
 following Streckvers of his own. 
 
248 
 
 WALT AND VÜLT, 
 
 THE MAY-BLOSSOM. 
 
 " White bell with the yellow pendulum, wherefore 
 dost thou sink thy head ? Is it modesty, that, pale, 
 like the snow, thou canst penetrate above the earth, 
 yet earlier than those colored flowers, the tulip and 
 the rose ? Or does thy pale heart sink before that 
 powerful sky, whose stormy wind heaps a new earth 
 upon the old ? Or, wouldst thou willingly shed, like 
 a tear of joy, thy dew-drop upon the young, lovely 
 earth ? Tender, white, budding flower, elevate thy 
 heart ! I will fill it with glances of love, with tears 
 of joy. Oh, fairest, first love of Spring, elevate thy 
 heart ! " 
 
 While Walt listened to the words of the poet, 
 repeated by Wina, his eyes overflowed with joy and 
 love ; and, as unconsciously, while she read, her own 
 filled with sympathetic tears, he whispered, that he 
 was himself the author. 
 
 " You ? my friend," asked Wina, and took his 
 hand in hers ; " and of all the Streckverse 7 " " All," 
 he answered. Wina blushed like the morning glow 
 that precedes the sun, and it was reflected upon Walt, 
 as upon the earth — each stifled beneath the joy- 
 gushing tears, the mutual sounds that would have 
 trembled into one tone of joy. They were like two 
 flowers, that the same breeze bent towards each oth- 
 er, but, that never could meet. 
 
 They heard the step of her father. " You will 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 249 
 
 make the text for the birth-day ? " she said. " Oh 
 yes, yes ! " he answered, and durst not say more, 
 for Zablocki entered. The father and host reproach- 
 ed her for her delay, as he led her forth, observing, 
 that she knew the Newpeters were citizens, and that 
 he would rather be an hour too late with his equals, 
 than fail in the most trivial politeness towards them. 
 She flew forth, but he called her back himself, to 
 fasten a chain with a key the size of a flower-seed, 
 to which was attached a golden locket, about her 
 beautiful neck, and to take her with him. While he 
 was placing it, she looked gratefully in her father's 
 eyes, and threw, as she turned away, a flying glance 
 at the notary, which contained the universe for him. 
 
 Never had Walt experienced anything so repug- 
 nant as receiving the reward for his copying hours, 
 that the general would now force upon him. At first, 
 Zablocki treated the denial as a joke, till the suspicion 
 that Walt acted from a feeling of honor, so offended 
 his own, that he swore violently, that if he did not 
 listen to him, he should never draw a notary instru- 
 ment in his house. Walt complied, for he would not 
 bar the gate of heaven against himself, with his own 
 hands. 
 
 He was now alone, and for the last time a copyist 
 in that chamber. He experienced what men need 
 for the most refined happiness, namely, a contradic- 
 tion of feeling, a contrast of wishes. He wished to 
 be absent, at home, to hover over Wina's head in 
 starry dreams, and also to remain, that he might 
 
200 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 dwell for the last moment in the coronation-chamber 
 of his life. The sun shone always warmer, and 
 illumined it, like an enchanted arbor in an Elysian 
 grove. When he closed the door behind him, it 
 seemed as though the blooming branch had fallen, 
 upon which, hiiherto, a nightingale had sung to his 
 heart. 
 
 How was it with him at homo, where nothing was 
 wanting but Vult, and scarcely that. Hitherto, the 
 clouds had appeared to him stationary, and the moon 
 to lly beyond them ; now he saw the flight of the 
 clouds, under tlie firm, beautiful stars. " If one loves 
 only — truly, and deeply,-' he thought, " gi*aut only 
 that ! I mean not myself alone, but others, and tlie 
 whole of life becomes joy. This joy, tlien, must 
 many molhei*s possess, many fathei*s, and unnumber- 
 ed friends ! He continually rejoiced at the happi- 
 ness Wina would feel on the new-j-ear's night, at 
 tlie joy of that friend, who was now living beueatli 
 liim. That Wina loved and esteemed him, he could 
 not but know ; but he knew not in what degree. The 
 regard she now felt, had this etTect, tliat it sketched 
 before him the patli of millions of successive steps, 
 tliat led from the world to the summit of the sun, 
 where he should be crowned like a God. 
 
 He had already, without knowing it, merely by 
 thuiking of the request, worked out much of the 
 birtli-day poem, when at lengili Vult entered. In his 
 anxiety lest Vuli's coldness towards Raphaela and 
 the nobility, should lead him to refuse the musical 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 251 
 
 festival, he resolved to approach the proposal artisti- 
 cally, and, as in an English garden, by a serpentine 
 line that leads to a monument. " Alas ! " he said, 
 with the most joyous expression, " I have to-day 
 written for the last time, at the general's." " Thou 
 shouldst say, God be praised ! " answered Vult. 
 Walt stumbled already in his meandering, and was 
 near sinking. " I had hitherto hoped," continued 
 Vult, " you would have introduced my musical mad- 
 ness to the father, that the daughter might sing, 
 while I accompanied her with the flute." " Both can 
 be done without him, or me," said Walt, " I have a 
 proposal to make to you " 
 
 The flute-player enquired impatiently. — Walt 
 resolved, before he was more explicit, to give him a 
 favorable trait of Raphaela. It was that beautiful 
 instance of her silence, when she was ill, rather than 
 distress her mother. There was no feature of cha- 
 racter in the world, that could have been sketched 
 before the flute-player, to which he would have had 
 such an aversion ; but he drew the satirical sting 
 back into its sheath, that he might come sooner to 
 the proposal. Walt tormented him so long for his 
 opinion of Rhaphaela's beautiful action, that at last 
 he broke out, " I swear to you, I value the aflfecta- 
 tion ; the devil and his grandmother could not have 
 acted more tenderly ; now speak ! " 
 
 Walt told him. " You are a good man," said Vult, 
 concealing, with some difficulty, his delight. " I 
 undertake it willingly. I merely joke sometimes^ 
 
252 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 but as a tenant, I would willingly show the daughter 
 of the house this attention — and will do it — yet to 
 speak the truth, I am much more impelled to it by 
 Wina's pure, voluminous, pearl-like voice. Hea- 
 vens ! Why should not a singing-party be formed, 
 especially when that noble soprano will join it ; 
 whose diminuendo and crescendo, brother ! I speak as 
 an artist, is unequalled. The splendid union of head 
 and heart, in that noble voice, so well known to me ; 
 Walt ! it is impossible for you to understand ! Ah, 
 man ! will you believe, that at that time, when I 
 heard her sing in Elterlein, 1 swore she should never, 
 with my will, sing d secco — d secco, Walt — that 
 is, alone." 
 
 It appeared a little to Walt, that Vult had not come 
 exactly from dry land. The evening of both was 
 gilded by the flame of love. Each believed that he 
 saw clearly, across that river of Paradise, the fountain 
 of the other's joy, rising misty from afar. Walt 
 constrained his brother, jokingly, to write his resolu- 
 tion down that evening, that in the morning he might 
 not be of another opinion. Vult wrote, " I will, like 
 Siegwart, make the moon my bed-warmer, or hold a 
 running fire in course, if I do not immediately com- 
 pose the best Mozartish music, and blow it upon the 
 enchanting flute, in the same moment that this my 
 brother composes and writes his verse ; and I deny 
 every exception, especially, that I was not conscious 
 to-night of what I intended to do to-morrow morn- 
 ing." 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 253 
 
 " A true villain is my Walt," he thought in bed. 
 " Would another have penetrated his principal object 
 as I did? Scarcely!"* < 
 
 No. 58. An old tuning-hammer. 
 
 * Vult imagined he wished to do honor to Raphaela's birth-day. 
 
254 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 SKATING-PARTY. 
 
 The next day, that Walt reflected upon the birth- 
 day song for Wina, was made up of 24 morning 
 hours The following, consisted of as many meridian 
 hours as it took him to write it out. It was as though 
 himself should be glorified, to take Wina's consecrat- 
 ed heart upon his tongue ; as though he must himself 
 dissolve in love, so that her love to her friend might 
 radiate in his soul, like a second rainbow. It is easy 
 to love in another's heart, and it becomes more tender, 
 when, in this heart, love beats for a third ; as the 
 second soft echo is victorious over the lower key of 
 the first. It was easy sowing of the seed in a spring 
 day, when only singing birds flew under his heaven, 
 but the second day was the hot harvest, when Walt 
 must bring his ethereal dream into a waking form ; 
 not only into the metrical form, but to the musical 
 adaptation ; for Vult often rejected the best thoughts, 
 as incapable of being sung or played. Thus the 
 ethereal spirit, the soul of the poem, must be drawn 
 from its free heaven, into an earthly body, whose 
 wings were yet more narrowly confined. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 255 
 
 It was easy to Vult, on the contrary, to compose 
 both the music and the accompaniment ; for m the 
 immeasurable ether of the art of music, all may soar 
 or expand ; the heaviest earth, the most transparent 
 h'ght, without mingling or confusion. 
 
 The difficulty was now to make Wina acquainted 
 with the music and the text. Walt proposed many 
 ways and means, practicable, but very foolish. Vult 
 proposed but this ; that they should watch the haunts 
 of the maiden, do nothing, but stand calmly at their 
 post, ready to shoot, and blaze away when they saw 
 the game. 
 
 In the mean time nothing was accomplished. 
 Wina learned from her dressing-maid, as much 
 as Walt knew. At length, upon one clear, Decem- 
 ber twilight, the long sea (this was a small lake) in 
 the park was swept clear of the fallen snow ; and 
 yet later, when the moon sharply sketched in sha- 
 dow every dry branch and twig upon the white 
 ground, the moving cause of this preparation, the 
 three ladies, had vanished into the near rotunda, a 
 beautiful cow-house, like the Roman Pantheon in 
 this, that it was open at the top. Immediately after, 
 they led each other out again, upon the sea of ice ; 
 all three, Wina, as well as Raphaela, and Engelberta, 
 prepared with skates, for skating. 
 
 " God-like ! " cried Walt, as he observed their 
 motions. " The forms fly, like planets, around, and 
 through each other. What graceful and waving 
 lines ! even Engelberta is picturesque, thus, with both 
 
256 
 
 WALT AND VTILT, 
 
 arms raised." " Run with thy music-sheet," said 
 VuU, " and be a man among them." " Impossible," 
 answered Walt, " consider the twihght, and the deli- 
 cacy ! " " There is yet room upon the sea for a pair 
 of boots," said Vult, and fluttered three steps further 
 down, after ordering a shop-boy to bring him, whh- 
 out delay, a pair of skates, which he immediately 
 put on. 
 
 Walt placed the sacred sheet, filled with poetry 
 and music, upon its birth-place, namely, his heart, 
 which seemed to him a more appropriate place than 
 his coat-pocket ; while beneath, upon the lake, the 
 three figures, lightly and hastily returning his greet- 
 ing, glided swiftly by his long reverence. 
 
 But what development of the power of life did 
 Vult unfold upon the ice, and how hovered the soul 
 over that frozen water. First he began to revolve, 
 sometimes as a comet, a wandering star, sometimes as 
 a meteor, around Wina ; then to protect her, like the 
 queen of the chess-board, as pawn, knight, or tower, 
 from every other queen ; then to dart, like love's arrow, 
 as often as she was love's bow, and not to suffer her 
 to take a bolder flight, but outspeed her swiftest 
 course, till he was himself outsped ; and then easily 
 close the emulating flight with a double victory. 
 These were the arts, in which his beautifully world- 
 educated form displayed its value in easy postures, 
 and graceful changes. 
 
 Walt remained, as though stranded, on the shore ; 
 beside himself with pleasure, and threw the wreath 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 257 
 
 of applause upon their efforts, with such weight, and 
 with so justly-chosen words of art, that one would 
 have sworn he could himself skate and dance ; but, 
 alas ! in the midst of his admiration, he must himself 
 complain, that he could as little turn upon the ice, as 
 a ship of war. Perhaps the pressure of a lowly de- 
 scent never weighs more heavily on the sensitive, 
 than in social festivals, where a penurious education 
 has not furnished one with the arts of pleasure, such 
 as dancing, riding, singing, playing, and speaking 
 French. 
 
 Five times had Walt thought of his sheet of music, 
 and forgotten it again, as Wina, whose eye contained 
 his whole future life, flew past, and threw him a 
 flower-glance, that he continued to dream upon ever 
 after. At last, he said, as the fair skater passed, 
 "Both your wishes are answered." "I scarcely 
 understand you," §he said, again approaching, and 
 darting away." He went a little from the shore, to 
 meet her upon the ice. " How is it with the flute- 
 music ? " she asked, as she flew by him again. " I 
 bear the music and the text with me," he answered, 
 " and not merely in my heart." " How splendid ! " 
 she answered, again turning away, and glancing a 
 look of joy. 
 
 Vult now flew towards them, with a jealous, ques- 
 tioning eye, saying, " Has she taken the sheet } " 
 " I have indicated it to her three times," he an- 
 swered, " but, very naturally, she will not stand 
 before me in an unfeminine manner to receive it." 
 
 VOL. II. 17 
 
258 
 
 WALT AND VULT 
 
 Vult now drew out his flute, publicly, and said aloud, 
 so that all the skaters could hear him, " Mr. Har- 
 nish, you have my notes in your pocket ; I will now 
 play." The other, in compliance with his glance, 
 rather than his words, handed him the notes. Wina 
 drew near. " Could you," said Vult, giving it to 
 her, " read them by the light of the moon, while I 
 play ? " The unsuspicious maiden looked kindly at 
 him, and earnestly upon the sheet, when immediately 
 the flute began. Upon the hair of the thread of ac- 
 cident, not like a sword, indeed, but like a flowery 
 wreath, was now suspended the whole new-year's 
 morning. Thus throb and tremble, upon the same 
 little hair, the vicissitudes of men ; sometimes a 
 sword is suspended, sometimes a diadem, which will 
 sooner or later fall upon the devoted head. 
 
 Wina looked long, and perused the music-notes, 
 while he suspended the flute, till at length she un- 
 derstood Vult's plan and object, and assented to 
 them. Now she flew, often as the flute needed, 
 to thank him with glances ; and near the shore, 
 where Walt stood, to look her thanks to him, also ; 
 and then joyfully again over the cold surface of the 
 lake ; her wishes for her friend had been so charm- 
 ingly fulfilled, and for the serenade nothing was 
 wanting, but the first night of the year. The sounds 
 of the flute wandered around, and, like the staff* of 
 the mountaineer, raised Walt from the ice of earth 
 to the empyrean ice of heaven. All were blessed, 
 particularly Vult ; although Walt felt the music most 
 deeply. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 259 
 
 " Ah ! poor wight ! " said Vult, approaching him 
 with a gratified expression, " couldst thou not ad- 
 vance me a couple of double Louis, for the next two 
 hours ? " " I," asked Walt : but the other flew off, 
 and again was heard the joy-breathing flute, and, 
 like, the choral leader of the music of the spheres, 
 the heavenly orbs seemed to float before and after 
 him upon the ice. If the art of music so powerfully 
 penetrates the heart with its poetry, in the common 
 festivals of the world, the soul is completely moved 
 by it in the open air ; and in a man like Walt, it 
 inspires, instead of earthly passions, only heavenly 
 emotions, such as filled the shore with quiet thanks- 
 givings ; and, while his songs of joy echoed around 
 the lake, the world of his heart, as often as the 
 sounds of the flute penetrated it, was created and 
 sanctified anew. He collected all the joys of others, 
 as warm beams, into the burning point of his con- 
 centrated soul. The white, shining stars seemed 
 suspended, like sporting nightingales, from heaven; 
 and the moon wove its consecrated beams together 
 into Wina's form. " This same moon," he said to 
 himself, " will stand as it does now in heaven, on 
 the new-year's night, and I shall not only hear the 
 flute, and my own thoughts, but, oh ! listen to her 
 voice ! The stars of the morning will gleam down ; 
 and I shall then remember, under that future mu- 
 sic, how great was the joy of this evening upon the 
 ice ! " 
 
 He went again upon the lake, or rather upon the 
 
2G0 
 
 WALT AND VÜLT, 
 
 sea of ice, to be nearer the beloved ; she circled 
 around him twice, as though to protect with broad 
 leaves his flower of joy, when Zablocki's servants 
 approached, with information that the carriage was 
 there. The proud lackey recalled painfully to his 
 consciousness the rank of Wina, and his own te- 
 merity. 
 
 After the flight of the three ladies, Vult took Walt's 
 arm within his own. " Every pleasure," he said, 
 " is a self-murderer, and therefore good. Were 
 there ever a couple of cooler heads, than thou and I 
 together ? For if there be a couple of miserable 
 dogs, who have suffered three thirsty angels to hover 
 the whole evening, famished, upon the water, because 
 they could not together furnish enough from the 
 pocket, or the room up there, to place the smallest 
 refreshment before the angels, except the Uttle com- 
 mon ice upon which they skated, they are thou and 
 I. Ah ! had we been only able, if the weather had 
 been bad, and no carriage, to draw out a phaeton, 
 and harness even a flea to it ; as I once saw an artist 
 in Paris, \vhere passengers and postillion were so 
 delicately wrought, that all were drawn by a flea. 
 Tlien^ the evening had been splendid." 
 
 " Oh, truly, indeed ! " said Walt ; " but, certainly, 
 this evening, that lovely being thought as little of 
 bodily refreshment, as I did. Woman has one pain, 
 one joy ; man has pains and joys. Look there ; my 
 words agree with the words of the tablet, that hangs 
 on that oak." 
 
 " It is a linden," said Yult. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 261 
 
 " I know plants only from books," Walt answered, 
 " but there it stands written : ' The delicate female 
 soul seeks, like the bee, only blossoms and flowers ; 
 the coarse soul, like the wasp, seeks only fruit.' " 
 
 " Ja ! and beef, also, as the butcher knows." 
 
 " Ah ! " continued Walt, " all were to-day so con- 
 tented, and especially with thee. I often tell thee 
 thou art a free, accomplished, bold man of the world ; 
 so wert thou to-day." And Walt commended, es- 
 pecially, his behavior towards Raphaela. Vult 
 thanked him, with a satirical remark upon the lady. 
 From time to time, he gave vent to a moderate joke 
 against Raphaela, to frighten his brother from a dis- 
 pleasing communication of his love for her. 
 
 In the mean time, both sank quietly and deeply 
 into their own happiness. Of the shining present, 
 nothing remained but the heaven above, and the 
 heart beneath. The flute-player measured, in imag- 
 ination, his way to Wina's heart, and found himself 
 already half-way there. Her thanks, her glance, 
 her approaching (to read the music), Raphaela's 
 avoidance, were sufficient to leave him the sweetest 
 hope, and yet a more intense longing for the new- 
 year's night, when, through a stroke of enchant- 
 ment, he would decide his fate. His desires were 
 yet stronger than his hopes ; but he always thanked 
 God, when his feelings were inexpressibly excited ; 
 so much was emotion necessary to his existence. 
 But the deprivations and pains of love, are, even in 
 themselves, its joy and fruition ; asking no consola- 
 
262 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 tion, but imparting it to the soul ; like the clouds 
 about the sun, they increase its light, and disperse 
 the clouds of the earth. 
 
 These poetical nightingales, that sang in his warm, 
 perfumed Eden, had a stunning effect upon Walt ; 
 and the godlike stars, together with the fortunate 
 brother, made too strong an impression upon him. 
 It seemed to demand, that he should no lono-er 
 conceal from this, his only friend, the holiest condi- 
 tion of the heart, where the image of Wina stood, 
 like the one solitary flower of heaven, no longer 
 shrouded and concealed in its leaves. Without 
 further pressure of the hand, or glance of the eye, 
 he dismissed all prelude, and was about to make the 
 bold confession of the temerity of his aspirations, 
 and to ask the sympathy of his brother. " Should 
 we not," he said, " expand the heart, like this great 
 heaven over us, where all that is little disappears, 
 and all that is great is magnified ? " " Little is mag- 
 nified in my eyes," Vult answered ; " but let us go 
 into the shade, else I must read, as I pass, all that 
 susceptibility has nailed upon the trees ; for as, upon 
 a nearer acquaintance, Raphaela will appear to me 
 in a different light than formerly, still I cannot but 
 hate that turning out, and exposing of inward emo- 
 tion, as if man could be reversed like a polypus, and 
 the inward become the outward. When a lady be- 
 gins a sentence with * a beautiful female soul,' I 
 willingly run from her. Hearts, that have so much 
 to open, and present to every one, are like a prince's 
 
\ 
 
 OR THE TWINS 263 
 
 snuff-box, and hoth contain the likeness of the giver, 
 not of the receiver. But I appeal to thyself, whether 
 thou, with thine, and, indeed, our delicacy, could be 
 capable of making the sacred domain of the heart, 
 its inmost and warmest Africa, all known ; of map- 
 ping it out, and sketching of it a land-chart. Such 
 a course, brother, is knavery in love ; merely dishon- 
 orable tricks, birth-day festivals of the old Adam ! 
 All these are like proud flesh in the heart ; or rather, 
 I would say, with the physician, mere extravasations ; 
 or, with the moralist, mere extravaganza ; in short, 
 although in the same circumstances, / should scarcely 
 have trusted thee, thou canst confide, without injury, 
 thy extravagance to me. Passionate love, on the 
 - contrary, — but think of this for future occasions — " 
 ***** 
 Walt was silent, — laid himself in bed to dream, 
 and closed his eyes, that he might again see all that 
 made him happy. 
 
 No. 59. Schurschwanzel. 
 
264 
 
 WALT AND VL'LT, 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THE new-year's NIGHT. 
 
 Upon the sweet fruit, and the roses that lingered 
 upon the sunny side of their Hfe, blew again the rough 
 air of disappointment. Namely, Herr Merkel sent 
 back their romance, with expressions of sincere con- 
 tempt. Walt's part was bearable ; but they found 
 that of Vult, not only tasteless and insipid, but 
 chanted too much after the manner of that cuckoo, 
 Jean Paul, who himself, without the aid of a cuckoo- 
 clock, was wearisome enough. * 
 
 Upon this result, the romance was sent to Herr 
 Trattner, in Vienna ; " for this," said Vult, " they 
 needed only half franking." " I shall thank God as 
 soon as I can hope," said "Walt. The new sheets 
 were added to the old. The bookseller, Passvogel, 
 persevered in sending only one proof-sheet every 
 week, and consequently this proof-correcting duty of 
 the inheritance was uncommonly protracted. Walt, 
 indeed, left no new faults, but yet numberless of the 
 
 * Here follows an ironical critique of Vuh's upon the Review- 
 er, which, as it has merely a local interest, is omitted. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 265 
 
 old, except in the letter W, with that, his welfare 
 and his woe had begun ! 
 
 Without love, the double life of the brothers had 
 fallen into the wearisomeness and stagnation of death. 
 This love is the architect of necessity, and builds 
 castles in the air, as lofty as it is possible to make 
 them habitable. Youth endures nothing more easily 
 than poverty, (as age nothing more readily than rich- 
 es,) if only a love, either of a heart, or of a science, 
 illuminate artistically their dark present ; and make 
 them as happy in this artificial day, as if it were the 
 true light of the sun, as birds will sing as cheerily 
 before the lights of night shine out, as they do before 
 the light of morning. 
 
 Vult was now resolved, that on new-year's night, 
 flute in hand, he would effect his landing upon the 
 heart of Wina. His hopes were founded upon the 
 thought, that, from a union of employment would 
 easily arise a union of hearts. " Enough," he said, 
 " if in leading out a two-voiced composition, we can- 
 not become one-voiced, I err indeed." Walt, on the 
 contrary, formed no other plan of conquest, than to 
 steal glances at Wina ; to weep for joy ; to draw yet 
 nearer to her; and, if God presented him in the 
 darkness the opportunity, the joy, to kiss her hand, 
 and to say some hasty words to her — it was 
 enough ! 
 
 Thus came and passed the Christmas, without the 
 rising, as usual, of the phoenix of the night from the 
 ashes of childhood ; for the approaching new-year's 
 
WALT AND VULT, 
 
 uighc extinguished its splendor; aud this at last came 
 on, wiih the evening aurora, tlmt belonged to the de- 
 parting year. Yet, in this very evening, by the shim- 
 mering of Hesjverus. or some other su\r, Vult cursed 
 bis fete again, that with so feir an opportunity pre- 
 sented to him, he had no money wherewith to play 
 the mail of the world in the presence of the ladies. 
 " I would I had joined the beggarly order of bad 
 musicians, who wander around on new-year's night ; 
 I had at least begged enough to make them rich." 
 About four o'clock in the morning, as Eugelberta in 
 the great yellow hall, had furnished him with the 
 desired funds, * he went joyfully in the evening to 
 the wine-house, where the day before, as an old 
 friend of the hoi]^, (it cost him only the clasps of 
 his pantaloons,) he had had the cork drawn from a 
 bottle of champaigne, and the wine placed on the 
 ice ; in order, as he said to Walt. " to hang the ruins 
 of their de^s life with a little tapestry." 
 
 It took Walt half an hour to understand that the 
 spirit of the wine would not evaporate from the open 
 bottle. They drank. — All the resourses they pos- 
 sessed followed from each, yet like electrical clouds, 
 charged with positive and negative power, they 
 lightened at each other ; Walt with playful and witty 
 cooceits ; Vult with serious fancies. Were a flower- 
 
 *As EIiig\''r-:rta irae\r s^criiM of :he serenade, iliis masi 
 bare be^n a?aip>en.sa:io{i lot Volt s niosic, as he was loo proud to 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 267 
 
 wreath formed of their conversation, the colors would 
 be as variegated as the following specimen : — 
 
 " In seizing his moments of happiness, man has as 
 htlle time as the pearl-diver; perhaps two minutes 
 only, to seize his prize." " Many of the institutions 
 of government kindle destructive fires, merely that 
 the water-engines that extinguish them may be thaw- 
 ed out." *' We climb the green mountains of life, 
 only to die upon an iceberg above." Every one is 
 at least in one thing, against his will, original; in his 
 manner of sneezing." " Most people secretly be- 
 lieve, that God has existed, merely that they might 
 be created ; and that through the pervading ether, 
 their part of the world is a peninsula, stretching into 
 a sea of vapor, or an isthmus, connecting them with 
 heaven." " Each, to the other, is at the same time 
 sun and sun-flower, he turns and is turned." — And 
 so on — only what followed was less connected, and 
 far more animated ; till at last, the death-bell of the 
 year was heard to strike, and the invisible moon 
 wrote itself anew, with a clear silver line in the hea- 
 ven. Their glasses were now as empty as the year, 
 and they both wandered into the street, where it was 
 as light as in the day. 
 
 Everywhere, friends, who came forth from festi- 
 vals of joy, cried new-year's greetings to each other, 
 in which were lying enfolded, all the morning and 
 evening greetings of the coming year. Upon the 
 steps of the tower, they very distinctly saw the 
 announcer of the new year, with his trumpet. Walt 
 
268 
 
 WALT AND VÜLT, 
 
 imagined himself at that height, and it seemed to 
 his imagination, that he saw the coming year, slowly- 
 ascending from the horizon, like a monstrous cloud, 
 full of struggling forms, and the tones of the trumpet 
 named those forms, by the names of the future hours. 
 The stars seemed to stand as sentinels, to announce 
 that eternal mornins; in heaven, that should no longer 
 know either morning or evening ; but men looked 
 up, and gave to all that was above them, their own 
 hasty mutations, their passing hours, and their death- 
 bells. Under these feelings, the beloved appeared to 
 Walt, like a consecrated form, crowned with a dia- 
 dem of stars, and the glory of heaven revealed to 
 him more clearly her large liquid eye, and her tender 
 rose-lips. Not^ as had been formerly the case, did 
 the old year, that died at the birth of the new, reveal 
 to him the transgressions of his life ; love had chang- 
 ed all into splendor, even tears and the grave ; and 
 before him, life, like the declining sun of the longest 
 day of the north sea, touched only, with its rim, the 
 passing earth, and rose again, like morning, in the 
 arch of heaven. 
 
 Both friends went arm in arm, at last, hand in 
 hand, through the streets. Walt's short vivacity had 
 softened into deep feeling. He looked often around 
 into Vult's face, " We must remain through life, as 
 now, united," he said. Vult pressed his hand quick- 
 ly on the other's mouth. " Hush," he said, " the 
 devil hears!" "And God, also," answered Walt, 
 and continued, in a low voice, blushing deeply, and 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 269 
 
 turning away. " In such a night, should we not 
 once, to each other, pronounce the word Beloved ! " 
 " How ? " said Vuh, blushing, " that were too fool- 
 ish" 
 
 After a long enjoyment of their happy anticipa- 
 tions, they at last saw Wina, like a white blossom, 
 and Engelberta with her, slip into the summer- 
 house. 
 
 With warm hopes of executing his plan, of declar- 
 ing his love to Wina, and as happy as an astrono- 
 mer, to whom the whole heaven has revealed itself, 
 ere the rising moon shrouds the stars in total dark- 
 ness, Vult sought the ear of his brother, and repre- 
 sented to him, that if he listened at some distance, 
 that is, far beneath in the park, the music would be 
 much finer. " If you peep over my shoulder," he 
 said, " it will be as if you yourself blew with me 
 into the holes of the flute ; by which nothing could 
 be gained, and the heroine of the music-festival 
 would be in a situation as though two persons were 
 performing in the room, near her bed — this needs to 
 be considered, my Walt ! " " If you desire it, I will 
 not go in with you," said the other, and turned into 
 the cold garden, where the blinding snow was as well 
 starred as the deep ether. 
 
 But above (in the summer-house) it was arranged 
 against Vult's expectations, although not against his 
 wishes. Engelberta assured him that her sister knew 
 the flute and voice so well, that she would awake at 
 the sound of the first note, and thus spoil all ; there- 
 
270 
 
 WALT AND VT7LT, 
 
 lore me music niusi begin ai a great distance, and 
 increase as it drew nearer. '* Good — it will be best 
 in the park," said Wina, and hastened down. Upon 
 the steps behind, close to her ear, Vuli hastily ex- 
 plained to her all tlie musical points of concert, that 
 in the solitary paths of the park, he might have 
 nodiing to think of but his own conquesu To 
 his great consternation, the notar}*, with his cheerful 
 expression, appeared upon the principal path, pro- 
 posing to himself and the others, to accompany, or 
 to follow them. Wina gave him a joyful " good 
 morning,-' and afterwards, a new-year's greeting, 
 and the question, ** does not all go on delightfully ? " 
 " Sffl, 5fa, Viatoj\^ cried Vult, and whiked him 
 violently back, and to remain quiet, Walt remained, 
 as he desired, " because,'" as he said to himself, " I 
 know not what reason they may have." 
 
 " A true man, and atender poet," Vult began, as 
 they passed. " His poems are heavenly," she an- 
 swered. "And yet you have not separated us as 
 authors ? he asked hastily, for at this moment, to 
 secure an etemit],- of bliss, he thought nothing failed 
 him, but time. "Such an error requires not the 
 smallest pardon, but rather gratitude ; I think rather 
 of another, but truer resemblance — " (Wina looked 
 sharply at him) — " we have a mutual confidence to 
 make ; as it were tw in secrets in life, that I could 
 impart to no human being — except to yourself — 
 for I trust " — "I wish to know nothing that your 
 friend does not willingly unfold," she inter^rosed. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 271 
 
 He turned suddenly towards a linden tree (for the 
 introductory conversation had taken much too long a 
 digression), and read the inscription placed there by 
 Raphaela : " Here, in the nnoonbeams, is the hum 
 of bees among thy leaves, as they suck honey from 
 thy blossoms. Thou already slumberest, my friend ! 
 while I rest here, and think of thee. Dost thou 
 dream who loves thee ? " 
 
 " Let us hasten," she said ; " but how expres- 
 sively is your eye again fixed." " I take gladly," he 
 said, " all that belongs to love, especially the poi- 
 soned arrow, all but the bandage. Revered Wina! 
 you alone I always see ! Do I win ? Ah ! I 
 know not; you alone can tell. Beautifully," he 
 continued, " has the poet woven that line in your 
 song : ' Dreamest thou who loves thee ? ' " and, turn- 
 ing half-round, he sang the line softly, that he had 
 apparently placed in the song for this purpose, while 
 glances of love flashed from his dark eyes. As 
 Wina was silent, and hastened more quickly on, he 
 took the hand which she allowed him to hold, and 
 said, " Wina, your kind heart has understood mine. 
 To you, for you are not too proud to listen to me, I 
 will appear, not as I do to the multitude, but as I 
 am. I have nothing but my heart and my life ; but 
 both are consecrated to the best of human beings." 
 " There^ my friend ! " she said gently, and drew him 
 hastily to the spot where they were to begin their 
 music. She stood still, and took his other hand in 
 hers, and raised her eyes, full of infinite tenderness, 
 
272 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 to his ; while upon her celestial countenance all her 
 thoughts stood transparent as the dew-drop upon the 
 flower. " Good youth," she said, " I am as open, 
 as sincere as yourself, and, by this sacred heaven 
 above us, I would openly and joyfully acknowledge 
 it, if I loved you in the sense that you probably mean. 
 Were it so, I would, indeed, acknowledge it boldly, 
 from true esteem for you. But noio you have pained 
 me much. You have disturbed my morning, and I 
 shall scarcely give my friend the joy I intended." 
 
 Ere she had done speaking, Vult had drawn out 
 his flute. He put it together, and gave her only one 
 glance^ a silent hint to begin. She began to sing 
 with an embarrassed voice, but soon it became strong, 
 and afterwards rose to its usual power. 
 
 In the mean time, Walt had penetrated the princi- 
 pal passages through which he saw them, as they 
 passed from the shadow into the beams of the moon. 
 At last, he heard his own words in the beautiful 
 song, greeting the slumberer, and in the distant twi- 
 light perceived his own heart transfused into the 
 breast of another, as they sang the words, " Awake 
 gladly, beloved ! " to the poor sleeper above, upon 
 whom Ae, at least, had hitherto expended no thought. 
 To excuse himself, he looked, with sincere good 
 washes, up at her window, and wished her all that 
 life and love could present to her of happiness, in the 
 midst of the deep regret she must feel at the absence 
 of Flitt. 
 
 At this moment, he heard the voice of Engel- 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 273 
 
 berta, who called to him, that he might, if he pre- 
 ferred it, come into the house. The attention, at 
 this time, only disturbed him ; but he approached 
 nearer, and entered the rotunda, already mentioned, 
 where nothing was visible but the deep blue of the 
 sky, with the penetrating moonbeams, and he heard 
 only the distant, lovely melody from the beautiful 
 lips of Wina. 
 
 They approached. The melodious leader of the 
 birth -day festival drew nearer and nearer, with 
 stronger tones ; Vult behind her, that the hot tears 
 of displeasure and pride, which, with the flute at his 
 lips he could not dry, might be revealed to none but 
 the night. When she was near, Engelberta directed 
 Wina's attention to her sister's sleeping-chamber, 
 and to the rotunda. She followed the last hint, think- 
 ing she must conceal herself, and continue the sere- 
 nade till the awakened friend should find her there. 
 
 Here was Walt, with his eyes upon the moon, his 
 spirit in the distant ether, but ravished and beside 
 himself at the near sound of her voice, and the dis- 
 tant melody of the flute. No one understands the 
 music of our souls but God. Like the deaf and 
 dumb pupils of Heinecke,* we make words, and un- 
 derstand not ourselves what we say. Wina must 
 continue to sing, and address him only through the 
 greeting of a lovely English smile.f 
 
 * The teacher of the dumb to speak with articulated sounds, 
 t Jean Paul often expresses his admiration of the frank English 
 smile. 
 
 VOL. II. 18 
 
274 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 That which he also dared not say, he smiled ; a 
 smile radiating in love and joy. But when she sang 
 that beautifully melodious line, " Dreamest thou who 
 loves thee ? " and then softly repeated the heavenly 
 sounds close to his breast, he sank upon his knees, 
 unconscious whether to pray or love ; and as he 
 looked up to her, clothed as she was with the moon- 
 beams, she seemed a Madonna descending from 
 above, environed with the splendor of heaven. Gen- 
 tly, she laid her right hand upon the waving curls of 
 his head ; he raised both his own, and pressed it 
 upon his brow. Emotion will dissolve the gentlest 
 spirit in the flame of joy, as the most delicate flower 
 in the voluptuous summer's-night throws out the elec- 
 tric spark ; tears and sighs of joy, the music and the 
 stars, heaven and earth, were mingled together in 
 one sea of ether, and, without consciousness, he held 
 Wina's left hand pressed upon his beating heart, and 
 the song seemed to come to him from afar off, as to 
 one awaking from a swoon. 
 
 The flute came nearer, and the last word was 
 sung. Wina drew him gently from the earth ; but 
 the sounds were still repeated in his ears, when Ra- 
 phaela burst in, with joyful impatience, to throw 
 herself upon the breast of the authoress of this de- 
 lightful morning. Gottwalt was alarmed ; but Wina, 
 perfectly calm, received her friend with entire self- 
 possession, and said to Walt, who could not speak, 
 " We shall see each other again on Monday eve- 
 ning." " Yes, by heaven ! " he answered, without 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 275 
 
 knowing how, or where. Vult entered at this mo- 
 ment, and received the loud expression of Raphaela's 
 gratitude ; he bowed silently, and with Walt departed 
 from the garden. 
 
 As soon as they were in their chamber, the latter 
 threw himself upon his neck. Vult took it for the 
 expression of his joy and gratitude, at the success 
 of Raphaela's birth-day festival, and pressed him 
 once to his heart. Oh ! let me speak, brother," 
 Walt began. " Oh ! let me sleep," Vult answered ; 
 " deep, dark sleep ; that sinks from darkness to 
 darkness. Oh, brother! is not that profound sleep a 
 blessed, wide lake, for us amphibious animals, who 
 come weary from the sultry land, to float or sink into 
 the cool, dark, profound depths of its waters ? But 
 you deny all this, and more also." " Ah ! God give 
 thee dreams, and the most heavenly that ever visit 
 sleep ! " said Walt. 
 
 No. 60. Blende. A mineral that contains no ore. 
 
276 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 PRELIMINARY ARRA^'GE3IE^•TS. 
 
 Walt had now in his flower-crowned head nothing 
 else than the Monday in which he should again 
 see Wina ; although he knew not where. After 
 some days, Raphaela informed him, through Flora, 
 that, on account of the court-morning, the masque- 
 rade of Monday, would be postponed. He startled 
 the maid, by asking, " How 7 it was a masquerade, 
 then ? " but afterwards, when Vult clapped him upon 
 the shoulder, and remarked, that probably Engelberta 
 had planned the message, and suffered it, delicately, 
 to come through the sister, a light arose, yes, a star, 
 upon Wina's " Monday.'^'' The chambers of his 
 brain became four halls for masks, and he swore 
 he would pinch himself, even if he should starve, 
 till he had collected enough money to enter, for the 
 first time in his life, and take part in a masked ball. 
 " Could I once have a mask," he thought, " I could 
 meet her in a blissful dance, or lead her aside, and 
 neither ask, nor see any thing else." How gently 
 had it touched and warmed his heart, could he have 
 pressed his twin-brother to his breast, and revealed 
 his secret to him ! but now it was impossible. Sor- 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 277 
 
 row, and the refusal of his love, had cut Wina's 
 image too deeply into that hard, but precious stone, 
 his heart ; this^ he could not bear ! he would himself 
 efface, and obliterate it from the jewel, so that no- 
 thing could there be read ; not for love, but for honor, 
 could he die ! Not to quiet the longing of desire, 
 but for revenge, could he destroy himself! 
 
 In these circumstances, it was difficult for anyone, 
 except Walt, to endure him ; every thing ; the present, 
 and the absent, all displeased him. He cursed the 
 lodgings, and the city ; the first delicately, the latter 
 without reserve. It was aschaloop to a ship of fools ; 
 a lodge, full of extinguished, smoking, study lamps ; 
 a charnel-house of the beheaded ! a Golgotha, the 
 place of skulls ! It was a residence for animals, with 
 a market for cattle, and a bear-garden. Walt endur- 
 ed the pouring out of his wrath upon the city, and 
 upon himself, as though his brother would say to him, 
 " it is upon thy account, that I sit in this vile nest." 
 " Ah, that thou wert happier, Vult," he said once, 
 but nothing more. " What then, hast thou heard of 
 me.?" asked the other, angrily. — "Only the for- 
 mer," said Walt, and gave the other the suspicion 
 that he was acquainted with the failure of his decla- 
 ration of love. 
 
 From the splendid divided chamber, with the ar- 
 cadian prospect, as well as from the painted stage 
 curtain, all the former glory had now faded away. 
 
 If his writing, or his flute-playing was interrupted ; 
 if, in bad weather, a passing child substituted the 
 
278 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 trumpet for his dwarf drum, or if the neighboring 
 butcher, from time to time, pierced the throat of a 
 swine, that shrieked when he was playing, Walt, in 
 his eyes, was guilty of the interruption ; or when, 
 at night, the watchman sant so abominably, that 
 many times he threw him cyirses and reproaches 
 across the park, in the moonlight, Walt was to 
 blame. 
 
 The mild warmth of the invariably loving Walt, 
 seemed only to make him more morose ; " I also," 
 he said, " could be a lamb of Heaven, a Madonna, 
 a young John, if I had only that, for which he main- 
 tains this grace." 
 
 But Walt thought only of the masked ball, and the 
 means to attain an entrance to it. " Oh, had my 
 brother only a beloved, how easy and blessed should 
 we be ; we would unite our hearts, and whoever he 
 loved, should be also beloved by me. Ah, it is easy 
 to forgive him all, when I imagine myself in his dark 
 circumstances." * 
 
 At this moment, as though by accident, tickets for 
 a dress lottery were thrown into their chamber. Both 
 desired to go to the masquerade, and as Walt requir- 
 ed a dress from this depository of masks, and Vult 
 no less, they each took a ticket, with the hope of at 
 least drawing a disguise. 
 
 * But Walt did not know that he had ventured to declare his 
 love, and had been rejected by Wina. He excused him because 
 he thought he did not love. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 279 
 
 They scraped together their money, with many 
 curses from Vult at their destitution. While they were 
 waiting for the result, he said, " I cannot tell you how 
 much I wish we were like the Dahomets, in Upper 
 Guinea, where no one, except the king, wears stock- 
 ings ; or that it was now, as under the reign of Charles 
 the Seventh of France, when in the whole land no 
 one possessed a change of linen, except his wife." 
 
 " Wherefore ? " asked Walt. " Ah, then we could 
 be excused by those of our own rank," he answered, 
 and as he considered his brother the cause of their 
 poverty, he poured out his wrath upon him. 
 
 " Poverty," Walt answered, " is the mother of 
 hope. Let the beautiful daughter accompany us, 
 and you will not perceive the hateful mother. But I 
 will gladly be thy Cymon of Cyrenia, and help thee 
 to bear thy cross." '•' Ah, yes," he answered, " bear 
 it to the mountain, where they will crucify me." 
 " Love knows no poverty, either for itself, or anoth- 
 er," Walt answered. 
 
 At length, the dress lottery, upon which, merely 
 from the length of time, they had accustomed them- 
 selves to place the greatest and brightest hopes, com- 
 menced drawing. Walt gained for his No. 515, 
 nearly a complete oilskin suit, as a protection from 
 gout, so that it would be useful, let the gout travel 
 into whichever limb it would. Vult's No. 11000 
 had drawn a tolerable wagoner's blue frock. At the 
 same moment, the post-runner brought in again their 
 Romance, the Hoppel-poppel, returned by the book- 
 
280 
 
 WALT AKD VULT, 
 
 seller, Peter Hammer, in Cologne, with many honest 
 commendations, that Herr Hammer had suffered to 
 escape, after having received the manuscript from 
 Mr. Von Trattner, with the cold excuse that he rarely- 
 printed anything that had not already been printed. 
 Upon the envelope, had the worthy Cologne post- 
 master merely remarked, that in all Cologne there 
 was no Peter Hammer's book-store, and that the 
 name was a pure invention. 
 
 Vult had now the best excuse for asking, if in 
 these eternal shocks of life, all the floods of hell had 
 not been opened to pour out flames and ice for him 
 alone ? or to assert, that even had he the opportunity, 
 a rain-bow might as easily be formed upon a cloud 
 of locusts, as poetry produced under such circumstan- 
 ces as his ; and even now, had he not passed from a 
 smart shower, to fall under the flood of a waterfall ? 
 
 At this moment the Alsatian appeared, and, after 
 thanking both the brothers for their birth-day labors, 
 he mentioned his commission from Raphaela, who 
 had sent Walt a complete mountaineer's dress of 
 her father's, for the masked ball, which he had 
 sometimes, God be praised, worn in his mining 
 excursions. After Flitt's congratulations, and Walt's 
 gratitude, they mutually exchanged the expression 
 of their emotions, and with so much good-will to- 
 wards each other, that if Walt was not the most 
 complete coxcomb upon the firm earth, Raphaela 
 must have been, throughout, the beloved of the Al- 
 satian — thus at once, fell the thick mist from Vult's 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 281 
 
 eyes. " God confound him," he said to himself, 
 "he loves Wina! and she? — she indeed — loves 
 him ! " All his wild emotions seized upon him now 
 with double power ; yet resolutely concealed, ex- 
 cept in his journal. " So false, so secret, so bold ! 
 and so madly ambitious, could I not have believed 
 the simpleton," he wrote, while thus his self-com- 
 munion went on. " By heaven, I know what I will 
 do. Oh, right well ! were I only wholly certain ! — At 
 the masked ball, I also will mask. — The plan will 
 be easy ; or the evil one will take part in it. — In the 
 first place, I will allow proofs of my friendship for 
 him, to be clearly revealed — even to herself. Hea- 
 vens ! if her rejection of my love upon that stupid 
 new-year's night, have led to his happiness ! I did 
 
 much for him, mdeed ! " " Oh, dear Vult! be, 
 
 only this once, even on thy own account, less violent, 
 and quieter. Conceal thy face, and thy means of 
 reproach, only until to-morrow night ! " 
 
 Vult's recent error easily excused the remark, that 
 the same facility with which one imagines himself to 
 be beloved, makes one also believe that another is 
 beloved. 
 
 But to keep his promise of peace, and to stand 
 cold and firm upon the hot lava upon which he must 
 continue to move, he began to talk of indifferent 
 things, and told Flitt that he and Walt were now the 
 best friends. He earnestly advised the notary to 
 appear at the ball, enclosed in the gouty oil-cloth. 
 
283 
 
 WALT AND TTLT, 
 
 Walt, however, imagined in üiis irony, only an extra- 
 ordinary disguise, that was w holly unexpected. 
 * * * « * 
 
 " But, joking aside," he continued, ** let us speak 
 rather of love, ihat wili not fail :o appear at a masked 
 hall. I shall forever believe that it endures long — 
 longer than people will admit — for I kuow not why 
 a lover that is assured of his own love — even if he 
 has promised nothing, should not suder his heart to 
 bum as long as that mine of hard coal by Zwicau, 
 which has now been on fire a century." Vice 
 ramawr / " cried Flitt. 
 
 Vult told them that Jacobine, the actress, had 
 arrived. ^' She will also play her pan at the ball, 
 and you wiU play, neither her first, nor her last 
 lover, Walt. They are the devil's children — wo- 
 men ; — do they appear bad — they are so — do 
 they not appear so — they are yet the same. — 
 Nevertheless, I would confront the prudes with the 
 Jacobines, who spread their celestial blue nets 
 through the ether, for simpletons like you, Walt ! " 
 Walt asked, " how then should a poor beauty act, if 
 neither seeming nor be'mg were of use to her ? 
 It could be but a certain imprisonment in a net, 
 thrown over a cherry-tree full of sweet fruit, not 
 only to imprison, but to keep the starling in perpetual 
 captivity." But Yult's tongue, unlike that of the 
 lion, spared never a woman. 
 
 Walt bore willingly, in silence, the complaints of 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 283 
 
 the impoverished brother. Vult had turned the day- 
 light of life into night ; and in this dark shadow he 
 must suffer cold, and, like other plants, breathe out 
 poisoned air. On the contrary, love itself turns 
 towards the celestial sphere, and, like the terrestial, 
 always meets the rising stars. Like a sailor upon a 
 wind-calmed sea, it beholds no earth — but only 
 heaven. Heaven opens above. Heaven opens be- 
 neath, and the water that bears it up, is merelya 
 paler heaven. 
 
 As Vult and Flitt went forth together, Walt thought 
 within himself, " I have made him more peaceful. 
 He appears, indeed, to be reconciled with the Alsa- 
 tian." 
 
 No. 61. Lapis Suillus, 
 
284 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 THE MASKED-BALL. 
 
 V " We shall see each other this evening," said Vult 
 to his brother, when, under the veil of this friendly- 
 greeting, he left him on the morning of the masque- 
 rade. The day shone too brightly for Walt in his 
 solitude ; a day, which consisted only of the beauti- 
 ful night to which it led ; and at dinner he longed for 
 his brother. He knew not under what form he 
 should meet him in the evening, and his empty apart- 
 ment seemed to have lost forever his own. 
 
 Walt went into a magazine of masks, and sought 
 long for one which represented the face of Apollo or 
 Jupiter ; he did not understand, he said, why they 
 should be hatefully ugly. Vult had advised him to 
 enter the full hall about eleven o'clock; thus, in 
 making his toilette very slowly, he drew from every 
 piece of his disguise, as from a flower-cup, his 
 dream of honey. Dressing at the usual time of un- 
 dressing; the universal animation and noise in the 
 street, as well as in the houses ; and especially the 
 thought, that he was himself to take a part in this 
 great carnival, colored the future with the most ro- 
 mantic dreams. How different is the roll of the 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 285 
 
 carriage when it takes us to happiness, than when, 
 under the night-cap, and beneath the bed-curtain, it 
 reaches the wakeful ear. 
 
 When he left his chamber, he felt like a hero 
 thirsting for glory, who draws his sword for the first 
 time, and he besought God that he might return as 
 joyfully as he departed. He bore himself like a 
 sedan-chair through the street, and could scarcely 
 believe, that, even in his double disguise, with all the 
 machinery of his soul in perfect order, he could pass 
 through the crowded street as unobserved as a watch 
 in a fob. 
 
 Through a mistake, he went first into the punch- 
 room, which he took for the dancing-hall, and where 
 the music came beautifully softened from a distance. 
 Nothing surprised him so much, as that he should 
 not draw off his miner's dress in this splendid cav- 
 ern of the Hartz mountains, thus filled with moving 
 figures. As he looked out boldly from the windows 
 of his mask, he saw, not without admiration, many 
 uncovered faces, with the loosened mask in one 
 hand, while the other held a glass; he looked upon 
 this universal refreshment from the brunnen of 
 health, or cup of the order, as a regulation of the 
 ball, and immediately demanded his glass ; and as 
 the mask of an admiral was his flugelman, he fol- 
 lowed his example, and demanded yet another. He 
 looked in vain for Wina, and there was no appear- 
 ance of Vult. A votaress of the order of the slaves 
 of virtue wandered round him, and looked piercingly 
 
286 
 
 WALT AND VÜLT, 
 
 into the eyes of his mask. At last, she seized his 
 hand, and sketched with her finger an H within it. 
 As he knew nothing of this remote, or rather ap- 
 proximating art of writing, instead of answering, he 
 gently pressed the hand in his own. 
 
 At length, Walt joined the procession that was 
 passing into the adjoining room, a noisy, heated hall, 
 full of wandering, agitated forms, where the vapor 
 of enchantment circled above, and gave them the 
 appearance of those shining forms that rush together 
 from opposite points, to meet each other in the north- 
 ern aurora. The poetry of Walt's mind saw in this 
 crowd the resurrection, at the last day, of the an- 
 cient inhabitants of the earth ; of the old knight- 
 hood ; of saints, of vestals. Moors, Jews, nuns, 
 Tyrolese, soldiers ; all mingled indiscriminately to- 
 gether. For a long time, he followed a Jew, who 
 was hung round with dunning demands, cut out of 
 the Daily Advertiser; another, who had all the warn- 
 ing-tablets from the royal gardens divided about his 
 limbs ; then one with a monstrous peruke, full of 
 papillottes, which the bearer untwisted and divided. 
 He also took one, but found nothing but a stale com- 
 pliment upon his enchanting eyes. 
 
 As yet, he had seen neither Wina nor his brother ; 
 and he began to fear that in this great sea he should 
 find neither pearl nor island, when, at the moment, a 
 young lady placed herself immediately before him, 
 with a flower-wreath upon her head. From the 
 mouth of the mask depended a label with this in- 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 287 
 
 scription : " I am the personification of hope, or 
 Spes ; represented with a crown of flowers, and a 
 lily in the right hand ; the left supported by an 
 anchor, or a strong willow wand." * Walt, who had 
 been from the first t(V'mented with the most stupid 
 thoughts, would secretly have guessed it Wina, had 
 the form been more slender, and not taller than 
 hers. 
 
 Hope turned quickly back, and a masked shep- 
 herdess drew near, with a simply dressed nun, wear- 
 ing only a half-mask, and a wreath of sweet-scented 
 auriculas. The shepherdess took his hand, and 
 marked a small H therein ; he pressed the hand, 
 and shook his head, for he thought she wished to 
 designate herself by the H. Suddenly, he looked 
 directly at the half-mask, or rather at the partially 
 masked countenance of the nun, and knew instantly, 
 by the delicate, but full line of the rose-lips, and the 
 decidedly marked chin, that Wina stood before him, 
 and looked at him with gentle eyes, from beneath 
 the dark mask, t "Oh, how blessed!" he said, 
 softly, " and you are Mademoiselle Raphaela ? " 
 Both assented. Oh ! what more can one desire in 
 such soul-intoxicating hours, when, invisibly, like 
 souls without bodies, as in the Elysian fields, they 
 again know each other. 
 
 A running footman danced by, and took out Ra- 
 
 * See Samm's Mythology. 
 
 t Wina wore a half-mask, of black silk, or velvety 
 
288 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 phaela, to join the dance. " Good fortune ! Sir 
 miner ! " he said, as he flew, and Walt instantly 
 knew Flitt, the Alsatian. He now stood a second 
 alone, near the calm maiden, while the crowd was, 
 for a moment, to both, an elfep tual mask. 
 
 Now, charming as a half-opened bud beneath its 
 protecting sheath, the rose and lily of her cheek was 
 disclosed below the protecting mask. Like spirits 
 from distant western worlds, they looked at each 
 other ; and as stars are made visible by the eclipse 
 of the sun, thus souls, however remote, behind these 
 masks, could see, and understand each other. 
 
 Walt, as he stood thus entranced, intimated that 
 he wished to celebrate and consecrate this sweetest 
 moment of his life, and, as Hope passed before 
 them, with the slave of virtue, Wina asked him if 
 he never danced. Immediately they joined the 
 stream of dancers. Although Walt danced as, ac- 
 cording to Bottiger, did the Romans, whose mimic 
 dances consisted only of motions of the hands and 
 arms, yet, involved with the flying swarm, he entered 
 into the waltz with that warmth that carried them to 
 the last stage of fatigue. Like a youth who touches 
 for the first time the hand of a great, renowned 
 author, or as gently as with a butterfly's wing, or 
 the perfume of the auricula, Walt touched the back 
 of Wina, while he removed himself, as much as the 
 waltz permitted, so as to look into her life-breathing 
 face. 
 
 If there be a harvest-dance that is in itself a bar- 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 289 
 
 vest, if there be a circle that encircles intense de- 
 light, Walt enjoyed both ; but as he could not move 
 his feet, and keep his tongue silent, the dancing-hall 
 became to him only a larger hall of eloquence. In 
 the midst of the dance, he endeavored to prove to 
 Wina that through the act of dancing the body 
 might become music ; that man might form wings, 
 , and soar, even in this life ; that two souls might 
 themselves be alone, in absolute solitude, even in the 
 midst of a multitude ; and, like certain heavenly 
 bodies surrounded by an atmosphere of their own, 
 revolve only around the axis of each other ; that 
 those only who love should dance, so that in the 
 symmetrical grace of this art the harmony of their 
 souls might have room to play. As they paused a 
 moment, and he looked around the rushing storm of 
 waltzers, and through the crowded room, " How 
 elevated," he said, " is the appearance of the man- 
 tles and plumed hats of the men ; they look like 
 the walls of rock around the parterre of a garden 
 filled with ladies, like flowers. A ball en masque is 
 perhaps the most elevated theme that humorous poetry 
 can venture to sport with. In the view of the poet, 
 all ranks and all periods are equal, and the outward 
 only the garment, where the inward is happiness and 
 splendor ; thus here, where the oldest fashions and 
 customs have revived, and wander around, mingling 
 with the latest and the youngest, humanity, and life 
 itself, has become poetry. The wildest savage, the 
 most refined in rank, the uneducated, the broadest ca- 
 
 VOL. II. 19 
 
290 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 ricature, all, that never before were brought together ; 
 even departed centuries and religions, enemies and 
 friends, are rounded in one easy, joyful circle ; and 
 this circle moves splendidly to the measure of mu- 
 sic ; for music is the climate of the soul, as this 
 masquerade is the theatre of the body. One only 
 stands here serious, undisguised, unmasked, and 
 regulates the cheerful confusion." He referred to 
 the manager of the ball, who, with small, uncovered 
 head and face, stood, folded in his mantle, and gave 
 his orders apparently with displeasure. 
 
 Wina said hastily, and in a low voice, " Your 
 views are in themselves poetry : but to a being of a 
 more exalted nature, the history of humanity may 
 appear, indeed, only the long disguise of a masque- 
 rade." " We are," he answered, " like fireworks, 
 that an all-powerful being throws off in innumerable 
 forms of beauty ; " and he led her again into the 
 circle of the waltz. The longer this continued, the 
 more precious seemed to him the spring and per- 
 fumed air that met them in their flight. When, at 
 length, they paused, Walt said to himself, "Oh! 
 might I to-day offer myself up for this most precious 
 soul, then were I most blessed ! " Whenever, after 
 this, he ventured to speak to Wina, Hope, or Spes 
 was ever at his side. The nun, like the dove, with 
 the olive leaf in her mouth, remarked, not indeed, 
 that he spoke impatiently, and appeared to turn 
 away, as much from misconceiving, as from igno- 
 rance of the subject of their conversation. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 291 
 
 Although Wah had believed, every time he had seen 
 Wina, that her whole and entire loveliness had been 
 revealed to him, yet to-day it seemed more perfect, 
 as the moon, when it hangs in full, unrivalled light 
 above us, has yet appeared to rise a perfect orb be- 
 fore us. At the end of the waltz, that her indul- 
 gence of his awkwardness might be crowned with 
 its tnumph, he besought her hand for the English 
 dance ; merely that he might have the right to touch 
 it, and in the pauses of the dance, stand opposite the 
 lovely lips and eyes. She answered softly, " Ja ! " 
 
 In a yet lower tone, he heard his name repeated. 
 Hope stood behind him, and said, " go immediately 
 through the large door of the hall, and look round at 
 the left." It was Vult. Walt was rejoiced to find, 
 under this unknown, the form of the known, whom 
 he had sought in vain upon his Elysian Island. He 
 obeyed, and followed the voice, till they reached a 
 remote cabinet, where Vult beckoned him to enter. 
 Walt would have embraced his brother, but Vult, 
 having closed both doors, thrust him back, saying, 
 " remember the sex of our masks." He threw his 
 mask away, and revealed a strange, wasted, hard, 
 and dry expression, while the haste and heat of fever 
 was betrayed in his voice. " If thou hast ever borne 
 any love to thy brother," he cried, with a harsh 
 voice, while he threw off his crown of flowers, and 
 began to loosen the female dress, " if the accom- 
 plishment of the dearest wish of his heart, the worth 
 of which you shall know in twenty-four hours, is of 
 
29-2 
 
 WALT AND ^•^:LT, 
 
 any value to thee " — seeing Walt hesitate, he went 
 on — " if, in the midst of thy joy, thou canst not 
 listen with indifference to his most beseeching prayer, 
 then take off thy disguise, and exchange it with mine ! 
 be thou Hope, and let me, for a short half hour, be 
 the miner — this is the whole." '-Dear brother," 
 said the alarmed Walt, as soon as the breath of the 
 other was exhausted, '* I answer, as you would 
 yourself consent to such a request, with joy." 
 
 " Be only quick ! " said Vult, without thanking 
 him. Walt began to undress ; the gay tones of his 
 brother now frightening him nearly as much as the 
 despairing had done before, although he little knew 
 the object of the exchange. Vult then said, although 
 he appeared to be joking, " to-morrow, all will be 
 evealed." 
 
 In the midst of the mutual exchange of their dress- 
 es, the objection occurred to Walt, that, perhaps, 
 disguised as a woman, he could not dance the pro- 
 mised English dance, with Wina. " Oh," he said to 
 his brother, " 1 anticipated so much happiness, and, 
 between ourselves, it is the first English dance that I 
 have ever attempted, but I must depend a little for 
 my success, upon my disguise, and my present hap- 
 piness ! " Then flashed into Vull's hard, excited 
 face, a lively, sarcastic expression. " Heaven ! 
 hell ! " he said, " as easily could I sneeze in musical 
 time, or stretch back my arms, and travestie the 
 flute behind my back, as you could do that which 
 you propose. Your waltzing, hitherto — do not take 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 293 
 
 the information ill — was a very good comic imitation, 
 partly of the straight forward motion of the wagon- 
 er, partly of the perpendicular one of the miner ; 
 but an English dance ! Friend ! and which ? a devil- 
 ish hard one, if it be not an Irish ? And will you 
 venture it with your partner ? (who is perhaps, al- 
 though in a melancholy form, a countess,) now blush- 
 ing with shame, now pale as a corpse, sinking down 
 under the sorrow of being your cross-hearer, as 
 soon as you awkwardly stop, or go down like a 
 comet. But this will now, be so splendidly accom- 
 plished ; for I will undertake it. The mob shall see 
 that the wagoner can unmask himself, and be in ear- 
 nest, even in a dance ; for I will dance the Änglaise 
 in your mask. Even in Poland, I was celebrated as 
 a dancer, not to speak of this place, where nothing 
 Polish dances, except the bear." 
 
 Walt remained some moments silent — then he 
 said, very seriously, " the lady to whom I referred, 
 and to whom I have hitherto given this mortification, 
 is the Fraulein Wina Zablocki — but, as she has pro- 
 mised this dance to me, how will you excuse yourself 
 and me, to her, for the exchange ? " 
 
 " Oh, this is to be our triumph," he answered, 
 " but you shall not guess, till to-morrow, how it shall 
 be accomplished." Then he imparted to him, that 
 he had to-day won so much at Faro, that Walt must 
 receive from him a gold piece, to refund his expenses ; 
 were it only, also, that he might have something to 
 do among the spectators, in the eating-room. Then 
 
294 
 
 WALT AND VÜLT, 
 
 he recommended him not to enter into conversation, 
 as Hope, with any female mask, who, out of her own 
 good hopes, would easily possess his. 
 
 Walt's evening-star rose again, with full splendor, 
 as he placed the short dress upon his brother, and 
 looked very earnestly in his face, and into his dark 
 eyes, as he said, " be happy ! brother ! Joy gives 
 wings to men, yes, the wings of angels. I am, to- 
 night, too much entranced with every event, to be 
 able to express my wishes as delicately as you would 
 yourself You can love yet more than I " 
 
 " Love," interrupted Vult, " to speak in your 
 flute-language, is eternally a pain, either a sweet, or 
 a bitter pain ; always a night, in which no star arises, 
 until another has gone down — friendship, on the 
 contrary, is a day, where nothing goes down, but, at 
 last, the sun itself — and then — and then, it is dark 
 
 night, and the devil appears. But, to speak 
 
 seriously, Love is, at the same time, a bird of Para- 
 dise, and a mocking-bird — a phoenix of weak ashes, 
 without the sun ; but it is nearly the same thing, 
 whatever one says, or objects, upon love, for all is 
 true, and, at the same time, false. Now, I will place 
 this crown upon thy head, and clothe thee with what 
 thou hast already — hope ! Go through my door, 
 into the dancing-hall, as I shall through yours — 
 observe — be silent, and drink much ! " 
 
 Walt entered the room, feeling as though everyone 
 could see the exchange of masks, and could discover 
 the kernel beneath the second hull, easier than be- 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 295 
 
 neath the first. Some ladies indeed remarked, that 
 Hope had now blonde hair under its crown, instead 
 of the former dark ; " of course," they said, " it 
 was a peruke." Walt's step, also, was smaller, and 
 more feminine, which was more appropriate to Hope's. 
 
 Walt soon forgot himself, the hall, and everything 
 around him, when he saw Vult, without hesitation, 
 approach Wina, whom every one knew, and lead 
 her to the head of the English dance ; and then, to 
 the astonishment of his partner, he designed an artist- 
 like sketch of the dance, and then, like a painter, 
 began to execute it with his feet, in a more beautiful 
 and decorative manner. Wina's astonishment in- 
 creased, for she believed Walt was before her, whose 
 voice and manner, behind the mask, contrary to 
 W^alt's expectation, he accurately imitated. 
 
 Towards the end of the dance, Vult, in crossing 
 hands, in leading up or down, suffered many Polish 
 words, as it were a breath of the language, to 
 escape him. Like butterflies, wandering over the 
 sea, from a remote island, or like the rare and distant 
 song of the lark, in a late autumnal day, were these 
 sounds to Wina. Tears of joy started, and sparkled 
 behind her half-mask. She longed to pass from her 
 one-syllabled English, and gladly would have ex- 
 pressed to the accomplished waltzer, her astonish- 
 ment and joy, otherwise than by glances. She saw 
 that his expressed neither the one, nor the other. 
 She did, however, express her pleasure, but the warm 
 acknowledgment of his long-concealed talent, was 
 
296 
 
 WALT A^'D VULT, 
 
 immediately shrouded by bim wiili modesty. " He 
 had,^^ (and he said this in the choicest Polish,) " as 
 little knowledge of the world, and more simplicity, 
 than many notaries, and with justice, was called 
 Goti-walt, or, * What God will ! ' Yei bis heart was 
 warm, his soul pure, and his life humbly poetical ; 
 but, as he had informed her, in their first waltz, he 
 look his part joyfully in the masquerade of life ; 
 whether in country, or shepherd dances, war dances, 
 or the dance of death.'^ 
 
 As the second part of the music rose, in its deep 
 waves of harmony, into that voluptuous overfulness 
 of sound, which, like all adagios, powerfully moves 
 the inmost soul ; and the secret wishes of the heart 
 rise from the sea of waves, and the waltzers and the 
 lights whirl confusedly together, and the wide sound 
 and tumult cause the disguised maskers to shrink 
 deeper into their disguises ; Yult, in his flight, said 
 sofdy, but in Polish, " Protected by the deep foliage 
 of flower-leaves, happiness rushes and revolves 
 aiGimd us — wherefore am I the only one for whom 
 it perpetually dies ? Why is there, for me, neither 
 heaven nor earth r Xun ! thou art both ! In thee is 
 all my heaven ; earth consists only of thee ! Ah ! I 
 will venture all ! Thou canst make of a Goitwalt, a 
 Grod-deserted ! Oh, grant me but one sigh ! Say 
 but one word ! From thy tongue, only, will I receive 
 my execution ; if it moves, it will be to me a sword 
 — nun ! " " Grottwalt," said Wina, with embarrass- 
 ment, and some agitation, as they continued to follow 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 297 
 
 the mazes of the dance, " how can a human tongue 
 be such ? Ah, why will you thus torment yourself 
 and me?" "Nun," he continued, 'Met me hear 
 that word, although it be my executioner." She 
 answered, with a soft voice, " The torture of silence 
 is more severe to me, than it would be to speak to 
 another." 
 
 Vult had now received the last blow, the certainty 
 of Wina's love for him, whose character and ap- 
 pearance he had assumed ; but he smiled to think, 
 that Walt, as yet, in truth, and in appearance, pos- 
 sessed only hope. His angry and tortured mind 
 could not bend itself to any shadow of thanks ; severe- 
 ly, obstinately silent, he finished the dance, and van- 
 ished instantly from the joyous circle. 
 
 Hope had remained long near them, blessing him- 
 self with a double joy, that of Wina's, and his own, 
 in seeing her possessed of the best dancer in the 
 room, and the feeling, that whatever was said to her 
 by her partner, it could only be what he had previous- 
 ly imagined, and thus he drew her heavenly glances 
 upon himself. Just as the wearisome English dance 
 ended, and he v, as preparing to present to her his 
 explanation, he was unfortunately drawn by the 
 crowd into the refreshment-room, and at the moment 
 when Vult, in the mazes of the dance, was whisper- 
 ing his love, Hope stood crowned with flowers, the 
 empty, flattering inscription, hanging from his mask, 
 and looking idly at the wearisome waltzers. 
 
 Shortly before the dance ended, the Slave of Virtue 
 
298 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 approached, and drew him into the next room. Hope, 
 hoped for a hundred strange experiences. " So, you 
 know me no longer ? " said the mask. " Do you, then, 
 know me ? " asked Hope. " Shut your eyes a mo- 
 ment, I will unbind your mask, and mine also." 
 Walt did so ; she kissed him quickly on the lips, 
 saying, " I have seen you already, before." — It was 
 Jacobine. — At this moment, General Zablocki en- 
 tered by another door. — "Ah, Jacobine, already 
 again at your hopes ! " and withdrew immediately. 
 " What did he mean ? " she said, but Walt ran, 
 shocked, and half undressed, again into the hall, 
 where, with some trouble, he assumed again the 
 mask, and the crowned head. 
 
 Wina and Vult were no more to be found ; and 
 after long seeking and hoping, Walt was compelled 
 to go home, without putting off his character of hope. 
 Thus ended the masked ball, full of voluntary con- 
 cealment, ending, at last, in involuntary disclosures, 
 of still greater perplexity. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 299 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 LETTER. NidHT-WANDERlNG. 
 
 As soon as Vult's eyes were completely opened 
 to the leniency with which Wina regarded the exces- 
 sive temerity of Walt's love, and his own complete 
 defeat, he hastened home, with the wild waves of 
 every passion raging tumultuously in his breast, to 
 write the following letter to Walt. 
 
 " No absurdity is now wanting ! That which I 
 have long suspected, which you have so artfully con- 
 cealed from me ; that which is, by yourself, named 
 love, is, like the heart of the polypus, self-concentrat- 
 ed, and, like many others, will yield you no advan- 
 tage. You will not take it ill, therefore, that I go to 
 the devil, and leave you alone with your angel ; for 
 friendship is as unnecessary to love, and as unlike it, 
 as the otto of roses to the vinegar of roses. Hold, 
 then, your spiritual plough, till you ascend those 
 green fields, and enjoy securely that which can 
 scarcely be found upon the island of Friendship. 
 Heavens ! for what purpose, then, were we together ; 
 and mounted, like knights of old, upon the same 
 mourning, or torture-horse, or rather, torture-ass ? 
 Merely that I might, upon the way, direct and restrain 
 
300 
 
 v:alt and vult, 
 
 the horse, for the advantage of your inheritance, and 
 suffer you neither to dismount, nor to fall? The 
 seven heirs will know whether I have injured them ! 
 How then do wandering men differ, in their influence 
 upon this earth, from the wandering heavenly bodies, 
 by whose daily and yearly aberrations and mutations 
 they can make nothing, but merely the good Zach,* 
 the Zachischen tables. Thus you would have formerly 
 gone down, if you had not flattered yourself that I 
 would have formed you, and stamped you with my own 
 image. I leave you, as I found you — and go, as I 
 came. — You have not erased the mark of the mint 
 from myself; so that I easily conclude the opinion is 
 true, that, in the spiritual kingdom, there are the 
 same characteristics as in the physical ; that the traces 
 of the wagoner's frock are seen as well in the re- 
 doubt, as in the highway. 
 
 " In the morning, I shall be wandering again in the 
 wide world. The approaching spring already calls 
 me into a distant, open life. Money, to pay my debts, 
 I leave with you, and with it, my farewell ! Should 
 any one blame, and complain of me, brother ! defend 
 me not ! Truly, if they hate me, I am little anxious 
 to ask, whether they hate three degrees more or 
 less; and how many men are there, that deserve that 
 we should allow ourselves to be loved by them ? 
 Except myself — not two — scarcely one ! 
 
 " We were both, to each other, v.' holly open, and 
 
 * Baron Zach, a celebrated astronomer. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 801 
 
 yet wholly unintelligible ; we were as transparent as 
 a glass door ; but, brother, in vain I wrote with legible 
 characters, my own upon the outside of thine ; as they 
 appeared reversed within, thou couldst read within, 
 nothing but the reversed ; and so it happens, the 
 whole world appears very legible, but the writing, 
 when attempted to be read, is reversed. Wherefore, 
 then, should we plague, and be plagued, with each 
 other ? Thou, as a loving poet, or a poetical lover, 
 will bear thy future fortune as easily as the winter 
 landscape bears the hailstorm. But why should 1 be 
 so foolish, as to drink daily a flask of burgundy the 
 less — perhaps two ? You could not pay me for not 
 drinking ; and I could not pay, if I drank. Or, can 
 you believe, that a man who knows how to blow the 
 flute ; who has seen and enjoyed more of the world 
 than all his fellows ; who has taken his supper, his 
 wine, and his ice, an hour after midnight, in Paris 
 and Warsaw, can as easily leave his Paris and War- 
 saw, as thou thy Haslau and Elterlein ? and sacrifice 
 himself in Newpeter's mansard ; a room that is not 
 large enough to hold the altar of sacrifice. But I be- 
 lieved I was a Cook, and that I had discovered the 
 Friendly and Society Islands, and among them the 
 beautiful Island of 0-waihi ; but when, at last, like 
 the discoverer, and circumnavigator of the world, I 
 would again set up my masts, I was, like him, killed 
 and eaten ! 
 
 " My flute, also, is superfluous to you ; for once, 
 (indeed you may have forgotten it,) when you heard 
 
302 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 an obeo, you took it for a flute ; and, as you say 
 the highest tones please you most, you can always 
 be musically happy ; for, in fact, all the sounds that 
 meet one in the streets, shrieks, discords, and angry 
 tones, are upon a high, indeed the highest key. 
 
 " My thoughts throw themselves wildly about, like 
 blocks of granite ; I write in darkness, and only by 
 the help of the stars ; I have no time — the post is 
 ordered — nothing is yet packed, and I would not 
 that you should know of my invisibility, till after it 
 has taken place. By letters, that I hope to send, you 
 shall receive the few digressions yet wanting for our 
 ' romance^'' if it can indeed be pasted together, and, 
 like a long-tailed paper kite, ascend over Leipsic, the 
 week after the fair. 
 
 "Fare thee well — thou canst not be altered — 1 
 not improved — so we will place mutually an air per- 
 spective between each other, and both say, ' Why 
 wert thou a fool, and not a lamb ? ' And yet, Walt, 
 you alone are to blame.*' 
 
 ***** 
 
 After Vult had placed within his letter, the envel- 
 ope, that contained the money, he hastened to pack 
 his journal notes, and musical notcE^ ready for the 
 post, that he might depart before his brother appear- 
 ed. He heard him ascending the stairs. He had 
 time only to throw himself on his bed, and to snore 
 like a wagoner, before he entered. Walt approach- 
 ed his bed, and, in the character of Hope, looked in 
 his brown, glowing face, agitated, as it appeared to 
 
OR THE TWINS 
 
 303 
 
 be, with stormy dreams. Softly he crept around, 
 breathing out dancing melodies, to which the mur- 
 mured words of love were the text. 
 
 At last Vult arose, as if vexed at this calm, and 
 quiet heaven, put on the appearance of a somnambu- 
 list, and went, with closed eyes, about the chamber, 
 that thus he might be undisturbed in playing his part ; 
 and, as soon as his brother slept, go forth unregretted. 
 " Ha, there ! " he cried, " you people, and what 
 other villains there are among you, help me pack ! ' 
 Take hold, you helper's helper ! Am I not, at three 
 o'clock, this very day, going to the island of thieves ? 
 There, beneath, stands my horse, already saddled." 
 Then he drew himself away. Walt watched, fol- 
 lowing, with his eyes, his apparently blind steps. 
 " Especially, friend," he went on, " men and cu- 
 cumbers are good for nothing, as soon as they are 
 ripe." 
 
 Then he went within the partition of his chamber, 
 and, turning his back to Walt, packed his journal and 
 papers in the coffer. — Upon the flute ? no indeed, 
 but upon the comb, I will play in future, and comb 
 at the same time. Tell me nothing of love. Sir 
 Field-marshal, it is too foolish — a pretty antique, 
 that they must run after the whole day. A temple 
 of the sun, in the form of a breeches pocket — and 
 that foolish thing, believes it lives ! I have it from her- 
 self ! So simple, and so unsatisfied is man, that God 
 places him before a magnifying-glass. — Engrave me 
 in copperplate, like an English game-cock — I will be 
 
304 
 
 WALT AND YTTLT, 
 
 even the month's copperplate for some wolf's month — 
 dearest Secretary of Artilleri ." As he was now ready, 
 and merely had to close the coffer, he appeared to re- 
 flect, and a new idea to strike him. " Get you gone, 
 CJorpse-raarshal ! I will shut my own coffin, and myself 
 keep the key ; hang it round my neck for a medal, and 
 let nobody in, but one or two good friends. Let me 
 have whole and half mourning — but no man shall 
 wear it, but myself. Music, except as a requiem, 
 must be forbidden, at least, during the time of mourn- 
 ing; but I insist upon a very severe regulation of 
 grief ; all the chamber-furniture shall be of poinard 
 blue steel ; ever)- mouse in my house shall wear 
 crape ; my butterflies can be furnished with mourn- 
 ing probosces, and their heads enveloped in mourning- 
 hoods. — But what the devil is that ? There I stand, 
 living ! and appear to be my own self — wait — we 
 will soon see which of us two is the true jDz/, and can 
 
 maintain it." Here he gave himself and Walt a 
 
 severe blow, and appeared to be awakened by it. 
 After he had appeared to puzzle himself, and to find 
 out where, and what he was, he was persuaded to 
 throw himself on the bed. Meantime both lay a long 
 time, watching, each the other, till at last, both fell 
 into a true sleep. 
 
 Bat Walt, soon after, forgetting, in the intoxication 
 of a blessed dream, the former strange scene, waked 
 Vult, to relate to hiro, from his own bed, the follow- 
 ing dream. 
 
 " I scarcely know,*' he said, " how, or from 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 305 
 
 whence, the dream came, but as from chaos the in- 
 visible world was born at once, and one form arose 
 from another ; trees grew from flowers, and from 
 these, pillars of clouds, which formed themselves 
 into flowers and open faces. Then I saw a wide, 
 empty sea, upon which merely the little spotted 
 nucleus of the world tossed and floated. In my 
 dream, a voice, 1 knew not whose, gave names to 
 everything. Then there passed through the sea a 
 stream bearing the form of Venus. It paused, and 
 the sea closed about the beautiful form, and the stars 
 fell upon it, from above, like snow, and the sky was 
 empty, except in the place of the noonday sun, which 
 appeared to glow like the eastern, rising day. The 
 sea followed it, and arose, towering in monstrous, 
 leaden-colored, serpentine waves, one following the 
 other from the horizon, till the mid-day heaven was 
 wholly involved ; beneath, arose unnumbered mul- 
 titudes of mourning men, as if born from the 
 realms of death, — a thick night, as of the grave, 
 rushed after them ; but a storm pursued, and 
 crushed all into one uniform sea. Then high above, 
 in the calm blue of heaven, a golden bee, softly 
 singing to a little star, lighted on white flowers ; 
 and round about on the horizon, stood towers, made 
 cheerful by shining pinnacles, till again the mon- 
 strous waves, like giant animals, stalked on to devour 
 them. 
 
 " Then I heard a sigh, as if all were vanishing. I 
 VOL. II. 20 
 
306 
 
 WALT AND VüLT, 
 
 saw nothing but the smooth, quiet sea, from which, 
 without the motion of a wave, or like Hght through 
 glass, arose the daughter of evil. ' Since eternity 
 began,' she said, ' whenever the sea is smooth as 
 oil, the most violent storm may be feared; wert thou 
 once over, I should relate to thee the most ancient 
 fable.' Her appearance was wonderful ; her gar- 
 ments of the green and blue of the sea ; little fins 
 grew from her back; her face was like the gray 
 color of the sea, yet youthful, but full of contending 
 passions. ' There is,' she continued, ' an eternally 
 ancient tradition, old, gray, blind, deaf, and that tra- 
 dition often makes itself feh. Deep in the latest 
 corner of the world it yet exists, and God sometimes 
 visits it, to see if it yet moves and feels. Art thou 
 once over } Then look at the animals upon the 
 shore.' About the smooth sea were lying giant ani- 
 mals that appeared to sleep, but to talk in their sleep, 
 and to relate to each other their own, ancient, burn- 
 ing hunger and thirst for blood. 
 
 " Ere I could answer, the enemy continued : 
 ' Dost thou perceive that ancient re-echo } no human 
 being has ever heard the first sound ; for that which 
 you hear is a reflection of an echo ; if once the echo 
 ceases, time will be past, and eternity will come 
 back, and bring the sound. As soon as all is still, I 
 shall hear the three sounds, yes, the original sound, 
 that the oldest fable itself relates ; and it is that 
 which the echo repeats.' 
 
 " Before I could answer, the delicate fins had 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 307 
 
 grown to long, pointed wings, witii which she gave 
 me a sudden and angry blow, and vanished ; and the 
 sweet tones alone remained. Then I appeared to 
 sink into the winged waves of an aerial sea, far 
 above the clouds. With the swiftness of an arrow, 
 I cut through space, supported by the dark water, 
 and looking through the glassy surface, which I 
 could not penetrate. Then, I perceived, distant [or 
 near, I could not tell which, stretched out before me, 
 and shining through vapor, the true land. The 
 sun appeared, like an ephemera, to play in its own 
 beams, and the beams to listen ; but only the soft 
 tones of the true land reached my ear. Golden 
 clouds moved warmly over the country, and the 
 liquid light dropped from the overgushing cups of 
 roses and lilies. A beam of light from a dew-drop 
 passed from thence through my desert sea, pierced 
 glowing to my heart, and lay therein ; the sweet 
 sounds refreshed it, so that it did not waste. I cried 
 aloud, ' It rains from thence warm tears of joy ; love 
 only is a warm tear ; but the tear of hate is cold.' 
 Deep in this land arose successive worlds, like balls 
 of vapor from a distant, concealed, central sun ; a 
 vast wheel turned in the midst, from which a thou- 
 sand threads of silver wove them together, and 
 drew them always nearer and closer to heaven. A 
 swarm of golden bees hung about a lily ; a bee 
 played with a rose ; they caressed each other, al- 
 though with thorns and honey. A dark night-flower 
 grew eagerly towards heaven, and bowed itself 
 
308 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 always lower and lower, as it drew towards the 
 light; a spider hastened, and wove its threads dili- 
 gently in the cup of the flower, to take the night 
 prisoner, — yes, from thence to spin the corpse-veil 
 of the w^orld ; but all the threads were steeped in 
 dew, and shimmered in the eternal snow of light that 
 rested on the heights. 
 
 " ' All sleeps in the true land, ' I said ; ' love, 
 only, dreams.' Then came a morning star, and 
 kissed a white rose-bud ; it opened its cup, and 
 spread its petals to the star ; a zephyr hung caress- 
 ing upon the highest branch of an oak ; one of 
 the softest tones came, and kissed the May-flower ; 
 it opened its little bell and w^as borne swiftly up- 
 wards. Turtle doves rocked themselves upon the 
 night- violets, and, intoxicated with the perfume, 
 threw playfully, caresses and flower-leaves at each 
 other. 
 
 " In an instant there shot from heaven a sharp 
 lightning-star (it was called the aurora), and instantly 
 tore my sea apart, and, instead of the indistinct 
 plain, a broad sheet of lightning lay before me. It 
 united again, and the twilight of the true land again 
 awoke ; but all was altered ; instead of the flowers, 
 the stars, the music, and the doves, all had become 
 slumbering children. E,\ery child embraced a child, 
 and the beams of aurora sounded continually around 
 them. The lofty statue of the god of thunder stood 
 in the midst of the country. One child, after an- 
 other, flew to the arms, and placed a butterfly upon 
 
OR THE TWINS 
 
 309 
 
 the head of the living eagle, that circled around the 
 god. Then each child fluttered joyously to the near- 
 est cloud, and looked down for the others, that the arm 
 lovingly raised up. Ah ! thus is God, in whose eyes 
 we are all children ! thus he - takes us to his love ! 
 Now the children played among each other, loving. 
 ' Be my flower,' said one to another ; the other com- 
 plied, and suffered itself to be worn on the breast of 
 the asker. ' Be my little star,' said another, and it 
 was so. ' Be my God,' ' And thou mine,' they said 
 to each other ; they did not change, but looked at 
 each other with warmer love, and vanished, as 
 though dying therein. ' Remain with me,' the chil- 
 dren said to each other, * even if thou must depart.' 
 Then the departing became in the distance, like a 
 soft flush of evening ; then a faint evening star ; and, 
 as it drew deeper from the land, like a shimmer 
 of the moon, and, at length, from distance to dis- 
 tance, it was lost in the fading sound of a flute, or 
 the softest note of the nightingale. 
 
 " In the east, and the west, opposite each other, was 
 the glow of morning ; continually rising higher, the 
 deepening colors rushed together, and mingled sounds, 
 like choirs of music, instead of colors. The all- 
 powerful sound caused the flowers to become trees. 
 The children had grown apparently to men, and 
 stood there at length, like gods and goddesses, look- 
 ing earnestly towards the east and the west. The 
 morning choir now sounded like thunder, and every 
 
310 
 
 WALT AND VULT, 
 
 sound kindled a more powerful one opposite, till two 
 suns appeared to be just rising in the music of morn- 
 ing. As they approached each other, the sounds 
 gradually died away, till silence reigned over all. 
 Behold ! from the east, love arose. Psyche rushed 
 from the west, and, as they met in the midst of hea- 
 ven, they became two soft tones, dying and mingling, 
 and awaking again, united with each other. ' Thou 
 and two holy, but fearful sounds, for ever drawn 
 from the deep breast, and from eternity itself ; as 
 though they were the first words that God pronounced, 
 and the first that were answered. The mortal cannot 
 hear them, without dying. Then I slept deeper, even 
 the sleep of sleep itself ; sleep intoxicated ; and I 
 was as if enveloped and stupified with the flower- 
 perfume of a passing paradise. 
 
 " Then I found, suddenly, that I was standing with 
 the wicked enemy again, near the first shore ; but 
 she trembled, as if with cold, and pointed anxiously 
 to the smooth sea, with the words, ' Behold ! eternity 
 is past ! the storm comes, for the water is rising ! ' 
 I looked : the immeasurable space was broken into 
 innumerable mountain waves, and the storm reached 
 the skies ; but, deep in the horizon, behind the crest- 
 ed billows, wavered and rose a gentle morning light. 
 I awoke. What sayest thou, brother, to this artisti- 
 cally arranged dream ? " 
 
 " That you shall immediately hear, as you lie in 
 your bed," Vult answered ; took his flute, and went. 
 
OR THE TWINS. 
 
 311 
 
 playing, from the chamber, down the stairs, out of 
 the house, and so to the post-house. Walt heard 
 him from the street, listened delightedly at the part- 
 ing tones, for he knew not, that with them his brother 
 flew from him ! 
 
 No. 63. Lac Lünes, collected on Mount Pilate. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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