The Old Man of the Mountain, The Lovecharm and Pietro of Abano: Tales from the German of TieckTieck, Ludwig
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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
She gazed at him affectionately and seemed comforted. "So then that is
settled now!" she exclaimed: "ah yes, I always thought you would stay;
for I can't live without you; and my father can't live without you;
and all our poor workmen and spinners, our good miners, for whom you
are always saying and doing something, and who, when they come for
their wages or for relief, look with their whole souls into your kind
eyes, these above all can never live without you."
"This calamity," said Edward, "may hereafter make you, your father,
me, and all of us happy. The discovery was inevitable; and perhaps, if
it had not taken place now, it would have come at a time when it would
have plunged us all in misery."
"If my father now," said Rose, "were to have no objection, I might
perhaps in time accustom myself to look upon you as my future husband.
If I could but feel a little more respect and awe for you! If you
would behave very roughly to me now and then, not always so kindly,
but angrily and savagely at times, I might by and by grow reconciled
to it."
Edward went to his business. The uprore had ceast, and the whole house
was now quiet and silent: it seemed as if people were afraid of even
breathing: all walkt about softly and on tiptoe. News came that
Eleazar was dead.
Toward evening Edward went with the mayor and witnesses into old
Balthasar's room. He was surprised to find him in bed. On being spoken
to by his visitors he lifted himself up, stared fixedly at them, and
seemed to know no one. "Aha! reverend Sir," he cried out after a
while, "you are come to fetch away a second poor sinner today. It is a
busy time in your vocation. Is master Eleazar come with you?"
He beckoned to Edward. "Thou yellow blockhead!" he whispered to him;
"what am I to do with thy gold bars that thou hast left me? don't
thrust thy stupid cheat into men's eyes so ... it is far too glaring.
But beware of Edward, he is wise and good. If he should ever suspect
thee, thou art lost."
He talkt to the others, but still quite at random, and was taken up
with the phantoms of his own brain. The mayor and witnesses retired,
and Edward went after the physician. The business of drawing up the
will was put off, until the sick man should have recovered and be
restored to his perfect consciousness.
The physician found the patient's state very alarming. Edward was
called up in the night; but when he entered the room Herr Balthasar
had already breathed his last.
The dismay, the sorrow was universal. The mayor sent to have
everything sealed up. In the midst of this confusion, it seemed a
matter of very little moment that the Hungarian had found means to
escape from his prison.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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