Zigzag Journeys in Northern Lands by Hezekiah Butterworth (fiction books to read .txt) 📕
Gentleman Jo took a story-telling attitude, and a number of the pupils gathered around him.
GENTLEMAN JO'S GHOST STORY.
I shall never forget the scene of excitement, when one morning Biddy, our domestic, entered the sitting-room, her head bobbing, her hair flying, and her cap perched upon the top of her head, and exclaimed: "Wurrah! I have seen a ghoust, and it's lave the hoose I must. Sich a night! I'd niver pass anither the like of it for the gift o' the hoose. Bad kick to ye, an' the hoose is haunted for sure."
"Why, Biddy, what have you seen?" asked my sister, in alarm.
"Seen? An' sure I didn't see nothin'. I jist shet me eyes and hid mesilf under the piller. But it was awful. An' the way it clanked its chain! O murther!"
This last remark was rather startling. Spirit
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To wander!
From water!
It knows no rest by night or day,
But wanders ever on its way,
Does water.
The mill-wheels!
They ne’er repose, nor brook delay,
They weary not the livelong day,
The mill-wheels.
The stones, too,
Round in the giddy circle dance,
Ee’n fain more quickly would advance,
The stones would.
To wander!
O master, mistress, on my way
Let me in peace depart to-day,
And wander!”
Wilhelm Müller.
The watchman, too, has his peculiar songs. One of these is very solemn and stately. A favorite translation of it begins:—
Eight now strikes the loud church bell.”
An almost literal translation thus reproduces the grand themes which were made to remind the old guardians of the night in their ghostly vigils:—
THE WATCHMAN’S SONG.The hour of eight, good sirs, has struck.
Eight souls alone from death were kept,
When God the earth with deluge swept:
Unless the Lord to guard us deign,
Man wakes and watches all in vain.
Lord! through thine all-prevailing might,
Do thou vouchsafe us a good night!
The hour of nine, good sirs, has struck.
Nine lepers cleansed returned not;—
Be not thy blessings, man, forgot!
Unless the Lord to guard us deign,
Man wakes and watches all in vain.
Lord! through thine all-prevailing might,
Do thou vouchsafe us a good night!
The hour of ten, good sirs, has struck.
Ten precepts show God’s holy will;—
Oh, may we prove obedient still!
Unless the Lord to guard us deign,
Man wakes and watches all in vain.
Lord! through thine all-prevailing might,
Do thou vouchsafe us a good night!
The hour eleven, good sirs, has struck.
Eleven apostles remained true;—
May we be like that faithful few!
Unless the Lord to guard us deign,
Man wakes and watches all in vain.
Lord! through thine all-prevailing might,
Do thou vouchsafe us a good night!
The hour of twelve, good sirs, has struck.
Twelve is of Time the boundary;—
Man, think upon eternity!
Unless the Lord to guard us deign,
Man wakes and watches all in vain.
Lord! through thine all-prevailing might,
Do thou vouchsafe us a good night!
The hour of one, good sirs, has struck.
One God alone reigns over all;
Nought can without his will befall:
Unless the Lord to guard us deign,
Man wakes and watches all in vain.
Lord! through thine all-prevailing might,
Do thou vouchsafe us a good night!
The hour of two, good sirs, has struck.
Two ways to walk has man been given:
Teach me the right,—the path to heaven!
Unless the Lord to guard us deign,
Man wakes and watches all in vain.
Lord! through thine all-prevailing might,
Do thou vouchsafe us a good night!
The hour of three, good sirs, has struck.
Three Gods in one, exalted most,
The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Unless the Lord to guard us deign,
Man wakes and watches all in vain.
Lord! through thine all-prevailing might,
Do thou vouchsafe us a good night!
The hour of four, good sirs, has struck.
Four seasons crown the farmer’s care;—
Thy heart with equal toil prepare!
Up, up! awake, nor slumber on!
The morn approaches, night is gone!
Thank God, who by his power and might
Has watched and kept us through this night!
The Class devoted an autumn evening to singing the songs of the Rhine; the “Watch on the Rhine,” the “Loreley,” the student-songs, folk-songs, and some of the chorals of Luther. The song that proved most inspiring was the “Wild Chase of Lützow.” Master Beal awakened a deep interest in this song before it was sung, by relating its history.
“THE WILD HUNT OF LÜTZOW.”All musical ears are familiar with the refrain: “Yes, ’tis the hunt of Lützow the free and the bold,”—if not with these exact words, with other words of the same meaning. The music of C. M. Von Weber has carried the “hunt” of Lützow over the world. The song and music alike catch the spirit and the movement of a corps of cavalry bent on the destruction of an enemy. One sees the flying horsemen in the poem, and hears them in the music. It was one of the few martial compositions that starts one to one’s feet, and stirs one’s blood with the memory of heroic achievements.
I will give you one of the most vigorous translations. Longfellow has adopted it in his “Poems of Places.” It catches the spirit of the original, and very nearly reproduces the original thought.
LÜTZOW’S WILD CHASE.Hark! nearer and nearer ’tis sounding;
It hurries along, black line upon line,
And the shrill-voiced horns in the wild chase join,
The soul with dark horror confounding:
And if the black troopers’ name you’d know,
’Tis Lützow’s wild Jäger,—a-hunting they go!
MAYENCE IN THE OLDEN TIME.
And warrior to warrior is calling;
Behind the thick bushes in ambush they lie,
The rifle is heard, and the loud war-cry,
In rows the Frank minions are falling:
And if the black troopers’ name you’d know,
’Tis Lützow’s wild Jäger,—a-hunting they go!
He weened they would follow him never;
But the pursuit came like the storm in its pride,
With sinewy arms they parted the tide,
And reached the far shore of the river;
And if the dark swimmers’ name you’d know,
’Tis Lützow’s wild Jäger,—a-hunting they go!
Hark! how the keen swords are clashing!
High-hearted Ritter are fighting the fight,
The spark of Freedom awakens bright,
And in crimson flames it is flashing:
And if the dark Ritters’ name you’d know,
’Tis Lützow’s wild Jäger,—a-hunting they go!
No more the bright sunlight seeing?
The writhings of death on their face they show,
But no terror the hearts of the freemen know.
For the Franzmen are routed and fleeing;
And if the dark heroes’ name you’d know,
’Tis Lützow’s wild Jäger,—a-hunting they go!
In hounding the tyrant we strained it!
Ye friends, that love us, look up with glee!
The night is scattered, the dawn we see,
Though we with our life-blood have gained it!
And from sire to son the tale shall go:
’Twas Lützow’s wild Jäger that routed the foe!
Lützow, the cavalry hero of Prussia, in the German war for freedom against the rule of Napoleon, was born in 1782. He was a famous hunter, and when Europe arose against Bonaparte in 1813, he called for volunteers of adventurous spirit for cavalry service: “hunters” of the enemy, who should hang about the French army, and, with the destructive vigilance of birds or beasts of prey, give the enemy no rest on the German side of the Rhine.
The boldest young men of Germany rushed to Lützow; noblemen, students, foresters. His corps of cavalry became the terror of the French army. The enemy could never tell where they would be found.
Among the young volunteers was Körner, the young German poet. He was a slender young man; but he had an heroic soul, and the cavalry corps of the fiery Lützow seemed to him the place for it. He joined the “wild hunters” in 1813.
“Germany rises,” he said. “The Prussian eagle beats her wings; there is hope of freedom.
“I know what happiness can fruit for me in life; I know that the star of fortune shines upon me; but a mighty feeling and conviction animates me: no sacrifice can be too great for my country’s freedom!”
The words glow.
He added,—
“I must forth,—I must oppose my breast to the storm. Can I celebrate the deeds of others in song, and not dare with them the danger?”
Körner’s battle-songs became firebrands. He consecrated himself to his country in the village church near Zobten. He wrote the battle-hymn for the occasion, which was a service for the departing volunteers.
“We swore,” he said, “the oath of fidelity to our cause. I fell upon my knees and implored God’s blessing. The oath was repeated by all, and the officers swore it on their swords. Then Martin Luther’s ‘A Mighty Fortress is our God’ concluded the ceremony.”
He wrote a thrilling war-song on the morning of the battle of Danneberg, May 12, 1813. It ended with these words:—
On, brothers, on, to death and to glory!
We’ll meet in another, a happier sphere!”
On May 28, 1813, Major Von Lützow determined to set out on an expedition towards Thuringia, with his young cavalry and with Cossacks. Körner begged to accompany him. Lützow commissioned him as an officer. He was wounded, and left for a time helpless in a wood, on the 17th of June. In this condition he wrote his famous “Farewell to Life.”
Körner recovered, but was suddenly killed in an engagement on August 26th.
The “Sword Song” of Körner which Von Weber’s music has made famous, was written a few hours before his death. It was an inspiration to the German cause.
“Lützow’s Wild Chase” thrilled Prussia. Like the “Watch on the Rhine” in the recent war, it was the word that fired the national pride, and nerved men to deeds that crowned the cause with glory.
“The Rhine! the Rhine!” shouted the young German heroes at last, looking down on the river.
“Is there a battle?” asked the officers, dashing on in the direction of the shout.
“No, the enemy has gone over the Rhine,” was the answer. “The Rhine! the Rhine!”
Mr. Beal introduced a number of selections from German composers, the loved tone-poets, with interesting stories and anecdotes. We reproduce a part of these musical incidents, as they properly belong to the history of the river of song.
Taking up a selection from Schubert’s famous symphony, he spoke feelingly of the author, and then gave some pictures of the lives of Beethoven and Bach.
THE AUTHOR OF THE ERL KING.Poor Schubert! The composer of what operas, symphonies, overtures, choruses, masses, cantatas, sonatas, fantasias, arias! What tenderness was in his soul!—Listen to the “Last Greeting;” what fancy and emotion! listen to the “Fisher Maiden” and “Post Horn;” what refinement!
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