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Page 75
The bear made several feints, slipping along by the wall from right
to left; but the bull, with his forehead almost touching the ground,
followed the enemy's movements with marvellous coolness.
In five minutes the galleries had been cleared; the noise of the crowd
taking refuge down the Jews' street was becoming more remote, and this
manoeuvring of the two huge brutes seemed as if they were meditating
a drawn battle, when suddenly the bull, losing patience, threw himself
upon the bear with the whole momentum of his monstrous bulk. The unhappy
brute, pressed so closely, took refuge under the wood-shed, but the head
and horns of his foe pursued him thither, and there no doubt he nailed
his adversary to the wall, for although I could only see the bull's
hind-quarters, I could hear a dreadful shriek, followed by a crunching of
bones, and presently a pool of blood was flowing over the pavement.
I could only see the bull's hind-quarters and his tail waving aloft like
a battle-flag. You would have thought he wanted to bring the walls down
by the furious and violent pounding of his hind-feet. That silent scene
in shadow was fearful. I did not wait to see the end. I came carefully
down my ladder, and slipped out of the court like a thief. You may
imagine with what pleasure I inhaled the pure open air; and passing
through the crowd collected round the door where the bear-leader was
tearing his hair in his wild despair, I ran off to my aunt's house.
I was just going round under the arcades when I was stopped by my old
drawing-master, Conrad Schmidt.
"Caspar!" he cried, "where are you going in such a hurry?"
"I am going to paint the great bear-fight!" I answered enthusiastically.
"Another tavern scene, I suppose," he remarked with a shrug.
"Why not, Master Conrad? Is not a tavern scene as good as one in the
forum?"
I would have said a good deal, but we were standing at his door.
"Good night, Ma�tre Conrad," I cried, pressing his hand. "Don't bear a
grudge against me for not going to study in Italy."
"Grudge! No," replied the old master, smiling. "You know that privately
I am of your opinion. If I tell you now and then to go to Italy, it is to
satisfy Dame Catherine. But follow out your own idea, Caspar. Men who
only follow other men's ideas never do any good."
THE SCAPEGOAT.
Note
This story, allowing for the exercise of fancy in its construction, is
only too faithful a picture of German student life and habits, with its
ignorance or disregard of the Christianity taught us in the Gospel, its
only half-concealed leaning towards the ancient systems of religion
properly known as heathen, and its careless indifference to human life.
The translator has ventured to deviate slightly from the original in one
or two places in order to avoid giving an unnecessary shock to the
susceptibilities of readers trained and educated in principles widely
differing from these.--_Transl_.
THE SCAPEGOAT.
Doesn't everybody at Tubingen know the lamentable history of the quarrel
between the Seigneur Kaspar Evig and the young Jew Elias Hirsch? Kaspar
Evig was courting Mademoiselle Eva Salomon, the daughter of the old
picture-dealer in the Rue de Jericho. One day he found my friend Elias
In the broker's shop, and, on what pretext I know not, he boxed his ears
soundly three or four times.
Elias Hirsch, who had begun his medical studies only about five months
before, was called upon by a council of the students to challenge the
Seigneur Kaspar to fight, a step which he took with the greatest
repugnance, for it was quite to be expected that a seigneur should be
a perfect swordsman.
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