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CHAPTER IV.

Our friends had to continue in the place for a day or two, and it was not long

ere sundry of them got engaged in adventures of a rather pleasant kind. Laertes

in  particular  was  challenged  by  a  lady  of  the  neighborhood,  a  person  of  some

property;  but  he  received  her  blandishments  with  extreme,  nay,  unhandsome,

coldness, and had in consequence to undergo a multitude of jibes from Philina.

She took this opportunity of detailing to our friend the hapless love-story which

had made the youth so bitter a foe to womankind. “Who can take it ill of him,”

she cried,  “that  he  hates  a  sex  which  has  played  him  so  foul,  and  given  him  to

swallow,  in  one  stoutly  concentrated  potion,  all  the  miseries  that  man  can  fear

from  woman?  Do  but  conceive  it:  within  four  and  twenty  hours,  he  was  lover,

bridegroom,  husband,  cuckold,  patient,  and  widower!  I  wot  not  how  you  could

use a man worse.”

Laertes hastened from the room half vexed, half laughing; and Philina in her

sprightliest  style  began  to  relate  the  story:  how  Laertes,  a  young  man  of

eighteen,  on  joining  a  company  of  actors,  found  in  it  a  girl  of  fourteen  on  the

point  of  departing  with  her  father,  who  had  quarrelled  with  the  manager.  How,

on  the  instant,  he  had  fallen  mortally  in  love;  had  conjured  the  father  by  all

possible  considerations  to  remain,  promising  at  length  to  marry  the  young

woman. How, after a few pleasing hours of groomship, he had accordingly been

wedded,  and  been  happy  as  he  ought;  whereupon,  next  day,  while  he  was

occupied  at  the  rehearsal,  his  wife,  according  to  professional  rule,  had  honored

him with a pair of horns; and how as he, out of excessive tenderness, hastening

home  far  too  soon,  had,  alas!  found  a  former  lover  in  his  place,  he  had  struck

into the affair with thoughtless indignation, had called out both father and lover,

and  sustained  a  grievous  wound  in  the  duel.  How  father  and  daughter  had

thereupon set off by night, leaving him behind to labor with a double hurt. How

the  leech  he  applied  to  was  unhappily  the  worst  in  nature,  and  the  poor  fellow

had  got  out  of  the  adventure  with  blackened  teeth  and  watering  eyes.  That  he

was greatly to be pitied, being otherwise the bravest young man on the surface of

the  earth.  “Especially,”  said  she,  “it  grieves  me  that  the  poor  soul  now  hates

women; for, hating women, how can one keep living?”

Melina  interrupted  them  with  news,  that,  all  things  being  now  ready  for  the

journey,  they  would  set  out  to-morrow  morning.  He  handed  them  a  plan,

arranging how they were to travel.

“If  any  good  friend  take  me  on  his  lap,”  said  Philina,  “I  shall  be  content,

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though we sit crammed together never so close and sorrily: ’tis all one to me.”

“It does not signify,” observed Laertes, who now entered.

“It is pitiful,” said Wilhelm, hastening away. By the aid of money, he secured

another very comfortable coach; though Melina had pretended that there were no

more. A new distribution then took place; and our friends were rejoicing in the

thought that they should now travel pleasantly, when intelligence arrived that a

party of military volunteers had been seen upon the road, from whom little good

could be expected.

In the town these tidings were received with great attention, though they were

but variable and ambiguous. As the contending armies were at that time placed,

it seemed impossible that any hostile corps could have advanced, or any friendly

one hung a-rear, so far. Yet every man was eager to exhibit to our travellers the

danger  that  awaited  them  as  truly  dangerous:  every  man  was  eager  to  suggest

that some other route might be adopted.

By  these  means,  most  of  our  friends  had  been  seized  with  anxiety  and  fear;

and when, according to the new republican constitution, the whole members of

the state had been called together to take counsel on this extraordinary case, they

were almost unanimously of opinion that it would be proper either to keep back

the  mischief  by  abiding  where  they  were,  or  to  evade  it  by  choosing  another

road.

Wilhelm alone, not participating in the panic, regarded it as mean to abandon,

for  the  sake  of  mere  rumors,  a  plan  they  had  not  entered  on  without  much

thought.  He  endeavored  to  put  heart  into  them:  his  reasons  were  manly  and

convincing.

“It  is  but  a  rumor,”  he  observed;  “and  how  many  such  arise  in  time  of  war!

Well-informed  people  say  that  the  occurrence  is  exceedingly  improbable,  nay,

almost  impossible.  Shall  we,  in  so  important  a  matter,  allow  a  vague  report  to

determine  our  proceedings?  The  route  pointed  out  to  us  by  the  count,  and  to

which our passport was adapted, is the shortest and in the best condition. It leads

us to the town, where you see acquaintances, friends, before you, and may hope

for  a  good  reception.  The  other  way  will  also  bring  us  thither;  but  by  what  a

circuit, and along what miserable roads! Have we any right to hope, that, in this

late season of the year, we shall get on at all? and what time and money shall we

squander  in  the  mean  while!”  He  added  many  more  considerations,  presenting

the matter on so many advantageous sides, that their fear began to dissipate, and

their  courage  to  increase.  He  talked  to  them  so  much  about  the  discipline  of

regular  troops,  he  painted  the  marauders  and  wandering  rabble  so

contemptuously,  and  represented  the  danger  itself  as  so  pleasant  and  inspiring,

that the spirits of the party were altogether cheered.

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Laertes from the first had been of his opinion: he now declared that he would

not flinch or fail. Old Boisterous found a consenting phrase or two to utter, in his

own vein; Philina laughed at them all; and Madam Melina, who, notwithstanding

her  advanced  state  of  pregnancy,  had  lost  nothing  of  her  natural  stout-

heartedness,  regarded  the  proposal  as  heroic.  Herr  Melina,  moved  by  this

harmonious  feeling,  hoping  also  to  save  somewhat  by  travelling  the  short  road

which  had  been  first  contemplated,  did  not  withstand  the  general  consent;  and

the project was agreed to with universal alacrity.

They next began to make some preparations for defence at all hazards. They

bought large hangers, and slung them in well-quilted straps over their shoulders.

Wilhelm  further  stuck  a  pair  of  pistols  in  his  girdle.  Laertes,  independently  of

this occurrence, had a good gun. They all took the road in the highest glee.

On  the  second  day  of  their  journey,  the  drivers,  who  knew  the  country  well,

proposed to take their noon’s rest in a certain woody spot of the hills; since the

town was far off, and in good weather the hill-road was generally preferred.

The  day  being  beautiful,  all  easily  agreed  to  the  proposal.  Wilhelm,  on  foot,

went on before them through the hills; making every one that met him stare with

astonishment at his singular figure. He hastened with quick and contented steps

across  the  forest;  Laertes  walked  whistling  after  him;  none  but  the  women

continued to be dragged along in the carriages. Mignon, too, ran forward by his

side, proud of the hanger, which, when the party were all arming, she would not

go without. Around her hat she had bound the pearl necklace, one of Mariana’s

relics,  which  Wilhelm  still  possessed.  Friedrich,  the  fair-haired  boy,  carried

Laertes’s gun. The harper had the most pacific look; his long cloak was tucked

up within his girdle, to let him walk more freely; he leaned upon a knotty staff;

his harp had been left behind him in the carriage.

Immediately  on  reaching  the  summit  of  the  height,  a  task  not  without  its

difficulties,  our  party  recognized  the  appointed  spot,  by  the  fine  beech-trees

which encircled and screened it. A spacious green, sloping softly in the middle

of  the  forest,  invited  one  to  tarry;  a  trimly  bordered  well  offered  the  most

grateful refreshment; and on the farther side, through chasms in the mountains,

and  over  the  tops  of  the  woods,  appeared  a  landscape  distant,  lovely,  full  of

hope. Hamlets and mills were lying in the bottoms, villages upon the plain: and a

new  chain  of  mountains,  visible  in  the  distance,  made  the  prospect  still  more

significant of hope; for they entered only like a soft limitation.

The  first  comers  took  possession  of  the  place,  rested  a  while  in  the  shade,

lighted a fire, and so awaited, singing as they worked, the remainder of the party,

who  by  degrees  arrived,  and  with  one  accord  saluted  the  place,  the  lovely

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weather, and still lovelier scene.

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