and I tell you ifI don't get my suit that I was confirmed in, I'll go to the gentlemenof the head-chopping company and tell them you've broken out of prison,which they certainly won't like. For by rights all the aristocrats oughtto go to the "Gartine," or whatever you call it, so that we can have"egalite" and liberty, and we poor fellows can amuse ourselves insteadof having all the good times used up by the great gentlemen!' Then helooked at me as if he would like to kill me, but he couldn't do that,so he tried to talk me round with promises. Dear me! what didn't the manpromise me! A bag full of money, and a pig every year, and every year ablack suit, if I would only go quietly home with him. And he put on myfinger on the spot a ring with a red stone that I had always fancied,so I went along quietly with him to his apartment that I had the key of.The Baron slept in my attic room, and I had to lie on the sofa in hisbest room to look as if I was trying to play the gentleman. The next daythe Baron went out twice in a blue blouse with a cap on his head, andthe second morning we both went on foot out of the city, in clothes thatI wouldn't have liked to touch with a pair of tongs!"
Mahlmann stopped and rubbed his left knee. "What rheumatism I do have!And in the month of July! Well, well, it's always the way when you beginto get old; I suppose I must be about ninety. My grandfather's aunt,though, was more than a hundred and only died then from eating too muchat a pig-killing!" He sighed and nodded. "We've all got to be put underground some day, but it's queer just the same what a difference there isabout dying. I'm old now, and that time when I went through Paris inthe early morning with a rag-bag on my back, and my Baron with just suchanother one, was the first time in my life that I ever thought of death,and it isn't a thought for a boy. It was because the carts were passingus with the aristocrats who were going to have their heads chopped off.I'd seen those old carts often enough and naturally thought nothing ofit, because it was a good thing that the fine Monsieurs and Madames weregot rid off; but this time it startled me, for the little Mamsell was inone of the ramshackle old wagons too. And the strangest of all was shestill had on my confirmation suit that made her look like a pretty boy.She had folded her hands and looked as if she was going to communion.There weren't many people in the street,' it was so early, and I wasjust about to open my mouth and cry out that Mamsell had on my blacksuit and I wanted her to give it back, when my Baron clapped his handover my mouth and I nearly choked. 'Donner-wetter' how he gripped me!But only a minute, for suddenly his strength gave out and he stoodstock-still and began to tremble. He had looked at Manon and she at him.Such a smile came over her face and she bowed her head, and then thecart drove quickly on. My master stood in one spot for as much as aquarter of an hour, and big tears rolled down his cheeks. 'A horriblemistake!' he murmured, 'she told me she was in no danger, that herfather would get her free the next day--he could not have found her!Heavenly Father, couldst thou not have pity on her youth and beauty?'He said much more and I got impatient when he wouldn't go on, and said,'Herr Baron, the little Mamsell is gone for good and all, I suppose, andmy black suit too, so there's no chance of my ever seeing that again,but if we stay here much longer they'll take us to the "Gartine" too,and the little Mamsell wouldn't wish that, or why should she have madeall this fuss about my suit. And by this time she's certainly in heaven,and that's a very good place they say!'
"I talked like this to my Baron, till he began to walk, and went fasterand faster, out through the city gates, and never looked back for metill we came to some houses where English lived in a village a few milesfrom Paris, where the French didn't make such a time as in the cityitself. The English were going back to their own country, as all thiswas rather uncomfortable, and we traveled with them by slow stages tothe coast, and then in a small boat to England, where they eat theirbeef too red for my taste; In other ways they live well enough, and Iwould have had nothing to complain of if my Baron had been a little morecheerful. He had forgotten how to laugh, had grown pale and silent, andnights instead of sleeping he lay groaning and muttering in French andDanish to himself. In his dreams he was always calling for Manon, asenseless thing to do since she couldn't come!"
The old man looked thoughtfully toward the setting sun. "When I thoughtover the whole affair I felt dreadfully sorry about little Mam-sell. Shewas such a pretty little thing with short brown hair, and such laughingeyes as if there were no trouble or sorrow in the world. I was onlya green lad then, and knew nothing about women, but the memory of hersmile as she sat in the cart stayed by me. Afterward I once saw a babylying in its coffin, that looked as content as Mamsell Manon did thatday, going to lay her white neck on the block, I grew more reasonableas time went on and forgot my vexation over my black suit. The Barontreated me very decently, I can't complain. Later on, though, hedecided we had better part, for I had grown too free in my manners inParis, He gave me a good present and if I hadn't had all sorts of badluck I might be a rich man now. But it's always so, there's no 'egalite'in this country, and if we don't have a good revolution it will never beany different. Though it doesn't always turn out well for everyone eventhen, The French grocer who did such a good business with the King'swine was one of those who could never get enough aristocrats killed; andfinally his own flesh and blood went to her death for the sake of one ofthem. If misfortune is bound to come there's no getting out of it, andit came to me the time they said I belonged to that band of thievesthere was such a talk about. I defended myself well, but all the same Iwas put in gaol in Gluckstadt, and there's no knowing how long I mighthave stayed there if it hadn't been for a lucky chance that brought theDanish king to see the prison, along with a lot of fine gentlemen.All of us convicts had to stand in rank and file while old Friedrichinspected us. And who should be behind the King but my Baron, with whitehair and bent back, and a great star on his breast. They were goingslowly past us, when I coughed, and he started and came close to me. 'DoI not know you?' he said, and I laughed a little. 'Herr Baron, do youremember the story of my best black suit?' He looked rather queer anddrew his hand across his forehead as if he were wiping something off,and passed on. The next day one of the wardens took me to the Baron'shouse, and he asked why I was in prison. When he had heard all about it,he sighed and spoke softly to himself and then sighed again. At last hegot up and put his hand on my arm. 'You knew her, Franz, and because youknew her------' he could get no further and I was taken away, and soonafter pardoned out. So I saw that the Baron remembered my confirmationsuit; and ten years after I saw him again in Kiel, in a bath-chair, forhe couldn't walk. I went to see him and he sent me ten thalers, and hisservant told me he had great trouble with his sons. He is long dead,which is a pity, for he often sent me something. Everything comes toan end, everything. In the morning when I lie in bed and can't sleep,I often think of little Manon who died in my black suit in the midstof the aristocrats, where she didn't belong, and my black suit didn'tbelong there either. Things never turn out as one expects, never!"
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