The Old Man of the Mountain, The Lovecharm and Pietro of Abano: Tales from the German of TieckTieck, Ludwig
General
The Old Man of the Mountain, The Lovecharm and Pietro of Abano: Tales from the German of Tieck
Tieck, Ludwig
German fiction -- Translations into English
When the turmoil by which the people were agitated was somewhat
allayed, the body of Pietro was silently buried at night, without the
consecrated churchyard. Antonio and Alfonso renewed their friendship,
and attacht themselves to the pious Theodore, who, after going through
the solemn rites and pronouncing a devout oration, had the body of the
beautiful Crescentia laid a second time in the vault designed for her.
Antonio however could not bear to stay any longer at Padua; he
resolved to revisit his native city, that he might settle his affairs,
and then perhaps get admitted into a convent. Alfonso on the other
hand determined to make a pilgrimage to Rome, where the holy Father
had just been proclaiming a year of jubilee with a plenary indulgence
for sins. Not only throughout Italy was every one in motion; but from
France too, and Germany, and Spain, came numerous trains of pilgrims,
to celebrate this till then unheard of solemnity, this great festival
of the church, in the holy city.
After the friends had parted, Antonio pursued his lonely path,
shunning the great road, partly for the sake of brooding
uninterruptedly over his sorrows, and partly to avoid the swarms that
were flocking along the highway, and were often troublesome at the
nightly resting-places.
Thus following his own mood, he roamed through the plains and through
the vallies of the Apennines. One evening the sun set and no inn was
to be seen. As the shades were deepening, he heard a hermit's little
bell tinkling in a wood on one side. He bent his steps toward the
sound, and when the darkness of night was already closing, he arrived
at a small hut, to which a narrow plank led across a brook, surrounded
by bushes.
He found an aged infirm man praying with the deepest devotion before a
crucifix. The hermit received the youth, who greeted him courteously,
with kindness made up a couch of moss for him in a recess of the rock
which was separated by a door from his cell, and placed some of his
fruit, some water, and a little wine before him. When Antonio was
refresht, he was greatly pleased with the conversation of the monk,
who in earlier times had lived in the world, and served as a soldier
in many campaigns. In this way it had grown late in the night, and the
youth betook himself to his bed, just as another weak and sickly monk
entered, who meant to pass the night with the hermit in prayer.
When Antonio had rested about an hour he started suddenly out of his
sleep. It seemed to him as though loud voices were disputing. He sat
up; and all doubt about the quarelling and squabbling was removed. The
tones too struck him as if he knew them; and he askt himself whether
he was not dreaming. He went to the door, and found a crevice through
which he could pry into the front room.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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