On the Night of the Seventh Moon

“I despise you,” I said. , That is of no consequence. You are caught. There is no escape for you.

You are wise enough to know that. “

“Please keep away from me.”

“Why, when I am pleased to be near you.”

“You are wicked. Do you know for whom that grave has been dug? For a girl who trusted you, whom you have betrayed, a girl who has taken her life because you have made it intolerable for her. How dare you! How can you...

Here beside her very grave.”

“Don’t you see, it adds a touch of piquancy?”

“You disgust me.”

*I find that amusing too. “

I was trembling. I looked towards the shore. There was no sign of anyone. I knew that if I attempted to run he would overtake me. There would be a struggle and although I should employ every bit of strength I possessed, I knew that he would overcome me.

I cried out: “I want Fritz. What have you done with him?”

“Now you are being tiresome.”

“I insist.

“You insist? You are in no position to insist. Come, let us be friends before you die.”

“Before I die.”

“You are not your usual clever self today. You have accused me of treason. The penalty for treason is death. I do not want to die. So I cannot allow you to live after making such an accusation against me.”

“You are mad,” I said. And then I cried out in sudden fear:

“You have killed my son. ” “And now you are going to force me to kill you. I shall not enjoy that one little bit. I shall hate killing a woman whom I admire, especially one whom I have never really known and who has not become tiresome to me.”

“You have no regret for the death of those who have become tiresome, I see. Tell me,” I cried, ‘have you killed Fritz? “

He kept his grip on my arm and forced me towards the grave.

“You are a fool after all,” he said.

“Perhaps I should have tired quickly of you. You need never have died. You could have lived in retirement with Max. I should have allowed that. “

“You are mad,” I said.

I could see that this was so. He was mad with ambition, with the love of power and the burning desire to take from his cousin all that he had ever had.

“You will not live to see me rule Rochenstein, but before you die I am going to show you what kind of lover you turned your back on. Then I shall kill you and you shall join your son.”

Still gripping me, he kicked aside one of the planks. I looked down into the grave. Fritz was lying there.

“Oh God,” I cried, trying to struggle free. I wanted to go down there, to bring him up . my own son who had been taken from me at his birth and now that he had come back to me was in the grave.

I heard a shout from the bank then.

“Lencheni Lencheni’ ” Oh thank God,” I cried.

“It’s Maximilian.”

“Too late, cousin,” muttered the Count.

“By the time you are here I shall have been both your wife’s lover and murderer. Then I shall be ready for you. A triple funeral with some honours and in the royal avenue, I suppose.”

He had seized me. I fought with all my might. And then suddenly a shot rang out. The Count’s hold on me was relaxed. I sprang back in time to see him stagger like a drunken man -before he fell. Then I saw the rich red blood staining the grass.

“Maximilian,” I whispered, ‘you have killed him. “

I ran as fast as I could to shore. Maximilian was getting out of the boat. I fell into his arms and he held me against him. I stayed there only a second. I heard myself babbling something about Fritz, my son lying in a grave.

It is difficult to remember clearly what followed. I think I was in too great a state of shock to realize exactly what was happening.

Maximilian had descended into the grave; he held up Fritz; and another man had appeared on the scene. He carried a gun which he laid on the grass while he took Fritz from Maximilian.

He set him down gently on the ground and then Maximilian was beside me and we were kneeling down beside our son.

I was suddenly aware that the man who had joined us was the innkeeper.

“He’s not dead,” said Maximilian.

“We’ll get him back to ” Klocksburg without delay. “

“We’ll make a stretcher for him,” said the innkeeper.

“I’m glad I was there.”

“You shot him through the heart,” said Maximilian.

“And I’d do it again,” replied the innkeeper.

“I meant to get him and I did.”

We took Fritz back. Thank God it had not been the Count’s intention to kill the boy outright, for he could so easily have done so. He had knocked Fritz unconscious and thrown him into the grave, to be discovered the following day when the coffin of the innkeeper’s daughter was brought for burial. By that time Fritz would have died of his injuries, exposure or fever; and if he were not quite dead the Count’s spies would have found some way of killing him. It would appear, of course, that the boy had fallen into the grave and injured himself in the fall, I would not let him out of my sight and I was at his bedside when he regained consciousness so that I was the first person he saw when he opened his eyes. I put my face close to his and whispered: “Fritz. I am here with you. We’re going to be together for evermore.” He stared at me wonderingly and I went on: “You always wanted a mother, Fritz.

Now you have one. I am your mother. “

I don’t think he understood but my words had a comforting effect on him. I longed for the day when he would be well enough to understand fully the wonderful thing that had happened to us.

The day after that on which the Count had been murdered the French declared war on the Prussians and all the German states were involved.

These events dwarfed everything else into insignificance. As the Commander-in-Chief of the army, Maximilian had to prepare immediately to leave for the front. I was left behind and nursing Fritz back to health gave me something to work for during those dark days. I think the fact that I was his mother was such wonderful news that it speeded his recovery.

The Prince of Klarenbock, to whom Maximilian had told the whole story during his visit there, behaved magnanimously. He said his daughter must return to Klarenbock; and this she did in the company of Ilse; I heard later that Wilhelmina had entered a convent where she hoped to expiate the sin of attempted murder.

Soon after the outbreak of war the innkeeper was tried for the murder of the Count. Maximilian had asked for special leniency to be shown, for as the father of a girl whom the Count had seduced and deserted and who had killed herself because of this, he had committed the act under great provocation.

There was a war, said Maximilian, and all good men were needed at the front. He would personally vouch for the innkeeper.

And this he did.

While I was nursing Fritz back to health I used to talk to him of the wonderful time we would have when the war was over and he, I and his father were all together.

We used the Landhaus as a hospital and those were grave and anxious days when it was good to have plenty to do; but when the terrible casualties started to come in I was filled with terror lest one day they should bring in Maximilian. I don’t know what I should have done without Frau Graben. I have since discovered that I owe that woman a great deal.

At last came news of the great victory, the bells rang out from the Pfarrkirche. The French were in retreat and the Emperor was cornered at Sedan.

What joy there was on the day Maximilian came marching home.

We were together again. I was the first to greet him openly now. No more secrets. The story of our marriage, the death of the Count, the retirement of Wilhelmina into a convent, the discovery of our son-these were legends of the past. They had been swallowed up in the great event of war.