Forgiveness -- Fiction; Guilt -- Fiction; Love -- Fiction
Walpurga followed, feeling as if bereft--not only as if the clothes had
been torn from her body, but as if the body had been rent from her
soul. The child cried aloud, as if aware of what was taking place, but
its voice was drowned by the tones of the organ and choir. The whole
church was filled with a mighty volume of sound, which descended from
the gallery and was echoed back from the floor beneath, like sullen,
muttering thunder. Involuntarily, Walpurga fell on her knees at the
altar--there was no need to order her to do so.
Choir, organ and orchestra burst forth with a mighty volume of sound,
and Walpurga, overwhelmed with awe and surprise, imagined that the end
of the world had come and that the painted angels on the ceiling,--aye,
the very pillars, too--were swelling the heavenly harmonies.
Suddenly all was silent again.
The child received its names. One would not suffice: there were eight;
a whole section of the calendar had been emptied for its benefit.
But from that moment until she reached her room, Walpurga knew nothing
of what had happened.
When she found herself alone with Mademoiselle Kramer, she asked:
"Well, and what am I to call my prince?"
"None of us know. He has three names until he succeeds to the throne,
when he himself selects one, under which he reigns, and which is
stamped on the coins."
"I've something to tell you," said Walpurga, "and mind you don't forget
it. You must send me the first ducat you have stamped with your name
and your picture! See! he gives me his hand on it!" cried she,
exultingly, when the child stretched out its little hand as if to grasp
hers. "Oh, you dear Sunday child! Let the first lady of the bedchamber
say it's superstition--it's true, for all. I'm a cow and you're a
Sunday child, and Sunday children understand the language of the
beasts. But that's only once a year--at midnight on Christmas eve. But
as you're a prince, I'm sure you can do more than the rest."
Walpurga was called into the queen's apartment, the dazzling beauty of
which suggested a glittering cavern in fairy-land. All was quiet; here
nothing was heard of the noisy, bustling crowd overhead. The queen
said:
"On that table you will find a roll containing a hundred gold pieces.
It is your christening present from my brother and the other sponsors.
Does it make you happy?"
"Oh, queen! If the lips on these gold pieces could speak, the hundred
together couldn't tell you how happy I am. It's too much! Why, you
could buy half our village with it! With that much you could buy--"
"Don't excite yourself! Keep calm! Come here, and I'll give you
something else, for myself. May this little ring always remind you of
me, and may your hand thus be as if it were mine, doing good to the
child."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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