On the Night of the Seventh Moon

“Is the Prince very poular?”

“You know how it is with royalty. Sometimes they’re popular, sometimes not. You’ll see them riding through the streets and people shouting for them and the next day they have a bomb thrown at them.”

“Does that often happen?”

“Shall we say it happens. They’re not safe. I was always terrified when my boys used to go out with their parents. In the first carriage would be the Duke and his lady and their son the Prince and in the next the Duke’s brother Ludwig and Fredy. Of course Ludwig was a traitor and came to his end; Fredy swore loyalty but I reckon the loyalty of most people is to one person themselves. You’ll have to go and see the thanksgiving service. They’ll get the Processional Cross out, and as you know that’s quite a ceremony.”

“It was indeed and I thought what a lot of trouble they had gone to just to show me. I shall never forget how they guarded it. There was a very pleasant soldier-Sergeant Franck I believe he was called. Someone must have mentioned his name.”

“Oh, I know Sergeant Franck. A pleasant fellow. He was put to soldiering when quite a boy and I remember how proud his family were of him when he got into the Duke’s Guard. Then he married that wife of his. She’s changed. It just shows you what can happen. She was a poor frightened little thing when she married Franck. There’d been some sort of past . but he took care of her and now she’s got two children and is very pleased with herself. The change in people! It always makes me laugh. There they are and then life picks them up and puts them somewhere with someone else and you watch what happens from there. “

“Like soldiers,” I said, “Oh, people are a lot more interesting than them.”

I agreed.

“I’m glad he’s coming home when he is the Prince, I mean,” she went on.

“It’s the right time, when you come to think of it. Oh, he’s a one, he is. Fredy always declares he was my favourite.

“I never had a favourite,” I said. But that wasn’`t really true. Thunder and Lightning, I said. I couldn’'t imagine one without the other. The flash and the roar. That’s how they always seemed to me. I’d like to be back in the days when they were little. The joy of my life they were! Of course Ludwig, the Duke’s younger brother, wanted young Fredy brought up in the palace. Secretly he thought he had as much right there as the Duke. Predy’s Ludwig all over again. He always wanted to excel in everything, and just as Ludwig wanted to outshine the Duke, so Fredy wanted to do better than his cousin the Prince. What the Prince had, he wanted -all their toys, I mean. It frightened me then. Toys when they’re young, and when they grow up, I used to say, what then? It’ll be more than toys then. But you won this morning, didn’`t you? You got your way about young Fritzi. My goodness, you`’ve done something for that child.

You understand children. That’s strange really, because there you are, a spinster . ” Her smiling eyes were intent on my face, ‘and never having had one of your own.”

I felt a slow flush creep into my cheeks. I couldn’'t help it. She had conjured up so clearly a vision of that nursing home -the pregnant women chatting on the lawn-the poor girl who had died Gretchen I think her name was. Gretchen Swartz.

I had hesitated a second too long; those bland smiling eyes missed very little I was sure.

I said: “Understanding children is something one is born with, perhaps.”

“Oh yes, of course, that is so. But when a woman has a child something happens to her, I think. I’ve seen it happen.”

“Perhaps,” I said coolly.

“Well, the Prince will be home in time for our great night. Oh, you wouldn’`t know about this. We’re regular ones for celebrations. This is Loke’s land here. The Lokenwald, you see. And in two weeks’ time the moon will be full. That’s the night for mischief. I shan’t let you go out on that night. Miss Trant.”

I shivered a little; memories were unbearable.

She leaned towards me and took my hand in her rather damp hot one.

“No, I wouldn’`t let you go out. It’s not safe. Something gets into people on that night. It’s Loke’s moon-the seventh of the year; and there are people here who will be good Christians every night of the year except the night of the full seventh moon. Then they’re pagans again just as they were centuries ago before Christianity came to tame them down. Why, Miss, I believe I’ve frightened you.”

I tried to laugh.

“I’ve heard of it, you know. I’ve read of the gods and heroes.”

“So you do know something about our Night of the Seventh Moon after all?”

“Yes,” I said, “I know something.”

The afternoon was hot and sunny.

“We’ll all go down together,” said Frau Graben, ‘there’ll be such crowds I don’t want anyone to get trampled to death. “

“Surely it’s not as bad as that,” I protested.

“They’re all excited to know he’s back.”

We drove down into the town through the mountain roads which never failed to delight me. The orchids and gentians were in bloom, brightening the mountain slopes; every now and then we came upon a plateau with a small farmhouse and heard the familiar tinkle of the cow bells Down in the town the sun was shining on the mellowing roof-tops; the bells were ringing and as we came into the Oberer Stadtplatz we were greeted by the gay sight of flags fluttering from every place where it was possible to put them. The men and women were in their native costume and I guessed that hundreds of them had come in from the neighbouring countryside.

I was glad we had Frau Graben with us, for the children were very excited and I should have been afraid that they might stray away and get hurt in the crush.

We drove to the inn where we had stabled our horses on another occasion and there a window looking on to the square in which was the church had been kept for us. From there we should be able to see the procession undisturbed.

The innkeeper treated Frau Graben with great respect. She evidently knew him well for she asked after his daughter. His eyes lit up at the mention of her and he clearly doted on her.

“The prettiest girl in Rochenburg,” commented Frau Graben, and I was aware of the sly speculative look in her eyes and wondered what it meant.

Wine and little spiced cakes, at the sight of which Frau Graben’s eyes glistened, were brought out and there was some sweet drink for the children.

Frau Graben was clearly as excited as the boys and Liesel. Dagobert kept telling me what everything signified; Fritz, now completely devoted to me, kept near me and I was delighted because this was a spectacle he was going to enjoy; Liesel could not keep still; but Frau Graben seemed absorbed in some secret mirth which delighted her to such an extent that I got the impression that she was debating whether she would be more amused to share her mirth or keep it entirely to herself.

Everywhere was an air of expectancy; people called excitedly to each other. The flags gaily fluttered at the windows. I recognized that of Rochenstein of course, and the Prussian flag, but most of the Austrian and German states were represented. A band started to play. In the Oberer Stadtplatz a choir was singing. I recognized the words which began:

“Unsem Ausgang segne Gotf ” God bless our going out nor less our coming in. ” My mother had taught me this. They sang it, she said, when they moved into a new house. I suppose it could now refer to the Prince’s visit to Prussia and his return home.

In the distance I could hear the military band.

“They’ll be coming from the palace now. You’ll see the Processional Cross, Miss Trant,” chortled Frau Graben.

“I dare say there was a big ceremony getting it out of the crypt.”