The Headsman - James Fenimore Cooper
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"Thou talkest like a foolish quean that has been frightened by the
fluttering of her own poultry. The lake was never more calm, or the bark
in greater safety."
"Dost see yonder bright light; here, over the tower of thy Vevey church?"
"Ay, 'tis a gallant star! and a fair sign for the mariner."
"Fool, 'tis a hot flame in Roger de Blonay's beacon. They begin to see
that we are in danger on the shore, and they cast out their signals to
give us notice to be active. They think us be-stirring ourselves like
stout men, and those used to the water, while, in truth, we are as
undisturbed as if the bark were a rock that might laugh at the Leman and
its waves. The man is benumbed," continued Maso, turning away towards the
anxious listeners; "he will not see that which is getting to be but too
plain to all the others in his vessel."
Another idle and general laugh from the forecastle came to contradict this
opinion of Maso's, and to prove how easy it is for the ignorant to exist
in security, even on the brink of destruction. This was the moment, when
nature gave the first of those signals that were "intelligible to vulgar
capacities. The whole vault of the heavens was now veiled, with the
exception of the spot so often named, which lay nearly above the brawling
torrents of the Rhone. This fiery opening resembled a window admitting of
fearful glimpses into the dreadful preparations that were making up among
the higher peaks of the Alps. A flash of red quivering light was emitted,
and a distant, rumbling rush, that was not thunder but rather resembled
the wheelings of a thousand squadrons into line, followed the flash. The
forecastle was deserted to a man, and the hillock of freight was again
darkly seen peopled with crouching human forms. Just then the bark which
had so long lain in a state of complete rest slowly and heavily raised its
bows, as if laboring under its great and unusual burthen, while a sluggish
swell passed beneath its entire length, lifting the whole mass, foot by
foot, and passing away by the stern, to cast itself on the shores of Vaud.
"'Tis madness to waste the precious moments longer!" said Maso hurriedly,
on whom this plain and intelligent hint was not lost. "Signori, we must be
bold and prompt, or we shall be overtaken by the tempest unprepared. I
speak not for myself, since, by the aid of this faithful dog, and favored
by my own arms, I have always the shore for a hope. But there is one in
the bark I would wish to save, even at some hazard to myself. Baptiste is
unnerved by fear, and we must act for our selves or perish!"
"What wouldest thou?" demanded the Signor Grimaldi; "he that can proclaim
the danger should have some expedient to divert it?"
"More timely exertion would have given us the resource of ordinary means;
but, like those who die in their sins, we have foolishly wasted most
precious minutes. We must lighten the bark, though it cost the whole of
her freight."
A cry from Nicklaus Wagner announced that the spirit of avarice was still
active as ever in his bosom. Even Baptiste, who had lost all his dogmatism
and his disposition to command, under the imposing omens which had now
made themselves apparent even to him, loudly joined in the protest against
this waste of property. It is rare that any sudden and extreme proposal,
like this of Maso's, meets with a quick echo in the judgments of those to
whom the necessity is unexpectedly presented. The danger did not seem
sufficiently imminent to have recourse to an expedient so decided; and,
though startled and aroused, the untamed spirits of those who crowded
the, menaced pile were rather in a state of uneasiness, than of that
fierce excitement to which they were so capable of being wrought, and
which was in some degree necessary to induce even them, thriftless and
destitute as they were, to be the agents of effecting so great a
destruction of properly. The project of the cool and calculating Maso
would therefore have failed entirely, but for another wheeling of those
airy squadrons, and a second wave which lifted the groaning bark until the
loosened yards swung creaking above their heads. The canvass flapped, too,
in the darkness, like some huge bird of prey fluttering its feathers
previously to taking wing.
"Holy and just Ruler of the land and the sea!" exclaimed the Augustine,
"remember thy repentant children, and have us, at this awful moment, in
thy omnipotent protection!"
"The winds are come down, and even the dumb lake sends us the signal to be
ready!" shouted Maso. "Overboard with the freight, if ye would live!"
A sudden heavy plunge into the water, proved that the mariner was in
earnest. Notwithstanding the imposing and awful signs with which they were
surrounded, every individual of the nameless herd bethought him of the
puck that contained his own scanty worldly effects, and there was a
general and quick movement, with a view to secure them. As each man
succeeded in effecting his own object, he was led away by that community
of feeling which rules a multitude. The common rush was believed to be
with a view to succor Maso, though each man secretly knew the falsity of
the impression as respected his own particular case; and box after box
began to tumble into the water, as new and eager recruits lent themselves
to the task. The impulse was quickly imparted from one to another, until
even young Sigismund was active in the work. On these slight accidents do
the most important results depend, when the hot impulses that govern the
mass obtain the ascendant.
It is not to be supposed that either Baptiste, or Nicklaus Wagner,
witnessed the waste of their joint effects with total indifference. So far
from this, each used every exertion in his power to prevent it, not only
by his voice, but with his hands. One menaced the law--the other
threatened Maso with condign punishment for his interference with a
patron's rights and duties; but their remonstrances were uttered to
inattentive ears. Maso knew himself to be irresponsible by situation, for
it was not an easy matter to bring him within the grasp of the
authorities; and as for the others, most of them were far too
insignificant to feel much apprehension for a reparation that would be
most likely, if it fell at all, to fall on those who were more able to
bear it. Sigismund alone exerted himself under a sense of his liabilities;
but he worked for one that was far dearer to him than gold, and little did
he bethink him of any other consequences than those which might befall the
precious life of Adelheid de Willading.
The meagre packages of the common passengers had been thrown in a place of
safety, with the sort of unreflecting instinct with which we take care of
our limbs when in danger. This timely precaution permitted each to work
with a zeal that found no drawback in personal interest, and the effect
was in proportion. A hundred hands were busy, and nearly as many throbbing
hearts lent their impulses to the accomplishment of the one important
object.
Baptiste and his people, aided by laborers of the port, had passed an
entire day in heaping that pile on the deck of the Winkelried, which was
now crumbling to pieces with a rapidity that seemed allied to magic. The
patron and Nicklaus Wagner bawled themselves hoarse, with uttering useless
threats and deprecations, for by this time the laborers in the work of
destruction had received some such impetus as the rolling stone acquires
by the increased momentum of its descent. Packages, boxes, bales, and
everything that came to hand, were hurled into the water frantically, and
without other thought than of the necessity of lightening the groaning
bark of its burthen. The agitation of the lake, too, was regularly
increasing, wave following wave, in a manner to cause the vessel to pitch
heavily, as it rose upon the coming, or sunk with the receding swell. At
length, a shout announced that, in one portion of the pile, the deck was
attained!
The work now proceeded with greater security to those engaged, for,
hitherto the motion of the bark, and the unequal footing, frequently
rendered their situations, in the darkness and confusion, to the last
degree hazardous. Maso now abandoned his own active agency in the toil,
for no sooner did he see the others fairly and zealously enlisted in the
undertaking, than he ceased his personal efforts to give those directions
which, coming from one accustomed to the occupation, were far more
valuable than any service that could be derived from a single arm.
"Thou art known to me, Signor Maso," said Baptiste, hoarse with his
impotent efforts to restrain the torrent, "and thou shalt answer for this,
as well as for other of thy crimes, so soon as we reach the haven of
Vevey!"
"Dotard! thou would'st carry thyself and all with thee, by thy narrowness
of spirit, to a port from which, when it is once entered, none ever sail
again."
"It lieth between ye both," rejoined Nicklaus Wagner; "thou art not less
to blame than these madmen, Baptiste. Hadst thou left the town at the hour
named in our conditions, this danger could not have overtaken us."
"Am I a god to command the winds! I would that I had never seen thee or
thy cheeses, or that thou wouldst relieve me of thy presence, and go after
them into the lake."
"This comes of sleeping on duty; nay, I know not but that a proper use of
the oars would still bring us in, in safety, and without necessary harm to
the property of any. Noble Baron de Willading, here may be occasion for
your testimony, and, as a citizen of Berne, I pray you to heed well the
circumstances."
Baptiste was not in a humor to bear these merited reproaches, and he
rejoined upon the aggrieved Nicklaus in a manner that would speedily have
brought their ill-timed wrangle to an issue, had not Maso passed rudely
between them, shoving them asunder with the sinews of a giant. This
repulse served to keep the peace for the moment, but the wordy war
continued with so much acrimony, and with so many unmeasured terms, that
Adelheid and her maids, pale and terror-struck by the surrounding scene as
they were, gladly shut their ears, to exclude epithets of such bitterness
and menace that they curdled the blood. Maso passed on among the workmen,
when he had interposed between the disputants. He gave his orders with
perfect self-possession, though his understanding eye perceived that,
instead of magnifying the danger, he had himself not fully anticipated its
extent. The rolling of the waves was now incessant, and the quick, washing
rush of the water, a sound familiar to the seaman, announced that they
had become so large that their summits broke, sending their lighter foam
ahead. There were symptoms, too, which proved that their situation was
understood by those on the land. Lights were flashing along the strand
near Vevey, and it was not difficult to detect, even at the distance at
which they lay, the evidences of a strong feeling among the people of the
town.
"I doubt not that we have been seen," said Melchior de Willading, "and
that our friends are busy in devising means to aid us. Roger de Blonay is
not a man to see us perish without an effort, nor would the worthy
bailiff, Peter Hofmeister, be idle, knowing that a brother of the
buergerschaft, and old school associate, hath need of his assistance."
"None can come to us, without running an equal risk with ourselves,"
answered the Genoese. "It were better that we should be left to our own
exertions. I like the coolness of this unknown mariner, and I put my faith
in God!"
A new shout proclaimed that the deck had been gained, on the other side of
the bark. Much the greater part of the deck-load had now irretrievably
disappeared, and the movements of the relieved vessel were more lively and
sane. Maso called to him one or two of the regular crew, and together they
rolled up the canvass, in a manner peculiar to the latine rig; for a
breath of hot air, the first of any sort that had been felt for many hours
passed athwart the bark. This duty was performed, as canvass is known to
be furled at need, but it was done securely. Maso then went among the
laborers again, encouraging them with his voice, and directing their
efforts with his counsel.
"Thou art not equal to thy task," he said, addressing one who was vainly
endeavoring to roll a bale to the side of the vessel, a little apart from
the rest of the busy crowd; "thou wilt do better to assist the others,
than to waste thy force here."
"I feel the strength to remove a mountain! Do we not work for our lives?"
The mariner bent forward, and looked into the other's face. These frantic
and ill-directed efforts came from the Westphalian student.
"Thy star has disappeared," he rejoined, smiling--for Maso had smiled in
scenes far more imposing, than even that with which he was now surrounded.
"She gazes at it still; she thinks of one that loves her, who is
journeying far from the fatherland."
"Hold! Since thou wilt have it so, I will help thee to cast this bale into
the water. Place thine arm thus; an ounce of well-directed force is worth
a pound that acts against itself."
Stooping together, their united strength did that which had baffled the
single efforts of the scholar. The package rolled to the gangway, and the
German, frenzied with excitement, shouted aloud! The bark lurched, and the
bale went over the side, as if the lifeless mass were suddenly possessed
with the desire to perform the evolution which its inert weight had so
long resisted. Maso recovered his footing, which had been deranged by the
unexpected movement, with a seaman's dexterity, but his companion was no
longer at his side. Kneeling on the gangway, he perceived the dark bale
disappearing in the element, with the feet of the Westphalian dragging
after. He bent forward to grasp the rising body, but it never returned to
the surface, being entangled in the cords, or, what was equally probable,
retained by the frantic grasp of the student, whose mind had yielded to
the awful character of the night.
The life of Il Maledetto had been one of great vicissitudes and peril. He
had often seen men pass suddenly into the other state of existence, and
had been calm himself amid the cries, the groans, and what is far more
appalling, the execrations of the dying, but never before had he witnessed
so brief and silent an end. For more than a minute, he hung suspended over
the dark and working water, expecting to see the student return; and, when
hope was reluctantly abandoned, he arose to his feet, a startled and
admonished man. Still discretion did not desert him. He saw the
uselessness, and even the danger, of distracting the attention of the
workmen, and the ill-fated scholar was permitted to pass away without a
word of regret or a comment on his fate. None knew of his loss but the
wary mariner, nor was his person missed by any of those who had spent the
day in his company. But she to whom he hud plighted his faith on the banks
of the Elbe long gazed at that pale star, and wept in bitterness that her
feminine constancy met with no return. Her true affections long outlived
their object, for his image was deeply enshrined in a warm female heart.
Days, weeks, months, and years passed for her in the wasting cheerlessness
of hope deferred, but the dark Leman never gave up its secret, and he to
whom her lover's fate alone was known little bethought him of an accident
which, if not forgotten, was but one of many similar frightful incidents
in his eventful career.
Maso re-appeared among the crowd, with the forced composure of one who
well knew that authority was most efficient when most calm. The command of
the vessel was now virtually with him, Baptiste, enervated by the
extraordinary crisis, and choking with passion, being utterly incapable of
giving a distinct or a useful order. It was fortunate for those in the
bark that the substitute was so good, for more fearful signs never
impended over the Leman than those which darkened the hour.
We have necessarily consumed much time in relating these events, the pen
not equalling the activity of the thoughts. Twenty minutes, however, had
not passed since the tranquillity of the lake was first disturbed, and so
great had been the exertions of those in the Winkelried, that the time
appeared to be shorter. But, though it had been so well employed, neither
had the powers of the air been idle. The unnatural opening in the heavens
was shut, and, at short intervals, those fearful wheelings of the aerial
squadrons were drawing nearer. Thrice had fitful breathings of warm air
passed over the bark, and occasionally, as she plunged into a sea that was
heavier than common, the faces of those on board were cooled, as it might
be with some huge fan. These were no more, however, than sudden changes in
the atmosphere, of which veins were displaced by the distant struggle
between the heated air of the lake and that which had been chilled on the
glaciers, or, they were the still more simple result of the violent
agitation of the vessel.
The deep darkness which shut in the vault, giving to the embedded Leman
the appearance of a gloomy, liquid glen, contributed to the awful
sublimity of the night. The ramparts of Savoy were barely distinguishable
from the flying clouds, having the appearance of black walls, seemingly
within reach of the hand; while the more varied and softer cotes of Vaud
lay an indefinable and sombre mass, less menacing, it is true, but equally
confused and unattainable.
Still the beacon blazed in the grate of old Roger de Blonay, and flaring
torches glided along the strand. The shore seemed alive with human
beings, able as themselves to appreciate and to feel for their situation.
The deck was now cleared, and the travellers were collected in a group
between the masts. Pippo had lost all his pleasantry under the dread signs
of the hour, and Conrad, trembling with superstition and terror, was free
from hypocrisy. They, and those with them, discoursed on their chances, on
the nature of the risks they ran, and on its probable causes.
"I see no image of Maria, nor even a pitiful lamp to any of the blessed,
in this accursed bark!" said the juggler, after several had hazarded their
quaint and peculiar opinions. "Let the patron come forth, and answer for
his negligence."
The passengers were about equally divided between those who dissented from
and those who worshipped with Rome. This proposal, therefore, met with a
mixed reception. The latter protested against the neglect, while the
former, equally under the influence of abject fear, were loud in declaring
that the idolatry itself might cost them all their lives.
"The curse of heaven alight on the evil tongue that first uttered the
thought!" muttered the trembling Pippo between his teeth, too prudent to
fly openly in the face of so strong an opposition, and yet too credulous
not to feel the omission in every nerve--"Hast nothing by thee, pious
Conrad, that may avail a Christian?"
The pilgrim reached forth his hand with a rosary and cross. The sacred
emblem passed from mouth to mouth, among the believers, with a zeal little
short of that they had manifested in unloading the deck. Encouraged by
this sacrifice, they called loudly upon Baptiste to present himself.
Confronted with these unnurtured spirits, the patron shook in every limb,
for, between anger and abject fear, his self-command had by this time
absolutely deserted him. To the repeated appeals to procure a light, that
it might be placed before a picture of the mother of God which Conrad
produced, he objected his Protestant faith, the impossibility of
maintaining the flame while the bark pitched so violently, and the divided
opinions of the passengers. The Catholics bethought them of the country
and influence of Maso, and they loudly called upon him, for the love of
God! to come and enforce their requests. But the mariner was occupied on
the forecastle, lowering one anchor after another into the water,
passively assisted by the people of the bark, who wondered at a precaution
so useless, since no rope could reach the bottom, even while they did not
dare deny his orders. Something was now said of the curse that had
alighted on the vessel, in consequence of its patron's intention to embark
the headsman. Baptiste trembled to the skin of his crown, and his blood
crept with a superstitious awe.
"Dost think there can really be aught in this!" he asked, with parched
lips and a faltering tongue.
All distinction of faith was lost in the general ridicule. Now the
Westphalian was gone, there was not a man among them to doubt that a
navigation, so accompanied, would be cursed. Baptiste stammered, muttered
many incoherent sentences, and finally, in his impotency, he permitted the
dangerous secret to escape him.
The intelligence that Balthazar was among them produced a solemn and deep
silence. The fact, however, furnished as conclusive evidence of the cause
of their peril to the minds of these untutored beings, as a mathematician
could have received from the happiest of his demonstrations. New light
broke in upon them, and the ominous stillness was followed by a general
demand for the patron to point out the man. Obeying this order, partly
under the influence of a terror that was allied to his moral weakness, and
partly in bodily fear, he shoved the headsman forward, substituting the
person of the proscribed man for his own, and, profiting by the occasion,
he stole out of the crowd.
When the Herr Mueller, or as he was now known and called, Balthazar, was
rudely pushed into the hands of these ferocious agents of superstition,
the apparent magnitude of the discovery induced a general and breathless
pause. Like the treacherous calm that had so long reigned upon the lake,
it was a precursor of a fearful and violent explosion. Little was said,
for the occasion was too ominous for a display of vulgar feeling, but
Conrad, Pippo, and one or two more, silently raised the fancied offender
in their arms, and bore him desperately towards the side of the bark.
"Call on Maria, for the good of thy soul!" whispered the Neapolitan, with
a strange mixture of Christian zeal, in the midst of all his ferocity.
The sound of words like these usually conveys the idea of charity and
love, but, notwithstanding this gleam of hope, Balthazar still found
himself borne towards his fate.
On quitting the throng that clustered together in a dense body between the
masts, Baptiste encountered his old antagonist, Nicklaus Wagner. The fury
which had so long been pent in his breast suddenly found vent, and, in the
madness of the moment, he struck him. The stout Bernese grappled his
assailant, and the struggle became fierce as that of brutes. Scandalized
by such a spectacle, offended by the disrespect, and ignorant of what else
was passing near--for the crowd had uttered its resolutions in the
suppressed voices of men determined--the Baron de Willading and the Signor
Grimaldi advanced with dignity and firmness to prevent the shameful
strife. At this critical moment the voice of Balthazar was heard above the
roar of the coming wind, not calling on Maria, as he had been admonished,
but appealing to the two old nobles to save him. Sigismund sprang forward
like a lion, at the cry, but too late to reach those who were about to
cast the headsman from the gangway, he was just in time to catch the body,
by its garments, when actually sailing in the air. By a vast effort of
strength its direction was diverted. Instead of alighting in the water,
Balthazar encountered the angry combatants, who, driven back on the two
nobles, forced the whole four over the side of the bark into the water.
The struggle between the two bodies of air ceased, that on the surface of
the lake yielding to the avalanche from above, and the tempest came
howling upon the bark.
Chapter VII.
---and now the glee
Of the loud hills shakes with their mountain-mirth.
Byron.
It is necessary to recapitulate a little, in order to connect events. The
signs of the hour had been gradually but progressively increasing. While
the lake was unruffled, a stillness so profound prevailed, that sounds
from the distant port, such as the heavy fall of an oar, or a laugh from
the waterman, had reached the ears of those in the Winkelried, bringing
with them the feeling of security, and the strong charm of a calm at even.
To these succeeded the gathering in the heavens, and the roaring of the
winds, as they came rushing down the sides of the Alps, in their first
descent into the basin of the Leman. As the sight grew useless, except as
it might study the dark omens of the impending vault, the sense of hearing
became doubly acute, and it had been a powerful agent in heightening the
vague but acute apprehensions of the travellers. The rushes of the wind,
which at first were broken, at intervals resembling the roar of a
chimney-top in a gale, had soon reached the fearful grandeur of those
aerial wheelings of squadrons, to which we have more than once alluded,
passing off in dread mutterings, that, in the deep quiet of all other
things, bore a close affinity to the rumbling of a surf upon the
sea-shore. The surface of the lake was first broken after one of these
symptoms, and it was this infallible sign of a gale which had assured Maso
there was no time to lose. This movement of the element in a calm is a
common phenomenon on waters that are much environed with elevated and
irregular head-lands, and it is a certain proof that wind is on some
distant portion of the sheet. It occurs frequently on the ocean, too,
where the mariner is accustomed to find a heavy sea setting in one
direction, the effects of some distant storm, while the breeze around him
is blowing in its opposite. It had been succeeded by the single rolling
swell, like the outer circle of waves produced by dropping a stone into
the water, and the regular and increasing agitation of the lake, until the
element broke as in a tempest, and that seemingly of its own volition,
since not a breath of air was stirring. This last and formidable symptom
of the force of the coming gust, however, had now become so unequivocal,
that, at the moment when the three travellers and the patron fell from her
gangway, the Winkelried, to use a seaman's phrase, was literally wallowing
in the troughs of the seas.