Fritz and Eric Read online

  CHAPTER TWO.

  A THUNDERCLAP!

  It was late in the autumn when Eric left Lubeck on his way to Rotterdam,where he was to go on board the good ship _Gustav Barentz_, bound on atrading voyage to the eastern isles of the Indian Ocean; and, as theyear rolled on, bringing winter in its train--a season which the Dortfamily had hitherto always hailed with pleasure on account of itsfestive associations--the hours lagged with the now sadly diminishedlittle household in the Gulden Strasse; for, the merry Christmas-tidereminded them more than ever of the absent sailor boy, who had alwaysbeen the very life and soul of the home circle, and the eagerly sought-for guest at every neighbourly gathering.

  "It does not seem at all the same now the dear lad is away on the seas,"said old Lorischen, the whilom nurse, and now part servant, partcompanion of Madame Dort. "Indeed, I cannot fancy him far-distant atall. I feel as if he were only just gone out skating on the canal, andthat we might expect him in again at any moment!"

  "Ah, I miss him every minute of the day," replied Madame Dort, who wassitting on one side of the white porcelain stove that occupied a cosycorner of the sitting-room, facing the old nurse, who was busily engagedknitting a pair of lambs-wool stockings on the other.

  "It is now--aye, just two months since the dear lad left us," continuedLorischen, "and we've never had a line from him yet. I hope no evil hasbefallen the ship!"

  "Oh, don't say such a thing as that," said Madame Dort nervously. "Thevessel has a long voyage to make, and would only touch at the Cape ofGood Hope on her way; so we cannot expect to hear yet. I wonder at you,Lorischen, alarming me with your misgivings! I am sure I am anxiousenough already about poor Eric."

  "Ach himmel! I meant no harm, dear lady," rejoined the other; "but,when one has thoughts, you know, they must find vent, and I've beendreaming of him the last three nights. I do wish he were safe backagain. The house is not itself without him."

  "You are not the only one that thinks that," said Madame Dort. "Why,even the very birds that come to be fed at the gallery window miss him!They won't take their bread crumbs from my hand as they used to do lastwinter from his; you remember how tame they were, and how they would hopon his shoulder when he opened the window and called them?"

  "Aye, that do I, well! He was a kind lad to bird and beast alike.There is my old cat, which another boy would have tormented according tothe nature of all boys where poor cats are concerned; but Eric loved it,and petted it like myself! Many a time I see Mouser looking up at thatmodel of his ship there, blinking his eyes as if he knew well where theyoung master is, for cats have deeper penetration than human folk givethem credit for. I heard him miaow-wowing this morning; and, when Iwent to look for him, there he was on the top of the stove, if youplease, gazing up at the little ship, with his tail up in the air asstiff as a hair-brush! I couldn't make it out at all, and that's whatmade me so thoughtful to-day about the dear lad, especially as I'ddreamt of him, too."

  "My dear Lorischen, you absurd creature," laughed out Madame Dort. "I'mglad you said that. Don't you know what was old Mouser's grievance?Was I not close behind you at the time the cat was making the noise, anddid not Burgher Jans' dog rush out of the room as the door was opened?Of course, Mouser got on the stove to be out of his way, and that waswhy you thought he was speaking in cat language to poor Eric's littlemodel ship. What a superstitious old lady you are, to be sure!"

  "Ah well, you may think so, and explain it away, madame," saidLorischen, in no way convinced; "but I have my beliefs all the same; andI think that cat knows more than you and I do. Dear, dear! There, Ideclare it is snowing again. What a Christmas we will have, and how thedear lad would have enjoyed it, eh?"

  "Yes, that he would," rejoined the other. "He did love to watch thesnowflakes come down, and talk of longing to see an Arctic winter; but Ihope it will not fall so heavily as to block the railway, and prevent usfrom getting any letters."

  "I hope not," replied Lorischen sympathisingly. "That would be a badlook-out, especially at Christmas time! Look, the roof of the MarienKirche is covered already: what must it not be in the open country!"

  The old town presented a very different aspect now to what it had donewhen Madame Dort had walked by Eric's side to the railway station, forthe red tiles of the houses were hidden from view by the white coveringwhich now covered the face of nature everywhere--the frozen canal waysand river, with the ice-bound ships along the quays and the tall poplartrees and willows on the banks, as well as the streets and market-place,being thickly powdered, like a gigantic wedding-cake, with snow-dust;while icicles hung pendent, as jewels, from the masts of the vessels andthe boughs of the trees alike, and from the open-work galleries of themarket hall and groined carvings of the archways and outside staircasesthat led to the upper storeys of the ancient buildings around. Theselatter glittered in every occasional ray of sunshine that escaped everynow and then from the overhanging clouds, flashing out strange radiantshades of colouring to light up the monotonous tone of the landscape.

  Madame Dort rose from her chair and went to the window where sheremained for some little time watching the fast descending flakes thatcame down in never-ceasing succession.

  "I'm afraid it is going to be a very heavy fall," said she presently,after gazing at the scene around in the street below. Then, lifting hereyes, she noticed that the heavy mass of snow-clouds on the horizon hadnow crept up to the zenith, totally obscuring the sun, and that the windhad shifted to the north-east--a bad quarter from whence to expect achange at that time of year.

  "But, dear me, there is Fritz! I wonder what brings him home so earlyto-day?" she exclaimed again after another pause. "See," she added,"the dear child! He has got something white in his hand, and is wavingit as he comes up the stairway. It's a letter, I'm sure; and it must befrom Eric!"

  Old Lorischen bounced out of her chair at this announcement and was atthe door of the room almost as soon as her mistress; but, before eithercould touch the handle, it was opened from without, and Fritz came intothe apartment.

  "Hurrah, mother!" he shouted out in joyful tones. "Here's news fromEric at last! A letter in his own dear handwriting. I have not openedit yet; but it must have been put on board some passing vessel homewardsbound, as it is marked `ship's letter,' and I've had to pay twosilbergroschen for it. Open it and read, mother dear; I'm so anxious tohear what our boy says."

  With trembling hands Madame Dort tore the envelope apart, and soon madeherself mistress of the contents of the letter. It was only a shortscrawl which the sailor lad had written off hurriedly to take advantageof the opportunity of sending a message home by a passing ship, as hisbrother had surmised--Eric not expecting to have been able to forwardany communication until the vessel reached the Cape; and, the strangeronly lying-to for a brief space of time to receive the despatches of the_Gustav Barentz_, he could merely send a few hasty lines, telling themthat he was well and happy, although he missed them all very much, andsending his "dearest love" to his "own little mother" and "dear brotherFritz," not forgetting "darling, cross old Lorischen," and the "cream-stealing Mouser."

  "Just hear that, the little fond rascal!" exclaimed the worthy oldnurse, when Madame Dort read out this postscript. "To think of hiscalling me cross, and accusing Mouser of stealing; it is just like hisimpudence, the rogue! I only wish he were here now, and I would soontell him a piece of my mind."

  Eric added that they had had a rough passage down the North Sea, hisvessel having to put into Plymouth, in the English Channel, for repairs;and that, as she was a bad sailer, they expected to be much longer onthe voyage than had been anticipated. He said, too, that if the windwas fair, the captain did not intend to stop at the Cape, unlesscompelled to call in for provisions and water, but to push on to Bataviaso as not to be late for the season's produce. He had overheard himtelling the mate this, and now informed those at home of the fact thatthey might not be disappointed at not receiving another letter from himbefore he reached the East Indies, which wo
uld be a most unlikely case,unless they had the lucky chance of communicating a second time with ahomeward-bound ship--a very improbable contingency, vessels not likingto stop on their journey and lay-to, except in answer to a signal ofdistress or through seeing brother mariners in peril.

  "So, you see," said Madame Dort, as soon as she had reached the end ofthe sheet, "we must not hope to hear from the dear boy again for sometime, and can only trust that all will go well with him on the voyage!"She heaved a heavy sigh from the bottom of her mother's heart as shespoke, and her face looked sad again, like it had been before Eric'sletter came.

  "Yes, that's right enough, mutterchen," answered Fritz hopefully; "but,you can likewise see that Providence has watched over our Eric so far,in preserving him safely, and there is now no reason for our feeling anyalarm on his account. We shall hear from him in the spring, withoutdoubt, telling us of his safe arrival at Java, and saying what time wemay look forward to expecting him home. At any rate, this dear lettercomes welcome enough now, and it will enable us to have a happierChristmas-tide than we should otherwise have passed."

  "Ach, that it does," put in old Lorischen, beginning again to bustleabout the room with all her former zest in making preparations for thecoming festival, which her melancholy forebodings about Eric andsuperstitious, fears anent the cat's colloquy in the morning hadsomewhat interrupted: "we shall have a right merry Christmas in spite ofthe dear lad's absence. We must remember that he will be with us inspirit, at least, and it would grieve him if we were down-hearted!"

  This wise reflection of the old nurse, coupled with Fritz's hopefulwords, appeared to have a cheering influence on Madame Dort, whom manytrials had made rather more despondent than could have been expectedfrom her bright, handsome face, which did not seem sometimes to haveever known what sorrow was; although, like Eric's, it exhibited for themoment every passing mood, so that those familiar with her dispositioncould almost read her very thoughts, her nature being so open.Banishing her gloom away, apparently by the mere effort of will, she nowproceeded to assist Lorischen in getting the room decorated for theChristmas Eve feast, of which all partook with more merriment andcontent than the little household in the Gulden Strasse had known sincethe sailor boy left. Nay, it seemed to them, happy with the tidings ofhis safety and well-being, that Eric was there too in their midst; forthey drank his health before separating for the night, and his mother,when placing the surprise presents, which were to tell the members ofthe family in the morning that they had not been overlooked in thecustomary distribution of those little gifts that form the most pleasingremembrances of the festive season in Germany, did not omit also to fillthe stocking which Eric had suspended from the head of his bedsteadbefore leaving--he having laughingly said that he expected to find itchock-full when he returned home in time for the next Christmas feast,as he was certain that Santa Claus would never be so unkind as to forgethim because he chanced to be away and so missed his turn in the usualvisit of the benevolent patron of the little ones!

  Time passed on at Lubeck, the same as it does everywhere else. The yearturned and the months flew by. Winter gave place to spring, when theadamantine chains with which the ice-king had bound the rivers andwaters of the north were loosed asunder by the mighty power of theexultant sun; the snow melted away from the earth, which decked itselfin green to rejoice at its freedom, smiling in satisfaction withflowers; while the trees began to clothe their ragged limbs and branchesin dainty apparel, and the birds to sing at the approach of summer.

  June came, when Madame Dort had fully expected to hear of Eric's arrivalat Batavia; but the month waned to its close without any letter comingto gladden the mother's heart again, nor was there any news to be heardof the good ship _Gustav Barentz_ in the commercial world--not a singletelegram having been received to report her having reached herdestination, nor was there any mention of her having been seen andsignalled by some passing vessel, save that time when she was met offthe Cape de Verde Islands in the previous November. It began to lookominous!

  But, while Madame Dort was filled with apprehension as to the fate ofher younger son, a sudden conjuncture of circumstances almost made herforget Eric. This was, the unexpected summons of Fritz from her side,to battle with the legions of Germany against the threatened invasion of"the Fatherland" by France.

  At the time, it looked sudden enough. A little cloud, no bigger than aman's hand, had arisen on the horizon of European politics, which, eachmoment, grew blacker and more portentous; and, in a brief while, itburst into a war that deluged the vine-clad slopes of Rhineland and thefair plains of Lorraine with blood and fire, making havoc everywhere.Now, however, looking back on all the events of that terrible struggleand duly weighing the surroundings and impelling forces leading up toit, allowing also for all temporary excuses and pretexts, and admittingall that can be said for partisanship on either side, there can be nouse in blinking at the pregnant fact that the real cause of the wararose from a desire to settle whether the French or the Germans were thestrongest in sheer brute force--just in the same way as two men, orboys, fight with nature's weapons in a pugilistic encounter to strivefor the mastery, thus indulging in passions which they share with thebeasts of the field!

  The long, steady, complete preparation for war on each side shows thatthis very simple and intelligible motive was at the bottom of it all;and it is pitiable to think, for the sake of human nature, whenrecapitulating the history of this fearful conflict of fifteen years agowhich caused such misery and murderous loss of life, that two of themost polished, advanced, educated, and representative nations of Europeat that time should not have apparently attained a higher code ofcivilised morality than that adopted by the natives of Dahomey--one,ruled over by the blood-stained fetish of human sacrifice! As the worldadvances, looking at the matter in this light, we seem to have exchangedone sort of barbarism for another, and the present one appears almostthe worse of the two, by the very reason of its being mixed up with somuch scientific advancement, cultural refinement, and the higherdevelopment of man. It is like the old devil returning and bringingwith him seven other devils more powerful for evil than their originalprototype, this prostitution of learning, intellect, and philosophy tothe most debasing influences of human nature!

  These thoughts, however, did not affect either Fritz or his mother atthe time.

  Not being the only son of a widow, in which case he might have beenexempted from service, Fritz, when he had reached his eighteenth year,had been compelled to join the ranks of the national army; and, aftercompleting the ordinary course of drill, had been relegated to theLandwehr and allowed to return home to his civic occupation. But, whenthe order was promulgated throughout the German empire to mobilise thevast human man-slaying machine which General Moltke and Prince Bismarkhad constructed with such painstaking care that units could bemultiplied into tens, and tens into hundreds, and hundred intothousands--swelling into a gigantic host of armed men almost at amoment's notice, ready either to guard the frontier from invasion, or tohurl its resistless battalions on the hated foe whose defeat had beensuch a long-cherished dream--the young clerk received peremptory ordersto join the headquarters of the regiment to which he was attached. Thevery place and hour at which he was to report himself to his commandingofficer were named in the general order forwarded along with his railwaypass, so comprehensive were the details of the Prussian militaryorganisation. This latter so thoroughly embraced the entire countryafter the absorption of the lesser states on the collapse of Koniggratz,that each separate individual could be moved at any given moment to acertain defined point; while the instructions for his guidance were socomplete and perfect, that they could not fail to be understood.

  Fritz had to proceed, in the first instance, to the capital city of hisstate, Hanover, now no longer a kingdom, but only a small division ofthe great empire into which it was incorporated. For him there was nochance of evasion or getting out of the obligation to serve, for thewhilom "kingdom" having withstood to the last during
the six weeks' warthe onward progress to victory of the all-devouring Prussians, hercitizens would be at once suspected of disloyalty on the least sign ofany defection. Besides, a keen official eye was kept on the movementsof all Hanoverians, their patriotism to the newly formed empire beingdiligently nourished by a military rule as stern and strict as that ofDraco.

  "Oh, my boy, my firstborn! and must I lose thee too?" exclaimed MadameDort, when Fritz made her acquainted with the news of his summons toheadquarters. "Truly Providence sees fit to afflict me for my sins, totry me with this fresh calamity!"

  "Pray do not take such a sombre view of my departure, dear mother," saidFritz. "Why, probably, in a month's time I will be back again in oldLubeck; for, I'm sure, we'll double up the French in a twinkling."

  "Ah, my child, you do not know what a campaign is, yet! The matter willnot be settled so easily as you think. War is a terrible thing, and thePrussians may not be able to crush the whole power of the French nationin the same way in which they conquered Austria and Saxony, and subduedour own little state four years ago."

  "But, mother recollect, that now we shall be fighting all together forthe Fatherland," said Fritz, who like most young Germans was well readin his country's history, and to him the remembrance of the old wartime, when Buonaparte trampled over central Europe, was as fresh as ifit were only yesterday. "We've long been waiting for this day, and ithas come at last! Besides, dear mutterchen, you forget that theLandwehr, to which I belong, will only act as a reserve, and will notprobably take any part in the fighting--worse luck!" He added thelatter words under his breath, for it was not so long since he hadabandoned his barrack-room life for him to have lost the soldierlyinstincts there implanted into him; and, truth to say, he longed for thestrife, the summons to arms making him "sniff the battle from afar likea young war-horse!" The French declaration of war and the proclamationof the German emperor had roused the people throughout the country intoa state of patriotic frenzy; so that, from the North Sea to the Danube,from the Rhine to the Niemen, the summons to meet the ancient foe wasresponded to with an alacrity and devotion which none who witnessed thestirring scenes of that period can ever forget.

  Fritz was no less eager than his comrades; and, considerably within theinterval allowed him for preparation, he and the others of his corpsliving in the same vicinity were on their way to Hanover.

  This second parting with another of her children almost wrung poorMadame Dort's heart in twain; but, like the majority of German mothersat the time, she sent off her son, with a blessing, "to fight for hiscountry, his Fatherland"; for, noble and peasant alike, every wife andmother throughout the length and breadth of the land seemed to beinfected with the patriotism of a Roman matron. Madame Dort would besecond to none.

  "Good-bye, my son," she said, "be brave, although I need hardly tellyour father's son that, and do your duty to God and your country!"

  "I will, mother; I will," said Fritz, giving her a last kiss, as thetrain rolled away with him out of the station to the martial strains of"Der Deutsche Vaterland," which a band was playing on the platform inhonour of the young recruits going to the war.

  The widow had to-day no son left to support her steps homeward to thedesolate house in the Gulden Strasse, now bereaved of her twin hopes,Fritz and Eric both; only old Lorischen was by her side, and she feltsadly alone.

  "Both gone, both gone!" she murmured to herself as she ascended theoutside stairway that led to her apartments in the upper part of thehouse. "It will be soon time for me to go, too!"

  "Ach nein, dear mistress," said the faithful servant and friend who wasnow the sole companion left to share the deserted home. "What wouldbecome of me in that case, eh? We will wait and watch for the truantsin patience and hope. They'll come back to us again in God's good time;and they will be all the more precious to us by their being taken fromus now. Himmel! mistress, why we've lots of things to do to get readyfor their return!"