on christmas day the major’s wife gives a great dinner at ekeby.
she sits as hostess at a table laid for fifty guests. she sits there in splendor and magnificence; here her short sheepskin jacket, her striped woollen skirt, and clay-pipe do not follow her. she rustles in silk, gold weighs on her bare arms, pearls cool her white neck.
where are the pensioners? where are they who on the black floor of the smithy, out of the polished copper kettle, drank a toast to the new masters of ekeby?
in the corner by the stove the pensioners are sitting at a separate table; to-day there is no room for them at the big table. to them the food comes late, the wine sparingly; to them are sent no glances from beautiful women, no one listens to g?sta’s jokes.
but the pensioners are like tamed birds, like satiated wild beasts. they had had scarcely an hour’s sleep that night; then they had driven to morning worship, lighted by torches and the stars. they saw the christmas candles, they heard the christmas hymns, their faces were like smiling children’s. they forgot the night in the smithy as one forgets an evil dream.
[50]
great and powerful is the major’s wife at ekeby. who dares lift his arm to strike her; who his voice to give evidence against her? certainly not poor gentlemen who for many years have eaten her bread and slept under her roof. she can put them where she will, she can shut her door to them when she will, and they have not the power to fly from her might. god be merciful to their souls! far from ekeby they cannot live.
at the big table there was rejoicing: there shone marianne sinclair’s beautiful eyes; there rang the gay countess dohna’s low laugh.
but the pensioners are gloomy. was it not just as easy to have put them at the same table with the other guests? what a lowering position there in the corner by the stove. as if pensioners were not fit to associate with fine people!
the major’s wife is proud to sit between the count at borg and the bro clergyman. the pensioners hang their heads like shame-faced children, and by degrees awake in them thoughts of the night.
like shy guests the gay sallies, the merry stories come to the table in the corner by the stove. there the rage of the night and its promises enter into their minds. master julius makes the mighty captain, christian bergh, believe that the roasted grouse, which are being served at the big table, will not go round for all the guests; but it amuses no one.
“they won’t go round,” he says. “i know how many there are. but they’ll manage in spite of it, captain christian; they have some roasted crows for us here at the little table.”
but colonel beerencreutz’s lips are curved by only a very feeble smile, under the fierce moustaches,[51] and g?sta has looked the whole day as if he was meditating somebody’s death.
“any food is good enough for pensioners,” he says.
at last the dish heaped up with magnificent grouse reaches the little table.
but captain christian is angry. has he not had a life-long hate of crows,—those odious, cawing, winged things?
he hated them so bitterly that last autumn he had put on a woman’s trailing dress, and had fastened a cloth on his head and made himself a laughing-stock for all men, only to get in range when they ate the grain in the fields.
he sought them out at their caucuses on the bare fields in the spring and killed them. he looked for their nests in the summer, and threw out the screaming, featherless young ones, or smashed the half-hatched eggs.
now he seizes the dish of grouse.
“do you think i don’t know them?” he cries to the servant. “do i need to hear them caw to recognize them? shame on you, to offer christian bergh crows! shame on you!”
thereupon he takes the grouse, one by one, and throws them against the wall.
“shame, shame!” he reiterates, so that the whole room rings,—“to offer christian bergh crows! shame!”
and just as he used to hurl the helpless young crows against the cliffs, so now he sends grouse after grouse whizzing against the wall.
sauce and grease spatter about him, the crushed birds rebound to the floor.
and the bachelors’ wing rejoices.
[52]
then the angry voice of the major’s wife penetrates to the pensioners’ ears.
“turn him out!” she calls to the servants.
but they do not dare to touch him. he is still christian bergh, the mighty captain.
“turn him out!”
he hears the command, and, terrible in his rage, he now turns upon the major’s wife as a bear turns from a fallen enemy to meet a new attack. he marches up to the horse-shoe table. his heavy tread resounds through the hall. he stands opposite her, with the table between them.
“turn him out!” cries the major’s wife again.
but he is raging; none dare to face his frowning brow and great clenched hand. he is big as a giant, and as strong. the guests and servants tremble, and dare not approach him. who would dare to touch him now, when rage has taken away his reason?
he stands opposite the major’s wife and threatens her.
“i took the crow and threw it against the wall. and i did right.”
“out with you, captain!”
“shame, woman! offer christian bergh crows! if i did right i would take you and your seven hell’s—”
“thousand devils, christian bergh! don’t swear. nobody but i swears here.”
“do you think i am afraid of you, hag? don’t you think i know how you got your seven estates?”
“silence, captain!”
“when altringer died he gave them to your husband because you had been his mistress.”
[53]
“will you be silent?”
“because you had been such a faithful wife, margareta samzelius. and the major took the seven estates and let you manage them and pretended not to know. and the devil arranged it all; but now comes the end for you.”
the major’s wife sits down; she is pale and trembling. she assents in a strange, low voice.
“yes, now it is the end for me, and it is your doing, christian bergh.”
at her voice captain christian trembles, his face works, and his eyes are filled with tears of anguish.
“i am drunk,” he cries. “i don’t know what i am saying; i haven’t said anything. dog and slave, dog and slave, and nothing more have i been for her for forty years. she is margareta celsing, whom i have served my whole life. i say nothing against her. what should i have to say against the beautiful margareta celsing! i am the dog which guards her door, the slave who bears her burdens. she may strike me, she may kick me! you see how i hold my tongue and bear it. i have loved her for forty years. how could i say anything against her?”
and a wonderful sight it is to see how he kneels and begs for forgiveness. and as she is sitting on the other side of the table, he goes on his knees round the table till he comes to her; then he bends down and kisses the hem of her dress, and the floor is wet with his tears.
but not far from the major’s wife sits a small, strong man. he has shaggy hair, small, squinting eyes, and a protruding under-jaw. he looks like a bear. he is a man of few words, who likes to go[54] his own quiet way and let the world take care of itself. he is major samzelius.
he rises when he hears captain christian’s accusing words, and the major’s wife rises, and all the fifty guests. the women are weeping in terror of what is coming, the men stand dejected, and at the feet of the major’s wife lies captain christian, kissing the hem of her dress, wetting the floor with his tears.
the major slowly clenches his broad, hairy hands, and lifts his arm.
but the woman speaks first. her voice sounds hollow and unfamiliar.
“you stole me,” she cried. “you came like a thief and took me. they forced me, in my home, by blows, by hunger, and hard words to be your wife. i have treated you as you deserved.”
the major’s broad fist is clenched. his wife gives way a couple of steps. then she speaks again.
“living eels twist under the knife; an unwilling wife takes a lover. will you strike me now for what happened twenty years ago? do you not remember how he lived at ekeby, we at sj?? do you not remember how he helped us in our poverty? we drove in his carriages, we drank his wine. did we hide anything from you? were not his servants your servants? did not his gold weigh heavy in your pocket? did you not accept the seven estates? you held your tongue and took them; then you should have struck, berndt samzelius,—then you should have struck.”
the man turns from her and looks on all those present. he reads in their faces that they think[55] she is right, that they all believe he took the estates in return for his silence.
“i never knew it!” he says, and stamps on the floor.
“it is well that you know it now!” she cries, in a shrill, ringing voice. “was i not afraid lest you should die without knowing it? it is well that you know it now, so that i can speak out to you who have been my master and jailer. you know now that i, in spite of all, was his from whom you stole me. i tell you all now, you who have slandered me!”
it is the old love which exults in her voice and shines from her eyes. her husband stands before her with lifted hand. she reads horror and scorn on the fifty faces about her. she feels that it is the last hour of her power. but she cannot help rejoicing that she may speak openly of the tenderest memory of her life.
“he was a man, a man indeed. who were you, to come between us? i have never seen his equal. he gave me happiness, he gave me riches. blessed be his memory!”
then the major lets his lifted arm fall without striking her; now he knows how he shall punish her.
“away!” he cries; “out of my house!”
she stands motionless.
but the pensioners stand with pale faces and stare at one another. everything was going as the devil had prophesied. they now saw the consequences of the non-renewal of the contract. if that is true, so is it also true that she for more than twenty years had sent pensioners to perdition, and that they too were destined for the journey. oh, the witch!
[56]
“out with you!” continues the major. “beg your bread on the highway! you shall have no pleasure of his money, you shall not live on his lands. there is no more a mistress of ekeby. the day you set your foot in my house i will kill you.”
“do you drive me from my home?”
“you have no home. ekeby is mine.”
a feeling of despair comes over the major’s wife. she retreats to the door, he following close after her.
“you who have been my life’s curse,” she laments, “shall you also now have power to do this to me?”
“out, out!”
she leans against the door-post, clasps her hands, and holds them before her face. she thinks of her mother and murmurs to herself:—
“‘may you be disowned, as i have been disowned; may the highway be your home, the hay-stack your bed!’ it is all coming true.”
the good old clergyman from bro and the judge from munkerud came forward now to major samzelius and tried to calm him. they said to him that it would be best to let all those old stories rest, to let everything be as it was, to forget and forgive.
he shakes the mild old hands from his shoulder. he is terrible to approach, just as christian bergh had been.
“it is no old story,” he cries. “i never knew anything till to-day. i have never been able before to punish the adulteress.”
at that word the major’s wife lifts her head and regains her old courage.
“you shall go out before i do. do you think[57] that i shall give in to you?” she says. and she comes forward from the door.
the major does not answer, but he watches her every movement, ready to strike if he finds no better way to revenge himself.
“help me, good gentlemen,” she cries, “to get this man bound and carried out, until he gets back the use of his senses. remember who i am and who he is! think of it, before i must give in to him! i arrange all the work at ekeby, and he sits the whole day long and feeds his bears. help me, good friends and neighbors! there will be a boundless misery if i am no longer here. the peasant gets his living by cutting my wood and carting my iron. the charcoal burner lives by getting me charcoal, the lumber man by bringing down my timber. it is i who give out the work which brings prosperity. smiths, mechanics, and carpenters live by serving me. do you think that man can keep my work going? i tell you that if you drive me away you let famine in.”
again are many hands lifted to help the major’s wife; again mild, persuading hands are laid on the major’s shoulders.
“no,” he says, “away with you. who will defend an adulteress? i tell you that if she does not go of her own will i shall take her in my arms and carry her down to my bears.”
at these words the raised hands are lowered.
then, as a last resource, she turns to the pensioners.
“will you also allow me to be driven from my home? have i let you freeze out in the snow in winter? have i denied you bitter ale and sweet[58] brandy? did i take any pay or any work from you because i gave you food and clothes? have you not played at my feet, safe as children at their mother’s side? has not the dance gone through my halls? have not merriment and laughter been your daily bread? do not let this man, who has been my life’s misfortune, drive me from my home, gentlemen! do not let me become a beggar on the highway!”
at these words g?sta berling had stolen away to a beautiful dark-haired girl who sat at the big table.
“you were much at borg five years ago, anna,” he says. “do you know if it was the major’s wife who told ebba dohna that i was a dismissed priest?”
“help her, g?sta!” is the girl’s only answer.
“you must know that i will first hear if she has made me a murderer.”
“oh, g?sta, what a thought! help her, g?sta!”
“you won’t answer, i see. then sintram told the truth.” and g?sta goes back to the other pensioners. he does not lift a finger to help the major’s wife.
oh, if only she had not put the pensioners at a separate table off there in the corner by the stove! now the thoughts of the night awake in their minds, and a rage burns in their faces which is not less than the major’s own.
in pitiless hardness they stand, unmoved by her prayers.
did not everything they saw confirm the events of the night?
“one can see that she did not get her contract renewed,” murmurs one.
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“go to hell, hag!” screams another. “by rights we ought to hunt you from the door.”
“fools,” cries the gentle old uncle eberhard to the pensioners. “don’t you understand it was sintram?”
“of course we understand; of course we know it,” answers julius; “but what of that? may it not be true, at any rate? does not sintram go on the devil’s errands? don’t they understand one another?”
“go yourself, eberhard; go and help her!” they mock. “you don’t believe in hell. you can go!”
and g?sta berling stands, without a word, motionless.
no, from the threatening, murmuring, struggling bachelors’ wing she will get no help.
then once again she retreats to the door and raises her clasped hands to her eyes.
“‘may you be disowned, as i have been disowned,’” she cries to herself in her bitter sorrow. “‘may the highway be your home, the hay-stack your bed!’”
then she lays one hand on the door latch, but the other she stretches on high.
“know you all, who now let me fall, know that your hour is soon coming! you shall be scattered, and your place shall stand empty. how can you stand when i do not hold you up? you, melchior sinclair, who have a heavy hand and let your wife feel it, beware! you, minister at broby, your punishment is coming! madame uggla, look after your house; poverty is coming! you young, beautiful women—elizabeth dohna, marianne sinclair, anna stj?rnh?k—do not think that i am the only one who[60] must flee from her home. and beware, pensioners, a storm is coming over the land. you will be swept away from the earth; your day is over, it is verily over! i do not lament for myself, but for you; for the storm shall pass over your heads, and who shall stand when i have fallen? and my heart bleeds for my poor people. who will give them work when i am gone?”
she opens the door; but then captain christian lifts his head and says:—
“how long must i lie here at your feet, margareta celsing? will you not forgive me, so that i may stand up and fight for you?”
then the major’s wife fights a hard battle with herself; but she sees that if she forgives him he will rise up and attack her husband; and this man, who has loved her faithfully for forty years will become a murderer.
“must i forgive, too?” she says. “are you not the cause of all my misfortune, christian bergh? go to the pensioners and rejoice over your work.”
so she went. she went calmly, leaving terror and dismay behind her. she fell, but she was not without greatness in her fall.
she did not lower herself to grieving weakly, but in her old age she still exulted over the love of her youth. she did not lower herself to lamenting and pitiable weeping when she left everything; she did not shrink from wandering about the land with beggar’s bag and crutch. she pitied only the poor peasants and the happy, careless people on the shores of the l?fven, the penniless pensioners,—all those whom she had taken in and cared for.
she was abandoned by all, and yet she had strength[61] to turn away her last friend that he should not be a murderer.
she was a woman great in strength and love of action. we shall not soon see her like again.
the next day major samzelius moved from ekeby to his own farm of sj?, which lies next to the large estate.
in altringer’s will, by which the major had got the estates, it was clearly stated that none of them should be sold or given away, but that after the death of the major his wife and her heirs should inherit them all. so, as he could not dissipate the hated inheritance, he placed the pensioners to reign over it, thinking that he, by so doing, most injured ekeby and the other six estates.
as no one in all the country round now doubted that the wicked sintram went on the devil’s errands, and as everything he had promised had been so brilliantly fulfilled the pensioners were quite sure that the contract would be carried out in every point, and they were entirely decided not to do, during the year, anything sensible, or useful, or effeminate, convinced that the major’s wife was an abominable witch who sought their ruin.
the old philosopher, eberhard, ridiculed their belief. but who paid any attention to such a man, who was so obstinate in his unbelief that if he had lain in the midst of the fires of hell and had seen all the devils standing and grinning at him, would still have insisted that they did not exist, because they could not exist?—for uncle eberhard was a great philosopher.
g?sta berling told no one what he thought. it is certain that he considered he owed the major’s wife[62] little thanks because she had made him a pensioner at ekeby; it seemed better to him to be dead than to have on his conscience the guilt of ebba dohna’s suicide.
he did not lift his hand to be revenged on the major’s wife, but neither did he to help her. he could not. but the pensioners had attained great power and magnificence. christmas was at hand, with its feasts and pleasures. the hearts of the pensioners were filled with rejoicing; and whatever sorrow weighed on g?sta berling’s heart he did not show in face or speech.
