Problematic Characters Part 79

Oswald turned his eyes from one to the other, like a lion who is undecided whether he shall fall upon the dogs that bark at him or not.

He had drawn himself up to his full height. His hand, which he had laid on the table, quivered a little, but surely not from want of courage.

"Are you going, or not?" cried Felix, jumping up and placing himself directly before Oswald.

"Do not carry the impertinence too far," said Oswald, putting the rose-bud, which Helen had given him for Bruno, into his b.u.t.ton-hole; "else I must make an example of you for the benefit of the other boys."

Felix extended his arm to seize Oswald. The moment he touched him, Oswald took him in his strong arms, lifted him up bodily and threw him on the ground, so that the gla.s.ses and the money on the table shook and trembled.

"Who wants to be the next?" he called out, with a voice of thunder; "Come on, you cowardly wolves, who hunt in packs."

His eyes shone with a wild desire to fight; his breast rose and sank quickly, his hands closed instinctively, and he did not think his life worth a pin at that moment.

All saw this, and no one dared to accept the challenge.

Felix had risen again, but only to fall into the arms of his nearest neighbor. He was stunned by the heavy blow; the blood was streaming from his nose and mouth.

A threatening murmur pa.s.sed through the large room. Single voices were heard, exclaiming: "Shall we submit to that?--Knock him down!--Don't let him get away alive!"

They crowded around him; fierce cries and low mutterings were heard on all sides; Oswald was looking for the one whose turn it was to be next.

Suddenly Oldenburg stood by his side.

"How, gentlemen!" he exclaimed, raising himself to his full stately height; "twenty against one! The odds are too unfair in all conscience.

Perhaps you would like to call in a few servants to help you!"

His words acted like a charm. Everybody saw at once the disgraceful scene in its true light. The more sensible felt obliged to the baron for having saved them from the disgrace in which they would have been involved a minute later. A few only seemed to take his interference amiss.

"The matter does not concern you, baron," cried Grieben, angrily.

"Pardon me, Count Grieben," replied Oldenburg; "the matter does concern me in two ways. First, because I think it is every gentleman's duty to see that such affairs are carried out, I will not say decently, but at least honestly; and secondly, because I have the honor of calling Dr.

Stein my friend. If you or any of your friends here desire to hold me to an account for what I have said, I am at your service. In the mean time, however, I beg you will allow me to arrange the difficulty of my friend, Doctor Stein, in a manner fit for gentlemen. I shall be back here in a few moments, to place myself at your disposal. You will give me your arm, Doctor Stein?"

The baron took Oswald's arm into his, and led him out of the room, through the midst of the young n.o.blemen, who readily made way for him.

When they were outside, he said: "Now you must go to your room. I will follow you in a few minutes. Of course you are the challenger?"

"Yes."

"Then I shall challenge Felix Grenwitz in your name. You choose pistols."

"Yes. You will please challenge him, and whoever else may desire to meet me."

"We will content ourselves for the present with Grenwitz. You do not care for the others half as much, I suppose. When?"

"As soon as possible. To-morrow morning, as far as I am concerned."

"_Bon_, Ten paces distance!"

"Or five."

"Ten is enough. Leave the rest to me. _Au revoir_, then, in your room."

The baron returned to the card-room, where the last scene had taken place. Twenty tongues at once were discussing the matter, but they all became silent when he entered. Oldenburg delivered his message to Grieben, who had undertaken to act as Felix's second. They agreed upon a meeting at five o'clock on the next morning, or at ten, if Felix should not have sufficiently recovered before, and the place was to be a small copse on Baron Cloten's estate. Then the gentlemen returned--it may be imagined in what state of mind to the ball-room, where the ladies had been waiting for some time, to escort them to the supper-rooms. Felix had been carried off by his friends to his rooms; he was too drunk and too much stunned by his fall to appear again in the company. Oldenburg returned to Oswald.

As he did not find him in his room, and presumed he was with Bruno, from whose room a light fell through the half-open door, he went softly across and found Oswald bending over the boy's bed.

"How is he?" he asked.

"I am afraid he is very ill," replied Oswald, looking up; "his sleep is very restless, and his pulse galloping furiously."

"Let me see," said Oldenburg; "I know something of these things."

"He is indeed very ill," he continued, after a short pause. "How long has this been so, and how did it come about?"

Oswald gave him, in a few short words, an account of Bruno's case.

"And the pain had entirely left him an hour ago?" asked Oldenburg.

"Yes, almost entirely----"

"Then you must be prepared for the worst I presume he has received a serious internal injury, and now mortification has set in. One of us must go for the doctor."--He looked at his watch. "It is ten; I was going to return home before supper. My Almansor stands saddled at the door. Do you go to town. I am perhaps of more use here, now, than you.

You have bright moonlight. The road is good. It is a little over two miles to town. You can be there in ten minutes. Pull off your dress coat and put on an overcoat. There! You will not want a whip or spurs.

Almansor is quite fresh. Now, don't spare him!"

The baron had helped Oswald to put on his coat, and placed his hat on his head. Oswald submitted to it all. He came to himself only when he was on Almansor's back, when the night-wind was whistling past his ears, and houses and trees, hedges and fields, and gardens on both sides were gliding by him spectre-like in the pale moonlight.

And now he was on the vast heath, which extended behind the village as far as Fashwitz. He saw the moons.h.i.+ne glitter mysteriously on the black water in the deep peat cuttings; he heard from time to time the hoa.r.s.e cry of a marsh-bird, whom he had frightened from his nest; otherwise not a sound, nothing but the dull thunder of Almansor's hoofs and the night-wind as it swept wailing and complaining across the heath.

And now, while he was in the very heart of the heath was not that another horse he heard, or was it merely the echo? It came nearer and nearer; Almansor pointed his ears and went faster and faster, as if he were trying to escape from death. And yet it came closer and closer.

Oswald turned round, and vague horror seized him as he saw behind him a black figure on a black horse, whose hoofs did not seem to touch the ground.

A second more and the black horseman was by his side; the horses were racing head by head and snorted at each other with wide open nostrils.

"What do you wish?" asked Oswald, mastering his terror.

"Not much!" replied the black horseman, in a deep, hollow voice. "Wish only to report that my mistress has been back since day before yesterday; thought the young gentleman might not know it. No harm done, sir! Beg pardon! Good-night and good luck!"

The horseman threw his horse around, Almansor raced on, and the next moment Oswald was quite alone once more.

Was it the offspring of his overwrought imagination? Was it reality?

Was it a phantom? Was that really old Baumann on Brownlock? Oswald could not tell to save his life.

And again houses and gardens, hedges and trees flew by him on the right and on the left, spectre-like, in the pale moonlight. A dog snapped with a yell at Almansor's hoofs. The next moment all had vanished, and boundless fields of grain waved and whispered on both sides of the high road.

Then lights began to s.h.i.+ne from afar; they came nearer and nearer. A bell struck loud once; already a quarter to eleven! and once more houses right and left, trees, and hedges, and gardens. Then a dark town-gate, and then Almansor's hoofs on the hard pavement.

"Where does Doctor Braun live?"

"Down the street; the last house on the left."