On the Night of the Seventh Moon

I heard my own voice then. I was unaware that I had spoken.

“It’s horrible-butchery!”

I took Fritz by the hand and, drawing aside the canvas, I dragged him away from the scene of the slaughter.

I had forgotten Dagobert. My one thought was to look after Fritz whose feelings were mine. I had rarely been so shaken in my life as when I saw those innocent beautiful creatures run forward to their deaths.

I found our horses. The man who was guarding them looked at me strangely.

I said: “We are going back to Klocksburg. Will you go and tell Master Dagobert to come to us at once.”

Fritz was visibly trembling as he mounted his pony, I hope I managed to hide that I was similarly disturbed. In a very short time one of the foresters came out with Dagobert. The boy looked stunned. As we rode away he said: “My father is very angry.”

I hope I did not show my dismay. I was well aware that both boys were watching me closely-Fritz as a kind of deliverer but one in whose powers he had little confidence; Dagobert as a stranger who had behaved in a reckless manner through ignorance rather than courage.

The journey back to Klocksburg was made in almost complete silence after that.

When we arrived I went straight to my room and it was not long before Frau Graben was knocking at my door.

“You left the pavilion! But nobody leaves the pavilion before the Family party!”

We did,” I said.

In spite of the fact that she thought I had done something which might be unforgivable she could not hide her secret amusement. Her expression was like that I had surprised when she was watching the spiders in the basin.

“It’s a mercy the Duke was not there.”

“That would have been lese-majeste, I suppose.”

“That would have been a very serious matter.”

“And what would have happened to me? Should I have been put before a shooting squad?”

She smiled.

“I don’t know what will come of this,” she said.

“We’ll have to see. I heard from Dagobert that his father looked like thunder. I used to call my two when they were little, Donner and Blitzen. I never saw such rages as young Fredy could fall into. Talk about thunder! And the Prince, he was like lightning into everything wildly enthusiastic and all for it one minute and tiring quickly. Yes, Donner and Blitzen was my name for them.”

“I suppose I shall be asked to leave.”

“We’ll see,” she said.

Then she began to talk about her two charges, the cousins -the Count and the Prince. There never had been such children, according to her.

The mischief! It was one body’s work just to get them out of that. I gathered that the Prince was her favourite. Little Lightning was slightly more lovable than young Thunder.

But I was not really paying attention; I was wondering what was going to happen. It was almost certain that I should be asked to pack and leave. The count would certainly not want someone who had shown him such disrespect to himself to teach his children.

I went up to the turret-room. Somehow it seemed to offer me a little solace. I looked across the valley down on the town where we had seen the Schiltz. en fest that afternoon and beyond to the forest where that nauseating slaughter had taken place, and terrible depression swept over me. If I left here now I would never know the answer I had come to seek. The manner in which Frau Graben had come into the shop and my arrival here had seemed to me like a pattern; it reminded me of the manner in which Ilse had appeared. There was something uncanny about it. It was like one of the fantastic adventures in which the gods and heroes of the forest indulged. I had changed since I had been here. I was growing more and more like that lighthearted girl who had wandered into the mist and I had felt certain that I was going to unravel the mystery and make the discovery which was necessary to my peace of mind. And if I were sent away that would be the end.

Perhaps I could go to the Damenstift . offer myself as a teacher of English as I had thought of doing once before. But I wanted to stay here; I was growing fond of the children, particularly Fritz. The restricted life in a convent was not appealing; its only virtue would be that I was here near that enchanted forest where once long ago I had walked into a dream . or was it reality?

I spent a sleepless night and the next morning when I was in the turret-room with the children, while we were at the window practising English vocabulary, we saw a little cavalcade of riders; they were coming up the mountain road which led to Klocksburg.

Dagobert shouted: “It’s my father.”

My spirits sank. He had wasted little time.

I said the boys should go to their rooms to wash their hands and prepare to receive him. I went to mine to prepare myself for the worst.

I was summoned down to the Rittersaal. I left the fortress, crossed the courtyard and entered the Randhausburg. My knees were trembling but I held my head high and I knew there was an unusual colour in my cheeks. I hope I did not show how agitated I was. I tried to calm myself. I was telling myself: You will be dismissed, but if they don’t want you, you could stay on for a while living humbly perhaps in some mountain inn and then perhaps teach at the Damenstift.

He was seated there alone and rose when I entered. He bowed from the waist as the boys did, clicking his heels as he did so. He looked magnificent in the uniform of the Duke’s guards. I felt like a drab little wren beside a peacock.

“Miss er ” he began.

Trant,” I supplied.

“Miss Trant, we met for the first time yesterday.”

His English was good, there was only the faintest trace of accent. His voice unnerved me; it was very like Maximilian’s.

“You are here to teach my children English,” he went on.

“That is so.”

“They do not appear to have made much progress.”

“On the contrary I would say that they are making excel lent progress.

They only had a word or two of the language when I arrived, their education in that direction having been entirely neglected. “

I was bold. I felt I had nothing to lose. He had determined to be rid of me; and because I found his bold glance I offensive I could not prevent my voice taking on a firmness which I knew he would think of as insolent.

He sat down at the refectory table on which pewter utensils stood.

“You may sit,” he said.

I did so because although I resented the manner in which he gave me permission to do so, I could see that I should be at a disadvantage if I remained standing.

“So you found the children ignorant?” he said.

“As regards English, certainly.”

“And since you have come they have made such rapid progress in this that when I asked them to tell me in English what they had thought of yesterday’s performance they were completely tongue-tied.”

“That might well be beyond their powers at present.”

“It was not beyond your powers to let us know what you thought.”

“I suppose I gave a good indication.”

“You left us in no doubt that you considered us a country of barbarians.”

He waited for my reply but I made none. He insisted, That was so? “

“I found the spectacle revolting.”

Indeed? “

“Is it so surprising?”

“Ah, English susceptibilities! Your Queen was equally un impressed or perhaps impressed. I was present when she was entertained over here. Her remarks were identical.

“Butchery she said.”

“Then I was in noble company.”

You do not seem to set much store by that. You were in noble company yesterday but you behaved in an exceedingly discourteous manner. If it were not for the fact that you are a foreigner and can plead ignorance, it might be necessary to reprimand you very severely. “