Delphi Collected Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe \(Illustrated\) pdfdrive com

CHAPTER VII.

Wilhelm’s wounds once dressed, and his clothes put on, the surgeon hastened

off,  just  as  the  harper  with  a  number  of  peasants  arrived.  Out  of  some  cut

boughs, which they speedily wattled with twigs, a kind of litter was constructed,

upon which they placed the wounded youth, and under the conduct of a mounted

huntsman,  whom  the  noble  company  had  left  behind  them,  carried  him  softly

down the mountain. The harper, silent, and shrouded in his own thoughts, bore

with  him  his  broken  instrument.  Some  men  brought  on  Philina’s  box,  herself

following with a bundle. Mignon skipped along through copse and thicket, now

before the party, now beside them, and looked up with longing eyes at her hurt

protector.

He,  meanwhile,  wrapped  in  his  warm  surtout,  was  lying  peacefully  upon  the

litter.  An  electric  warmth  seemed  to  flow  from  the  fine  wool  into  his  body:  in

short, he felt in the most delightful frame of mind. The lovely being, whom this

garment lately covered, had affected him to the very heart. He still saw the coat

falling down from her shoulders; saw that noble form, begirt with radiance, stand

beside  him;  and  his  soul  hied  over  rocks  and  forests  on  the  footsteps  of  his

vanished benefactress.

It was nightfall when the party reached the village, and halted at the door of

the  inn  where  the  rest  of  the  company,  in  the  gloom  of  despondency,  were

bewailing  their  irreparable  loss.  The  one  little  chamber  of  the  house  was

crammed  with  people.  Some  of  them  were  lying  upon  straw,  some  were

occupying  benches,  some  had  squeezed  themselves  behind  the  stove.  Frau

Melina, in a neighboring room, was painfully expecting her delivery. Fright had

accelerated  this  event.  With  the  sole  assistance  of  the  landlady,  a  young,

inexperienced woman, nothing good could be expected.

As the party just arrived required admission, there arose a universal murmur.

All  now  maintained,  that  by  Wilhelm’s  advice  alone,  and  under  his  especial

guidance,  they  had  entered  on  this  dangerous  road,  and  exposed  themselves  to

such  misfortunes.  They  threw  the  blame  of  the  disaster  wholly  on  him:  they

stuck themselves in the door, to oppose his entrance; declaring that he must go

elsewhere and seek quarters. Philina they received with still greater indignation,

nor did Mignon and the harper escape their share.

The huntsman, to whom the care of the forsaken party had been earnestly and

strictly  recommended  by  his  beautiful  mistress,  soon  grew  tired  of  this

discussion: he rushed upon the company with oaths and menaces; commanding

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them to fall to the right and left, and make way for this new arrival. They now

began to pacify themselves. He made a place for Wilhelm on a table, which he

shoved into a corner: Philina had her box put there, and then sat down upon it.

All packed themselves as they best could, and the huntsman went away to see if

he could not find for “the young couple” a more convenient lodging.

Scarcely was he gone, when spite again grew noisy, and one reproach began

to follow close upon another. Each described and magnified his loss, censuring

the  foolhardiness  they  had  so  keenly  smarted  for.  They  did  not  even  hide  the

malicious  satisfaction  they  felt  at  Wilhelm’s  wounds:  they  jeered  Philina,  and

imputed to her as a crime the means by which she had saved her trunk. From a

multitude  of  jibes  and  bitter  innuendoes,  you  were  required  to  conclude,  that,

during the plundering and discomfiture, she had endeavored to work herself into

favor  with  the  captain  of  the  band,  and  had  persuaded  him,  Heaven  knew  by

what  arts  and  complaisance,  to  give  her  back  the  chest  unhurt.  To  all  this  she

answered  nothing,  only  clanked  with  the  large  padlocks  of  her  box,  to  impress

her  censurers  completely  with  its  presence,  and  by  her  own  good  fortune  to

augment their desperation.

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