Goethe and Schiller: An Historical RomanceMühlbach, L. (Luise)
General
Goethe and Schiller: An Historical Romance
Mühlbach, L. (Luise)
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749-1832 -- Fiction; Schiller, Friedrich, 1759-1805 -- Fiction
"You appealed to me for assistance," said Cagliostro, in solemn tones.
"I heard the call of the noble messenger you sent me as I was about
to enter the St. James's Palace in London. King George of England had
received another visitation from the demons who confuse his brain and
darken his intellect. I was sent for and urged to come at once and
drive out the demons from the head of the sick king. But it is of
more importance that the healthy should not become sick, than that
the sick man's condition should be somewhat improved. The spirit
Althotas cried out to me, saying: 'Hasten to King Frederick William of
Prussia; without your assistance he must languish and die. Hasten to
preserve his health and strengthen his noble soul with the breath of
immortality.' At first I was uncertain of whom Althotas spoke, for I
had not yet heard of king Frederick's death. But before my eyes there
suddenly arose the vision of an old man reclining in an arm-chair. He
was on the threshold of the grave; his lips quivered and his eye grew
dim, and the blood refused to flow from the open vein. Two weeping
servants stood at his side; a greyhound lay at his feet. Above him in
the air I saw the demons of unbelief struggling for the soul which had
just left the body; but the good angels turned away in anger. And I
interpreted this vision aright; I now knew that the unbelieving king
was dead, and that Frederick William, the favorite of the Invisible
Fathers, was now king of Prussia. Althotas then cried out, for the
second time: 'Hasten, Frederick William needs you sorely. Hasten, that
he may not die. I impart to the mortal the strength of immortality!' I
turned my back on St. James's Palace, and immediately repaired to the
holy laboratory of the spirits, to procure the necessary remedies. I
then arose and flew to my suffering king on the wings of the Invisible."
"It is then true, it is really possible!" cried the enraptured king.
"You are really the great Cagliostro! You have accomplished this
miracle, have compelled the body to subject itself to the will of the
spirit, and fly through time and space at its command! Oh, let me fall
down and embrace your knees! Infuse the heavenly breath of thy lips
into my enfeebled body!"
And he sank on his knees before the grand-kophta, and looked up to him
in supplication.
"Arise, Frederick William; favorite of the Invisible, arise from your
knees! I have not come to humble you, but to raise you up. The king who
rules over millions of human beings, must not bend the knee to mortal
man, and worship that which is visible and perishable. Humble your
immortal spirit before the immortal, and lift up your soul in adoration
to the unseen and imperishable. Be the ruler of men, and the humble
subject of the Invisible. Arise, Frederick William, and listen to what
I have to say, for my time is short, and Althotas awaits me on the
threshold of St James's Palace, in London."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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