Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 26, October, 1880Various
History
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 26, October, 1880
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals
"I want to build a monastery like Findelkind of Arlberg, and to help the
poor," said our Findelkind valorously, though his heart was beating like
that of a little mouse caught in a trap, for the horses were trampling
up the dust around him and the orderly's grip was hard.
The officers laughed aloud; and indeed he looked a poor little scrap of
a figure, very ill able to help even himself.
"Why do you laugh?" cried Findelkind, losing his terror in his
indignation, and inspired with the courage which a great earnestness
always gives. "You should not laugh. If you were true knights you would
not laugh: you would fight for me. I am little, I know. I am very
little, but he was no bigger than I, and see what great things he did.
But the soldiers were good in those days: they did not laugh and use bad
words." And Findelkind, on whose shoulder the orderly's hold was still
fast, faced the horses which looked to him as huge as Martinswand, and
the swords which he little doubted were to be sheathed in his heart.
The officers stared, laughed again, then whispered together, and
Findelkind heard them mutter the word "toll." Findelkind, whose quick
little ears were both strained like a mountain-leveret's, understood
that the great men were saying amongst themselves that it was not safe
for him to be about alone, and that it would be kinder to him to catch
and cage him--the general view with which the world regards enthusiasts.
He heard, he understood: he knew that they did not mean to help him,
these men with the steel weapons and the huge steeds, but that they
meant to shut him up in a prison--him, little free-born, forest-fed
Findelkind. He wrenched himself out of the soldier's grip as the rabbit
wrenches itself out of the jaws of the trap, even at the cost of leaving
a limb behind, shot between the horses' legs, doubled like a hunted
thing, and spied a refuge. Opposite the avenue of gigantic poplars and
pleasant stretches of grass shaded by other bigger trees there stands a
very famous church--famous alike in the annals of history and of
art--the church of the Franciscans that holds the tomb of Kaiser Max,
though, alas! it holds not his ashes, as his dying desire was that it
should. The church stands here, a noble sombre place, with the Silver
Chapel of Philippina Wessler adjoining it, and in front the fresh cool
avenues that lead to the river and the broad water-meadows, and the
grand road bordered with the painted stations of the Cross.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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