Their very bitterness, which exceeds all bounds of a common humanity, the very vindictiveness with which they carry on the contest, shows me that they believe in a victory by war, but not by peace. And here the question presents itself to me: Why must an acknowledged ideal principle always and forever be attained through blood?
This is the great enigma of history. But it is the same as it is in a smaller sphere and in individual life; humanity is rational, but its predominating characteristic is passion, impulsive affection, which urges forward and renovates the life of humanity as it does that of the individual. I am reminded of an expression of yours, that nothing is so conducive to the growth of vegetation as a thunder-storm. It is perhaps the same in the history of man and of humanity. Schiller's dream, that the highest form of poetry would be the peaceful idyl of an equilibrium of opposite forces without any great sacrifice, is but a dream. It is not found in the sphere of pure thought or poesy, because it is nowhere found in actual life.
As Goethe said, this America has no middle ages to conquer, but he was mistaken in saying that it had no basaltic strata, for it is now just coming out of its own peculiar condition of feudalism. Its history, like that of a dramatic poem, is condensed into a briefer period of time, and brought more directly under our view.
This America has been engaged in no war for dynasty or religion, and it must now fight for an idea. Independence was the first great question, and that may be also an egoistic question. The emancipation of others is the second and purely ideal one; and to be taken entirely out of the strife for wealth and material goods where external well-being is the sole interest, the final and supreme concern, and to be placed in a period of history where life must be imperilled for an idea, this gives ideal power. America now for the first time brings her new element, her sacrificial gift, into the Pantheon of humanity. Until now, it might be said that the historical greatness of America bore no comparison with its natural greatness.
America has had, compressed into a single epoch of existence, its migration of the nations, its crusades, and its thirty years' war; and there is something of the rapidity and the instantaneousness of the electric telegraph in its history.
Here I am, sitting in camp, and writing like a schoolmaster. But it has done me good. I feel collected, refreshed, and strengthened while turning my thoughts to you.
[Roland to the Professorin.]
We have been beaten! Mother, we have been beaten! Eric consoles me and consoles us all; he says that it is good for us, we must learn to stand the brunt. Well, I will learn.
(Eric's Postscript.) Mother! I found these lines which Roland left behind, and I send them to you. Roland is missing, and has either fallen or been taken prisoner; he has borne himself bravely, and had been promoted to be an officer. O my Roland!
[Eric to Weidmann.]
In Camp.
The great, the necessary step has been taken; the negroes have been called to serve in the army, and we have enlisted in a negro regiment, – Roland, Hermann, and I. Now the contest is for the first time complete. The negroes show themselves willing and docile, and are always merry. This discipline of the army is an excellent preparatory school for life.
We have learned from one of our spies that a man who calls himself Banfield, but who from the description I think is Sonnenkamp, is in the army in front of us, and with him there is a woman in man's dress, a great beauty, who receives the homage of all. I had hoped that he would enter the Navy; it is horrible to me that he and his son are now fighting in hostile ranks, so directly face to face with each other. I trust that Roland will hear nothing of it.
But it is very pleasant to see the beautiful comradeship of Roland and your grand-nephew, Hermann; they are inseparable.
[Roland to the Professorin.]
The final step has been taken. Eric, Hermann, and I have enlisted in a black regiment. This, is just what I wanted. I may be allowed to say it to you, these bondmen now struggling for a manhood which would not have been accorded to them in peace, they love me. I think of Parker's word. Oh, what a day that was when I heard his name from you for the first time, there going out of church, and then-
Forward! this is now our watchword; there must be no looking back now. One thing more. I have found a friend, and a better one you could not have wished for me out of your own full loving heart; and my Hermann is Lilian's brother. I dare not dwell upon the thought that he is fighting from his own voluntary choice, and I – No, I, too, stake all freely.
[Eric to Weidmann.]
In Camp.
O my friend! Roland is missing. We have gained a victory. I have searched the battle-field with our surgeon, Adams, and Hermann. O what a sight! We did not find Roland. Our hope is that he has been taken prisoner.
What a hope!
I am obliged to console myself while consoling Hermann. The youth feels to the very depth of his true soul sorrow for the lost one, but he is far from exhibiting any weakness; the good training of a free Commonwealth, and of the German parental home, has now its effect. Hermann is now my tent companion; he is entirely different from Roland. Here in America every one has room for development, and all the branches live and spread forth on the tree; and besides, Hermann has no sorrowful conflict with fate in his soul, such as my poor Roland had.
I beg you, if any news comes from Sonnenkamp addressed to me, that you would write to him that his son is a prisoner.
I am tired to death. The images of the wounded, the dead, the trampled under foot, will never fade from my memory.
I don't know when I shall write you again, but I entreat you to let Sonnenkamp know about Roland immediately; perhaps you could insert it in some English newspaper which circulates in the Southern States.
Confer with Professor Einsiedel about everything, but I beg you not to say anything about it to my mother.
[Lilian to the Professorin.]
"Write at once to Eric's mother," says Roland to me.
So you see, honored lady, that I have found him.
The terrible tidings reached us that Roland had either been killed or taken prisoner, and I could no longer endure it. I went down into the enemy's country. Oh, how much I have gone through! I have been on the battle-field, and looked into the faces of hundreds of the mangled and the dead. I have been in hospitals, and heard the moans and the groans of the sick and the wounded, but nowhere Roland, nowhere any trace of him.
I still travelled onward, and they had compassion for me, those terrible people; they pitied the lonely maiden who was seeking her beloved.
I found him at last – no, not I. Griffin found him, for the faithful animal was with me. We found him in a barn. He is wounded. Oh, he looked so emaciated, so changed, that I scarcely knew him! But now all is well.
Roland relates that a woman in man's clothing had him taken into the barn, and he asserts that it was the Countess Bella. I saw her once when I was at Mattenheim, I have seen her now. I think it was she – rushing past on horseback, and dressed like a man. She looked at me, and must have recognized me.
On, mother! it is very wonderful. Perhaps Roland has told you that he gave me a pebble, and I gave one to him, when we saw each other at Mattenheim. This pebble he kept and wore over his heart, and the pebble saved his life.
I have sent an account of everything to New York, but I do not know whether the letter will get there. Letters will reach Europe, and I beg you to forward the tidings to my father and to Eric. Say, besides, that Roland is wholly out of danger; a German physician in the army here gives me this assurance.
Send the news also to Mattenheim, to uncle and aunt and all the relatives.
Roland has just waked, having had a good sleep.
He wants me to request you to take the deaf mute to the Villa, and give him something to do in the garden; he talks a great deal about him.
[Eric to Weidmann.]
Now the worst is over! I don't know how to put it into words.
It was a hot day, and the battle was a severely contested one on both sides. We have gained the victory, and our loss is great. Adams came to me; he was bleeding, and foaming at the mouth. I wanted to bind up his wounds, but he pushed me away, crying, —
"Come! come! I did not kill him, he gave the masonic sign – I dared not kill him – he's lying outside there."
"Who?"
"The man – the man."
I had great difficulty in getting him to speak the name. It was Sonnenkamp.
I took a physician with me, and we hurried past the wounded calling for help.
We came to a hill; there he lay. I could hardly get my breath as I stood there before him, but at last I cried, —
"Father!"
"Father!" screamed he. "Away! leave me!"
He stared at me with glassy eyes. He tore up the grass, and digging out the earth, he buried his face in the fresh mould, trying to inhale that peculiar odor which had always refreshed him; but he shook his head, appearing unable to perceive the earthy smell.
He now turned round and stared at me.
The physician made preparations to dress his wounds, from several of which the blood was flowing. He thrust the physician away with violence.
"I will not be bound! Off with the whole of you!"
I kneeled down, and said that he had not been fighting against his son; that Roland had, been missing for three months, and had evidently been taken prisoner.
"A prisoner! woe! woe! woe!" he shrieked. "A prisoner! Oh, she is to blame – she! she! I did not want to! I had to – she wanted to ride on horseback – she sits splendidly – to play the amazon."
He burst into a scornful laugh. "On the sea – on the ocean – " continued he, "there I wanted to be – I had to follow – I saw her fall – she was beautiful even in death – an enchantress – an enchantress!"
The physician beckoned to me; I knew what he meant. I asked him if he desired anything.
He stared at me.
"Yonder – give me that – give!"
He pointed to a beautiful heath-plant not far off. Adams had observed our look and the words. He tore up a whole bunch of ericas, and gave them into the hand of the dying man, who gazed at him with eyes almost starting out of his head. Then a smile came over his face; drawing himself up with a mighty energy, he fell back uttering one terrible shriek, and his limbs were straightened in death. He died with the heath-plants in his clenched hand.
Oh, how much I have gone through, how much I have been forced to suffer! Nothing harder can ever befall me.
As we buried him in the earth, and covered him over with heaths, I wept over a man whose vast powers had led him astray. What would have been his fate, if-
Here I was interrupted in the midst of my writing. Since those lines were penned, I have buried another corpse.
I was called to Adams, who had neglected having his wounds attended to, and now it was too late. He asked after me. I stood at his bed-side, and with a last exertion of strength, he asked me; —
"Herr Major, can any one steal a thing like that?"
"What do you mean?"
"Can a man like that belong to our order, and have the sign?"
"You see that he can."
"What do the brethren have swords for then? Why did I not – " cried he, gnashing his teeth.
He clenched his fists, raised himself up, and then sank back. His savage nature, which had been only repressed and held in constraint, broke out in the last death-struggle.
Oh, I can write nothing more. I have been deceived in myself. I believed myself fortified against everything, but I am not. I beg you, dear Herr Weidmann, to inform my mother of the death of Manna's and Roland's father.
If I could only go to sleep, if I could only rest!
[Postscript in Manna's hand-writing.]
This letter, written thus far, was found in my Eric's pocket when he was drawn from under his horse's hoofs. In his excited, and, in fact, delirious state, he had mounted his horse, thinking he was going into battle. He was thrown. I send the letter. He does not yet recognize any one, and is still delirious, but the physician gives me some hope.
I shall keep the letter until I can give some more favorable tidings.
Three days later.
My husband says that he finds invigoration in thinking of you. I have also to-day written to the Mother.
[Manna to the Professorin.]
Mother, he is saved! All anxiety has fled. He is saved! He was down with a fever days and nights, and did not recognize me; he knew my dogs, Rose and Thistle, but not me. But once he exclaimed: —
"Oh, the harp-tones!"
I telegraphed at once to New York for my harp to be sent to me; the telegraphist told me of a woman in the place who had a harp; she lived alone, and her lot had been a hard one, as she had learned after her marriage that her husband had another wife living. I went to see the woman, and this woman is the mother of my Heimchen. The Superior had written to her of the love of her child for me, and I had to relate many things to the mother. And now – yes, we are always living in the midst of wonders! Heimchen gave to me the harp from which the tones are to come that will give my husband rest.
I stationed myself in the next room, and with the physician's consent, I played upon the harp. Eric went to sleep, and when he waked, said: —
"Why does not Manna come?"
The physician forbade my entering the room, as it was important he should receive no violent shock. And so I could see him only when his eyes were closed, until at last the surgeon gave his permission.
In the wanderings of fever he always saw me as I was in the convent when I had on the wings, and he spoke French and laughed at sister Seraphine. The shock of my father's death had affected Eric so deeply, that, as the physician told me, he had been for a long time without an hour's sleep.
Sedatives were given to Eric, but they seemed to be attended with some risk, and had to be discontinued. Then there was another battle. All besought him to keep quiet, as he had already distinguished himself so highly; but he mounted his horse and rode off. The horse stumbled and threw him headlong, and he was taken up for dead and carried into the hospital. I received the news and hastened hither. Everything is going on well now, but he is still very weak.
But he begged me, and it is just like him, to confer the pleasure upon the rest of the wounded, so I have to play the harp for hours together. It is an unspeakable refreshment to the patients, and the surgeons assert that the wounds heal more rapidly, on account of the cheerful state of mind thereby induced. And when I come back to Eric, and the surgeon tells him how beneficial the music is to the sick, his countenance lights up. He speaks but little; he holds my hand silently, and only says that he has, during his life, talked too much. But, mother, you may feel easy.
Eric wants to be allowed to write a word to you.
(In a trembling hand was written as follows:)
Thy living, loving, beloved son Eric.
(Then in Manna's hand-writing:)
Don't be alarmed at these unsteady strokes. The physician says that all danger is over, and nothing is needed but absolute rest.
Oh, mother! How can I adequately thank the Eternal Spirit that my Eric lives; that I am not a widow, and that a life is not made fatherless from its very birth? Be easy; I remain strong, and I have a threefold duty in living.
[Manna to Professor Einsiedel.]
I was called in the hospital to a prisoner from the Southern army, severely wounded, who had heard my harp-playing. He asked about me, and was told that I was a German. The man related to me that he had an uncle in Germany, who had been a book-keeper in a large banking establishment. One evening when his uncle was at the theatre, he robbed him and fled. I told him that I had become acquainted with such a man through you at Carlsbad, that is to say, I had seen him; I gave as good a description of him as I could. The wounded man asserted that it was his uncle, and begged me to write to him that he repented of what he had done. He had always hoped that he should become wealthy some day, so as to return and make full restitution; this could not be realized now, as he must die poor; but he desired that his uncle should know of his repentance.
You will impart all this to the man.
[Eric to his mother.]
In the midst of the wanderings of my fever, I kept saying to myself: Thou hast promised thy mother to return home safe and sound. Thou must not be ill, must not die. Thou must keep thy word. And this thought was ever by me, sometimes making me quiet, sometimes restless. I was forever thinking that I could certainly do something to force nature to remove the shadows, the heaviness, the dullness which weighed me down. There were two souls in me. And once I very plainly heard you saying to me: Keep perfectly quiet; you are undermining your life with your perpetual thinking; for once let thinking alone. And then I was standing on the stage at the music festival to sing, but I could not bring out a solitary note. I have gone through a great deal of suffering, but I am now in perfectly good spirits.
[Doctor Fritz to Weidmann.]
A strange riddle has been solved by means of Eric's being wounded, an account of which was given in the newspapers in connection with the victory. A small, delicate-looking old man came to me, who addressed me in German, but with difficulty, showing that he had probably not made use of the language for many years. He asked me if I was acquainted with a Major Dournay. I said yes, and after a great deal of trouble, I succeeded in finding out that this was Eric's uncle, a man of very great wealth. He wanted to know all about the family, and especially whether, his sister Claudine was yet living. Luckily, Knopf could tell him all the particulars.
[Eric to his mother.]
Mother! My uncle has been found! Through my fall from the horse, but yet more through Manna's playing on the harp, that was spoken of in the newspapers as some marvellous tale, my uncle came to see Dr. Fritz. My uncle visited me while I was very ill, and I thought that I had seen my father. They tell me that I became so excited that my life was again endangered, and they had to withhold the news until I had wholly recovered. I showed your letter to my uncle, and the old man, who has heard nothing from Europe for ten years, wept bitterly. He will go back to Europe with us.
[Knopf to Fassbender.]
The classic age had great, noble, heroic forms, but it had no uncle in America. And how did the world before Columbus' day get on without any uncles in America? I think that our good Lord, as he rested on the seventh day, dreamed, in his mid-day sleep, of the uncle in America, meditated, and created him.
My friend, Major Dournay, has now found his uncle with a fortune; I don't know how much it is, but a large one, and all honorably earned. Now he is himself put in a position to solve the riddle of what should be done with so much money. He will not build my music hall, but he will do something else that's great.
[Doctor Fritz to Weidmann.]
Two children are born to us. Manna has a son, and Frau Knopf a daughter. I was with Knopf when his daughter was born, and when he saw her face the first time, he exclaimed aloud: —
"Pure Caucasian race!"
Then he acknowledged to me, that in spite of his liking for the negroes, he had always feared that his Rosalie's child would be black, because she had black children so constantly around her, since she had been their teacher with him. And now he is delighted that his daughter, who is to be named Manna Erica, is a pure Caucasian, and he merrily extols the late which has decreed that the first-born of the girls' teacher shall be a girl.
Manna's child has received the name of Benjamin Alphonso. Uncle Alphonso is god-father; he has, in his will, divided his property equally between his sister Claudine and his brother's son, and already transferred one-half of it. He means to go to Europe with his nephew, but I do not think the good little man will live long. I have already told you that my daughter Lilian sought out our young Roland in the enemy's country, and rescued him. Roland is still very weak, but his youthful vigor will restore him.
The great war is drawing to a close, and with the rejoicings over victory we shall celebrate Roland's and Lilian's wedding. They are to remain here with us.
Roland has borne himself bravely. We are to use the greater part of his property to buy land for the negroes, furnish them with all necessary supplies, and establish schools for them.
[Eric to his mother.]
Mother! Grandmother! all is well. Ah, what more is there to say? After all our suffering we are happy. And, mother, I am coming, coming home with my wife and child, and Uncle Alphonso. The waves will bear us up, the ship will carry us, the land will stand firm, and, mother, I shall hold you in my arms again, and lay my child in your arms; we shall live and work.
[Eric to Weidmann.]
We have entered Richmond with our black regiment.
The noblest experience has been mine: I have been allowed to take part in the greatest struggle of our country.
Slavery is no more.
Now let the gentlemen in gowns and bands come, and show us heretics a deed which shall bear such mighty consequences as this.
Later.
Read this! A murder, an assassination! Why was it not to be? Why can nothing be carried out purely to perfection? Lincoln assassinated!
Does it not often seem as if a malicious demon ruled the world?
This deed is a standing proof of how far the supporters of an aristocracy, the defenders of a privileged class, the deniers of human rights, have sunk into barbarism. In future days such wickedness will not be believed; but now it stands plainly before us as assassination, and not the deed of a single individual; it is the work of a sworn band of conspirators.
The fanaticism of the Southern States had burst forth in war, now it has its seal of blood.
[Knopf to Weidmann.]
Our friend Dournay's uncle is dead; he was ill, and the news of the assassination of President Lincoln killed him.
Eric, Manna, and their child are going home.
[Eric to Professor Einsiedel.]
What I am now interested in arranging is not the filling out of my own life, the new calling into which I have entered. It is the torment attendant on the self-renovation of the modern mind, that doubts and questions immediately set themselves in opposition to action.
I want to establish a refuge for laborers in the intellectual field, but the question comes up to me: —
Is not this a direct contradiction to the spirit of this modern age?
Is not the desire for solitude a necessary part of that free individual life which is our noblest characteristic?
Could I imagine a Lessing, in his old age, in this house of refuge which I would found?
Is not the quiet communion with one's self, which is our most precious treasure, destroyed or banished by living in such close relations with others?
I think that it is not, and only those who pine for rest shall enter the home.
I beg you not to consider this as the roof of my life-building; it is to be only a merry green bough which I would set up.
[Eric to Weidmann.]
This letter goes only three days before us to Europe, to the Rhine.
I am coming home.
Deliver the enclosed legal document to the proper authorities.
I herein declare that only a life interest is retained in Villa Eden for myself and Manna, my wife. I herein declare the house, the garden, the park, as described in the Registry office, and a sufficient sum, hereafter to be determined, irrevocably assigned for the maintenance of deserving scientific men and artists.
My friend and teacher, Professor Einsiedel, is commissioned to draw up the rules regulating the admission and the mode of life of those who are to be inmates of Villa Eden.
My wish is, that there should be a peaceful refuge for deserving intellectual labor, a home for voluntary work, in VILLA EDEN, THE COUNTRY HOUSE ON THE RHINE.
(P.S.) I have promised Roland, if I live until the year 1887, to come back here to celebrate the hundredth birthday of the American Republic. Then will we see and compare what each of us has accomplished in his father-land and for his fellow-men.