Book: Barbara Blomberg, Complete

G >> Georg Ebers >> Barbara Blomberg, Complete




"Why are you so agitated, Querida? Did the sight of the silent brother
alarm the sister? Ay, darling, there are some things more terrible than
the wild boar at which the brave huntress hurls her spear. Our mother's
bequest----"

Queen Mary, with hands outstretched beseechingly, bowed the knee before
him; but he raised her with more strength than would have been expected
from him just before, and, sighing faintly, continued:

"There are hours, Mary, when the demon that overpowered the mother
stretches his talons toward the son also. But, in spite of his satanic
origin, he is a cowardly wight, and a loving face, a tender word, drives
him away."

"Then may my coming be blessed!" she answered warmly. "Yet it can
scarcely be a demon or any being of mortal mould that is spoiling the
life happiness of my beloved brother and sovereign lord. After all, they
are tolerably alike in the main point, and what semblance would the son
of hell wear that dares to assail the most powerful and vigorous mind of
all the ages, and yet is seized with panic terror at the glance of a
feeble woman? Whoever knows the anxieties which have recently burdened
your Majesty, and the wide range of the decision to which the course of
events is urging you, can not wonder if, as just now, your cheerful
spirits desert you. No demons or evil creatures of that sort, Heaven
knows, are needed to accomplish it."

"Certainly not," replied the Emperor. "Yet it does not matter what name
is borne by the unconquerable power which poisons with horrible images
the few hours of repose allotted to the solitary man who is bereft of
love and joy. But let us drop the subject! When you appear and raise your
voice, it seems as though all gloomy thoughts heard the view hallo which
drives your stags and roes back into their coverts, Mary. I suppose you
have come to summon me to the table?"

The Queen assented, and now he could not prevent her kissing his hand.
Then she seized the dainty little bell on the table to ring for the valet
Adrian; but the Emperor Charles stopped her with the exclamation:

"Never mind him. I will go with you as I am, if you do not object to
sharing your meal with such a scarecrow of a man. Only permit me to lock
up these papers."

"From Rome?" asked the regent eagerly.

"That is easily discerned," replied the Emperor. "New and amazingly
favourable promises. Nothing is required of me except the trifling
obligation to allow the Protestants nothing in religious affairs which
the Pope or the Council do not approve. If I agree to accept the
promises, every one will think that I have the advantage, and yet, if the
contract is made, it is tearing from the sky the political polestar of
many a lustrum, and burying one of my clearest, ripest, most sacred
hopes."

Here the startled Queen interrupted him: "That would surely, inevitably
be the evil fruit which would grow from such a treaty. It would deliver
to the Pope, with fettered hands, this very Council which your Majesty so
confidently expected would remove or diminish, in orderly methods, the
abuses which are urging so many Christians to abandon the Catholic
Church. How often I have heard even her most faithful sons acknowledge
that such abuses exist! But if you make the alliance, the self-interest
of the hierarchy will know how to prevent the introduction of even a
single vigorous amendment, and, instead of the conqueror of the hydra of
abuse, your Majesty will render yourself its guardian."

"And," added the Emperor affectionately--he still retained his seat at
the writing table--"this alliance, moreover, would force me to the
painful necessity of opposing the earnest wish of the dearest, fairest,
and wisest of my sisters."

"Because it would render war with the evangelical princes inevitable,"
cried the Queen excitedly. "Oh, your Majesty, you know that the heretical
movement, which is making life a burden to me in my provinces, is going
much too far for me, as well as for you here in Germany; nay, that it is
hateful to me, because I value nothing more than our holy Church, her
greatness and unity. But would it really redound to her welfare if the
schism now existing, and which you yourself expected to heal through the
Council, should by this very Council be embittered and even perhaps
perpetuated? For a long time nothing has seemed to me more execrable than
this war. Your Majesty knows that, and therefore my lord and brother can
not be vexed with me if I remind him of the hour when, a few months ago,
he promised to avoid it and do all in his power to bring what relates to
religious matters in these German countries to a peaceful conclusion."

The Emperor looked his sister full in the face, and, while struggling to
his feet, said with majestic dignity:

"And I have never given your Highness occasion to doubt my word." Then,
changing his tone, he continued kindly: "No means--I repeat it--shall
remain untried to preserve peace. I am in earnest, child, though there
are now many reasons for breaking the promise. I put them together on the
long list yonder, and the Spaniards at the court add new ones every hour.
If you care to know them----"

Here he hesitated, because the gout in his foot gave him a sharper
twinge; but the Queen availed herself of the pause to exclaim: "I think I
am aware of them. It is especially hard just now for the statesman and
soldier to keep the sword in the sheath, because Rome offers more than
ever, because at the present time no serious opposition is to be feared
from the most important states, and because the princes of the empire
have neglected nothing which could rouse the resentment of my imperial
brother. I know all this, and yet it is as firmly established as Alpine
mountains----"

Here a low laugh escaped the Emperor's lips.

"The political course which could be thus firmly established is to be
found, you experienced regent, only in one place--the strong imagination
of a high hearted woman, who desires to accomplish what she deems right.
I, too, you may believe me, am opposed to this war, and, as matters stand
now, the German renegades, rather than we, may expect a glorious result.
But, nevertheless, it may happen that I shall be compelled to ask you to
give me back my promise."

"I should like to see the person who could compel my august brother to
undertake anything against his imperial will," the Queen passionately
interrupted.

"We will hope that this superior being may not appear only too soon,"
replied the Emperor, smiling bitterly. "The invincible oppressor bears
the name of unexpected circumstances; I encountered one of his harbingers
to-day. There lie the documents. Do you know to what those miserable
papers force me, the Emperor?--ay, force, I repeat it. To nothing less,
Mary, than consciously to deal a blow in the face of justice, whose
defender I ought and desire to be. I am not exaggerating, for I am
withdrawing a fratricide from the courts, nay, am paving the way for him
to evade punishment."

"You mean Alfonso Diaz, who had his brother murdered by a hired assassin
because he abandoned the holy Church and accepted the Lutheran religion,"
said the Queen sorrowfully. "Malvenda was just telling me----"

"He was the instigator of the crime," interrupted the Emperor. "Now he
rejoices in it as a deed well pleasing to God, and many thousands, I
know, agree with him. And I? Had Juan Diaz been a German Johannes or
Hans, the Emperor Charles would have made Alfonso expiate his crime upon
the block this very day. But the brothers were Spaniards, and that alters
the case."

With this sentence, which fell from his lips in firm, resolute tones, his
bearing regained its old decision, and his eyes met his sister's with a
flashing glance as he continued:

"The seed which here in the North, in carefully prepared soil and under
the fostering care of men only too skilful and ready for conflict, took
deep root in the domain of religion, which we were obliged to tolerate
because it grew too rapidly and strongly for us to extirpate or crush it
without depopulating a great empire and jeopardizing other very important
matters, would mean ruin to our Spain. Whoever dared to transplant the
heresy to her soil would be the most infamous of the corrupters of a
nation, for the holy Church and the kingdom of Spain are one. The mere
thought of a Juan Diaz, who had absorbed the heretical Lutheran doctrine
here, returning home to infect the hearts of the Castilians with its
venom, makes my blood boil also. Therefore, for the sake of Spain, a
higher justice compels me to offend the secular one. The people beyond
the Pyrenees shall learn that, even for the brother, it is no sin, but a
duty, to shorten the life of the brother who abandoned the holy Church.
Let Alfonso Diaz strive to obtain absolution. It will not be difficult.
He can sleep calmly, so far as the judges are concerned who dispense
justice in the name of Charles V."

As he spoke he waved his hand to repel the hound which, when he raised
his voice, had pressed closer to him, and glanced at the artistically
wrought Nuremberg clocks on the writing table, two of which struck the
hour at the same time. Then he himself seized the little bell, rang it,
and permitted the valet Adrian to brush his hair and make the necessary
changes in his dress.

Then he invited his sister to accompany him to the table.

Walking without a shoe was difficult, and, when he saw the Queen look
down sorrowfully at the cloths which swathed the foot, he said while
toiling on:

"Imagine that we have been hunting and the boot remained stuck in the
mud. I am sure of indulgence from you. As to the others, even with only
one shoe I am still the Emperor."

He opened the door as he spoke, and, while the valet held the hound back,
the Emperor, with chivalrous courtesy, insisted that his sister should
precede him, though she resisted until Baron Malfalconnet, with a low bow
to the royal dame, said:

"The meal is served, your Majesty, and if you lead the way you will
protect our Emperor and sovereign lord from the unworthy suspicion of
wishing to be first at the trencher."

He motioned toward the threshold as he uttered the words, but Charles,
who often had a ready answer for the baron's jests, followed his sister
in silence with a clouded brow.

Leaning on her arm and the crutch which Quijada had mutely presented to
him, Charles cautiously descended the stairs. He had indignantly rejected
the leech's proposal to use a litter in the house also, if the gout
tortured him.




CHAPTER XI.

Majesty, whose nature demands that people should look up to it, shuns the
downward glance of compassion. Yet during this walk the Emperor Charles,
even at the risk of presenting a pitiable spectacle, would gladly have
availed himself of the litter.

He, who had cherished the proud feeling of uniting in himself, his own
imperial power, the temporal and ecclesiastical sovereignty over all
Christendom, would now willingly have changed places with the bronzed,
sinewy halberdiers who were presenting arms to him along the sides of the
staircase. Yet he waved back Luis Quijada with an angry glance and the
sharp query, "Who summoned you?" when, in an attitude of humble entreaty,
he ventured to offer him the support of his strong arm. Still, pain.
compelled him to pause at every third step, and ever and anon to lean
upon the strong hip of his royal sister.

Queen Mary gladly rendered him the service, and, as she gazed into his
face, wan with anxiety and suffering, and thought of the beautiful
surprise which she had in store, she waved back, unnoticed by her royal
brother, the pages and courtiers who were following close behind. Then
looking up at him, she murmured:

"How you must suffer, Carlos! But happiness will surely follow the
martyrdom. Only a few steps, a few minutes more, and you will again look
life in the face with joyous courage. You will not believe it? Yet it is
true. I would even be inclined to wager my own salvation upon it."

The Emperor shook his head dejectedly, and answered bitterly:

"Such things should not be trifled with; besides, you would lose your
wager. Joyous courage, Querida, was buried long ago, and too many cares
insure its having no resurrection. The good gifts which Heaven formerly
permitted me to enjoy have lost their zest; instead of bread, it now
gives me stones. The best enjoyment it still grants me--I am honest and
not ungrateful in saying so--is a well-prepared meal. Laugh, if you
choose! If moralists and philosophers heard me, they would frown. But the
consumption of good things affords them pleasure too. It's a pity that
satiety so speedily ends it."

While speaking, he again descended a few steps, but the Queen, supporting
him with the utmost solicitude, answered cheerily:

"The baser senses, with taste at their head, and the higher ones of sight
and hearing, I know, are all placed by your Majesty in the same regiment,
with equal rank; your obedient servant, on the contrary, bestows the
commissions of officers only on the higher ones. That seems to me the
correct way, and I don't relinquish the hope of winning for it the
approval of the greatest general and most tasteful connoisseur of life."

"If the new cook keeps his promise, certainly not," replied Charles,
entering into his sister's tone. "De Rye asserts that he is peerless. We
shall see. As to the senses, they all have an equal share in enabling us
to receive our impressions and form an opinion from them. Why should the
tongue and the palate--But stay! Who the devil can philosophize with such
twinges in the foot?"

"Besides, that can be done much better," replied the Queen, patting the
sufferer's arm affectionately, "while the five unequal brothers are
performing the duties of their offices. The saints be praised! Here we
are at the bottom. No, Carlos, no! Not through the chapel! The stone
flags there are so hard and cold."

As she spoke she guided him around it into the dining-room, where a large
table stood ready for the monarch's personal suite and a smaller one for
his sister and himself.

The tortured sovereign, still under the influence of the suffering which
he had endured, crossed himself and sat down. Quijada and young Count
Tassis, the Emperor's favourite page, placed the gouty foot in the most
comfortable position, and Count Buren, the chamberlain, presented the
menu. Charles instantly scanned the list of dishes, and his face clouded
still more as he missed the highly seasoned game pasty which the culinary
artist had proposed and he had approved. Queen Mary had ordered that it
should be omitted, because Dr. Mathys had pronounced it poison for the
gouty patient, and she confessed the offence.

This was done with the frank affection with which she treated her
brother, but Charles, after the first few words, interrupted her, harshly
forbidding any interference, even hers, in matters which concerned
himself alone, and in the same breath commanded Count Buren to see that
the dish should still be made. Then, as if to show his sister how little
he cared for her opposition, he seized the crystal jug with his own hand,
without waiting for the cup-bearer behind him, filled the goblet with
fiery Xeres wine, and hurriedly drained it, though the leech had
forbidden him, while suffering from the gout, to do more than moisten his
lips with the heating liquor.

The eyes of the royal huntress, though she was by no means unduly
soft-hearted, grew dim with tears. This was her brother's gratitude for
the faithful care which she bestowed upon him! Who could tell whether her
surprise, instead of pleasing him, might not rouse his anger? He was
still frowning as though the greatest injury had been inflicted upon him,
and his sister's tearful eyes led him to exclaim wrathfully, as if he
wished to palliate his unchivalrous indignation to a lady:

"I am deprived of one pleasure after another, and the little enjoyment
remaining is lessened wherever it can be. Who has heavier loads of
anxiety to endure?--yet you spoil my recreation during the brief hours
when I succeed in casting off the burden."

Here he paused and obstinately grasped the golden handle of the pitcher
again. The Queen remained silent. Contradiction would have made the
obdurate sovereign empty another goblet also. Even a look of entreaty
would have been out of place on this occasion. So she fixed her eyes
mutely and sadly upon her silver plate; but even her silence irritated
the Emperor, and he was about to give fresh expression to his ill-humour,
when the doors of the chapel opposite to him opened, and the surprise
began.

The signal for the commencement of the singing had been the delivery of
the first dish from the steward to one of the great nobles, who presented
it to their Majesties.

The Queen's face brightened, and tears of heartfelt joy, instead of grief
and disappointment, now moistened her eyes, for if ever a surprise had
accomplished the purpose desired it was this one.

Charles was gazing, as if the gates of Paradise had opened before him,
toward the chapel doors, whence Maestro Gombert's Benedictio Mensae, a
melody entirely new to him, was pouring like a holy benediction, devout
yet cheering, sometimes solemn, anon full of joy.

The lines of anxiety vanished from his brow as if at the spell of a
magician. The dull eyes gained a brilliant, reverent light, the bent
figure straightened itself. He seemed to his sister ten years younger.
She saw in his every feature how deeply the music had affected him.

She knew her imperial brother. Had not his heart and soul been fully
absorbed by the flood of pure and noble tones which so unexpectedly
streamed toward him, his eyes would have been at least briefly attracted
by the dish which Count Krockow more than once presented, for it
contained an oyster ragout which a mounted messenger had brought that
noon from the Baltic Sea to the city on the Danube.

Yet many long minutes elapsed ere he noticed the dish, though it was one
of his favourite viands. Barbara's song stirred the imperial lover of
music at the nocturnal banquet just as it had thrilled the great
musicians a few hours before. He thought that he had never heard anything
more exquisite, and when the Benedictio Mensa: died away he clasped his
sister's hand, raised it two or three times to his lips, and thanked her
with such affectionate warmth that she blessed the accomplishment of her
happy idea, and willingly forgot the unpleasant moments she had just
undergone.

Now, as if completely transformed, he wished to be told who had had the
lucky thought of summoning his orchestra and her boy choir, and how the
plan had been executed; and when he had heard the story, he fervently
praised the delicacy of feeling and true sportsmanlike energy of her
strong and loving woman's heart.

The court orchestra gave its best work, and so did the new head cook. The
pheasant stuffed with snails and the truffle sauce with it seemed
delicious to the sovereign, who called the dish a triumph of the culinary
art of the Netherlands. The burden of anxieties and the pangs inflicted
by the gout seemed to be forgotten, and when the orchestra ceased he
asked to hear the boy choir again.

This time it gave the most beautiful portion of Joscluin de Pres's hymn
to the Virgin, "Ecce tu pulchra es"; and when Barbara's "Quia amore
langueo" reached his ear and heart with its love-yearning melody, he
nodded to his sister with wondering delight, and then listened, as if
rapt from the world, until the last notes of the motet died away.

Where had Appenzelder discovered the marvellous boy who sang this "Quia
amore langueo"? He sent Don Luis Quijada to assure the leader and the
young singer of his warmest approbation, and then permitted the Queen
also to seek the choir and its leader to ask whom the latter had
succeeded in obtaining in the place of the lad from Cologne, whom he had
often heard sing the "tu pulchra es," but with incomparably less depth of
feeling.

When she returned she informed the Emperor of the misfortune which had
befallen the two boys, and how successful Appenzelder had been in the
choice of a substitute. Yet she still concealed the fact that a girl was
now the leader of his choir, for, kindly as her brother nodded to her
when she took her place at the table again, no one could tell how he
would regard this anomaly.

Besides, the next day would be the 1st of May, the anniversary of the
death of his wife Isabella, who had passed away from earth seven years
before, and the more she herself had been surprised by the rare and
singular beauty of the fair-haired songstress, the less could she venture
on that day or the morrow to blend with the memories of the departed
Queen the image of another woman who possessed such unusual charms. The
Emperor had already asked her a few questions about the young singers,
and learned that the bell-like weaker voice, which harmonized so
exquisitely with that of the invalid Johannes's substitute, belonged to
the little Maltese lad Hannibal, whose darling wish, through Wolf's
intercession, had been fulfilled. His inquiries, however, were
interrupted by a fresh performance of the boy choir.

This again extorted enthusiastic applause from the sovereign, and when,
while he was still shouting "Brava!" the highly seasoned game pasty which
meanwhile, despite the regent's former prohibition, had been prepared,
and now, beautifully browned, rose from a garland of the most tempting
accessories, was offered, he waved it away. As he did so his eyes sought
his sister's, and his expressive features told her that he was imposing
this sacrifice upon himself for her sake.

It was long since he had bestowed a fairer gift. True, in this mood, it
seemed impossible for him to refrain from the wine. It enlivened him and
doubled the unexpected pleasure. Unfortunately, he was to atone only too
speedily for this offence against medical advice, for his heated blood
increased the twinges of the gout to such a degree that he was compelled
to relinquish his desire to listen to the exquisite singing longer.

Groaning, he suffered himself--this time in a litter--to be carried back
to his chamber, where, in spite of the pangs that tortured him, he asked
for the letter in which Granvelle informed his royal master every evening
what he thought of the political affairs to be settled the next day.
Master Adrian, the valet, had just brought it, but this time Charles
glanced over the important expressions of opinion given by the young
minister swiftly and without deeper examination. The saying that the
Emperor could not dispense with him, but he might do without the Emperor,
had originally applied to his father, whose position he filled to the
monarch's satisfaction in every respect.

The confessor had reminded the sovereign of the anniversary which had
already dawned, and which he was accustomed to celebrate in his own way.

Very early in the morning, after a few hours spent in suffering, he heard
mass, and then remained for hours in the sable-draped room where he
communed with himself alone.

The regent knew that on this memorable day he would not be seen even by
her. The success of the surprise afforded a guarantee that music would
supply her place to him on the morrow also, and ere she left him she
requested a short leave of absence to enjoy the hunting for which she
longed, and permission to take his major-domo Quijada with her.

An almost unintelligible murmur from the sufferer told her that he had
granted the petition. It was done reluctantly, but the Queen departed at
dawn with Don Luis and a small train of attendants, while the Emperor
retired into the black-draped chamber.

The gout would really have prohibited him from kneeling before the altar,
whence the agonized face of the crucified Redeemer, carved in ivory by a
great Florentine master, gazed at him, but he took this torture upon
himself.

Even in the period of health and happiness when, at the age of
twenty-three, besides the great boon of health, besides fame, power, and
woman's love, he had enjoyed in rich abundance all the gifts which Heaven
bestows on mortals, his devout nature had led him to retreat into a
gloomy, solitary apartment.

The feeling that constantly drew him thither again was akin to the dread
which the ancients had of the envy of the gods, and, moreover, the
admonition of his pious teacher who afterward became Pope Adrian, that
the less man spares himself the more confidently he can rely upon the
forbearance of God.

And, in truth, this mighty sovereign, racked by almost unendurable pain,
dealt cruelly enough with himself when he compelled his aching knee to
bend until consciousness threatened to fail under the excess of agony.

Nowhere did he find more complete calmness than here, in no spot could he
pray more fervently, and the boon which he most ardently besought from
Heaven was that it would spare him the fate of his insane mother, hold
aloof the fiend which in many a gloomy hour he saw stretching a hand
toward him.

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