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
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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