German fiction -- Translations into English; Short stories, German -- Translations into English
She held his arm closer. “No,” she insisted, tenderly, “I don’t want to
go back. I won’t be sent away from you.”
She drew his head down to hers and kissed him tenderly. “Where would we
get to if we drove on down there?” she asked.
“That’s the road to Prague, dear.”
“We won’t go quite that far,” she smiled, “but I’d like to drive on a
little, down there.” She pointed into the darkness.
Franz called to the driver. There was no answer; the carriage rumbled
on, slowly. Franz ran after it, and saw that the driver was fast
asleep. Franz roused him roughly. “We want to drive on down that
street. Do you hear me?”
“All right, sir.”
Emma entered the carriage first, then Franz. The driver whipped his
horses, and they galloped madly over the moist earth of the road-bed.
The couple inside the cab held each other closely as they swayed with
the motion of the vehicle.
“Isn’t this quite nice?” whispered Emma, her lips on his.
In the moment of her words she seemed to feel the cab mounting into
the air. She felt herself thrown over violently, reached for some
hold, but grasped only the empty air. She seemed to be spinning madly
like a top, her eyes closed; suddenly she found herself lying on the
ground, a great silence about her, as if she were alone, far away from
all the world. Then noises began to come into her consciousness again;
hoofs beat the ground near her; a low moaning came from somewhere;
but she could see nothing. Terror seized her; she screamed aloud. Her
terror grew stronger, for she could not hear her own voice. Suddenly
she knew what had happened; the carriage had hit some object, possibly
a milestone; had upset, and she had been thrown out. Where is Franz?
was her next thought. She called his name. And now she could hear her
voice, not distinctly yet, but she could hear it. There was no answer
to her call. She tried to get up. After some effort she rose to a
sitting posture, and, reaching out, she felt something, a human body,
on the ground beside her. She could now begin to see a little through
the dimness. Franz lay beside her, motionless. She put out her hand and
touched his face; something warm and wet covered it. Her heart seemed
to stop beating--Blood?--Oh, what had happened? Franz was wounded and
unconscious. Where was the coachman? She called him, but no answer
came. She still sat there on the ground. She did not seem to be
injured, although she ached all over. “What shall I do?” she thought;
“what shall I do? How can it be that I am not injured? Franz!” she
called again. A voice answered from somewhere near her.
“Where are you, lady? And where is the gentleman? Wait a minute,
Miss--I’ll light the lamps, so we can see. I don’t know what’s got into
the beasts to-day. It ain’t my fault, Miss, sure--they ran into a pile
of stones.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account