Anarchistbanjo's World

The Rebirth of Melchior Dronte by Paul Busson and translated by Joe E Bandel

With that, he stood up, told me to eat the meal he had
ordered, a chocolate pudding with jams, and then to go to sleep.
I saw him slowly leave the room, with a friendly face,
holding a stick with a golden pomegranate daintily pressed to
his chin. After a few days I got up, and this all the more gladly,
as in the last days various noises, coming from the outside,
such as shouts, whistles and voices, had disturbed the silence of
my room.
With the help of the servant of the inn, I dressed and had
my hair done, during which I perceived that the silver hoop of
old age had fully descended on my head during my illness. The
good-natured servant told me many horror stories from France,
where blood flowed in streams and a human life was not worth
three pennies. The plague of the frenzy for freedom was
already spreading, and even in this otherwise calm and quiet
old-fashioned little town, all kinds of disgusting and unpleasant
things had happened in the last few days, which had been of
the journeymen and the erection of a liberty tree. However, the
city council had wisely submitted a petition to the highest
authority for cavalry and a battalion of infantry, which, as the
princely book keeper Gailer had informed him confidentially,
should be complied with as soon as possible.
When I had finished, I slowly descended to the dining
room and found there at the common table, to my great delight,
Doctor Schlurich, who immediately left his place and sat down
next to me.
We naturally got into a conversation about the exciting
events in the city, which had become like a faint flame to the
immense blaze of purple in France, but still seemed worthy of
attention. I said that I felt a great desire to go to the city of
Paris, to study the immense changes there at close quarters and
observe them. I could not conceal from him that the movement
that had begun there was of great interest to me, was
meaningful for the whole of mankind and downright promising.
Doctor Schlurich looked at me with a very thoughtful
look and said that he was somewhat surprised to see a
nobleman from an old and famous lineage see anything but
cheap disgust in these events. The profound upheaval which
was only in its infancy could not possibly be welcomed by a
caste whose privileged existence rests on an artificial nimbus
and a carefully sanctified tradition. He asked me, however, not
to misunderstand him. Because his initial astonishment about
my behavior was a thoroughly joyful one.
I replied that I had suffered a self-inflicted humiliation in
my youth that had given me the opportunity to go to school
among people of the lowest classes, which, whether it was
good or bad, had given me the opportunity as a student of
freeing myself from all arrogance and conceit of status. In
addition, I had gained the valuable awareness that the so-called
differences in standing were created by artificially erected and
easily removable barriers, which had arisen and were
maintained, to deprive the children of the poor from any better
education and the cultivation of their noble feelings, which
later on resulted in their crudeness and ignorance. The
undeniable merits of the society to which the nobility and the
refined bourgeoisie enjoyed, were only the result of a carefully
conducted education. If this could only once be shared not just
with the privileged classes, but with all members of the human
race, humanity would not only protect itself with the noblest
weapon, but it would also bring an immeasurable abundance of
talents and abilities into a new light that has never existed
before. Indeed those places, where they shyly blossom in spite
of all the pressure, and are suppressed as dangerous to the state
without any knowledge.
“You are a nobleman in the inner sense of the word,” said
the doctor and bowed.
I felt the blush of shame rise to my face, and silently I
thought of many things in my life, which were of an ugly
nature and would always remain as stains on me.
“However, cher haran,” the doctor continued, “I don’t
know whether, if you were to ask for my advice, I would advise
you, to witness the great upheaval in the immediate vicinity,
that is to say, in Paris. Consider:
If one cleans a neglected place in his garden, in order to
grow useful and lovely plants, and removes the old stones and
debris, ugly worms, woodlice, centipedes and all kinds of nasty
creatures, which now crawl from their dark places, run around
and fall on each other in sudden greed. So it is also with those
social changes that are called revolutions. Until the noble core,
the light of freedom, shows itself, there is abominable work to
be done, which perhaps people can only see who look back
after many years, but to those who experience it, their souls are
filled with such horror that they no longer recognize anything
else, and even lose hope. Revolutions are filled with filth,
blood, shouting, evil deeds, wild development of the animal
instincts and base greed, and it takes a long time for the jet of
fire that shoots up to become pure and free of filthy cinders,
and the dominion of the senseless to move into the hands of
sensible men.”
A wild yelling and screaming outside the windows
interrupted him. In the dining room there was a hurried pushing
back of the chairs and jumping up. One saw people outside
walk by on the street, first individually, then dense masses, and
behind them came a closed united front of dragoons, which
struck with the flat of their swords and thus cleared the street.
All this passed quickly, the shouting and the clattering hoof
beats on the cobblestones disappeared, and in a few minutes
the street was quiet again, covered with lost hats, sticks and
other things.
“Our good Germans are slowly maturing,” Doctor
Schlurich returned back to the table. “And many a thing will
still pass over our people, until they are able to assert inner and
outer freedom, from which, by the way, even the French will
still be without. The merit, however, of having made a start
could be left to them, if one did not have to concede it from the
standpoint of higher justice from the English viewpoint.
Nevertheless, Herr Baron: The Germans will, after much
suffering and hardship be the chosen ones, from whom the
salvation of the world emanates. This is my belief.”
We were silent for a long time, and our conversation
turned to other things. I learned that Doctor Schlurich, born in
Köllen, had settled here, not so much to earn money, which in
his circumstances was not necessary, but in order to calmly
work on unknown phenomena of a psychical nature, with
whose research he was mainly concerned. Here he had made a
very special find. Namely, in a house of the city lived a
Demoiselle Köckering, who, in the company of various doctors
was often put into a magnetic sleep and in this state was asked
questions about the past and the future, as well as the most
diverse things to which she answered completely and correctly.
If I happened to be interested in such secrets of nature, which
only the unintelligent can connect with ghosts and devils, it
would be easy for him to introduce me there. Since the person
must be kept secret and lives from her art, it is, however,
customary to give a douceur in gold at the first entrance.
I was immediately ready to be led by him into the house,
and thanked him for his trust.
When it began to dawn, we went on our way.
A cool, damp wind was blowing from the Rhine. The wet
air penetrated chillingly through our coats. In several streets we
were stopped by patrols on horseback with loaded carbines, but
were allowed to pass as persons of distinction.
After some wandering we found the house “Zum
silbernen Schneck”, in which the demoiselle lived.
Only after knocking several times was the door opened to
us by a man, who was finally able to hide his hesitation for fear
of the craftsmen and ship’s servants, who, together with the evil
folk from the taverns, hooting “Ca ira” and hammering on the
gates, had raged in the alley a short while ago to get the
prostitutes living in the house next door and take them with
them. Soldiers would have quickly driven the screamers away
and then would themselves have gone through the door with
the red lantern.
We climbed the narrow staircase by the light of the
tallow candle that dripped between his fingers, and after a
special kind of knock, were led into a bright, octagonal
chamber, whose windows were tightly curtained. There was
nothing to be seen in it but an armchair upholstered in worn
brocade, next to which, on two small tables, burned many-
armed candlesticks, and in front of it a row of ordinary wooden
armchairs, on which some men sat waiting. They turned their
heads toward us. Both could be easily classed among the
scholars by their dress and the expression of their faces.
Doctor Schlurich and I approached the waiting people
and gave our names, which was answered in the same way.
“-especially the prophecies of the demoiselle should be
strictly examined,” one of the gentlemen, who was addressed
as “Spectability” continued his speech, which was interrupted
by our entrance.
“All the more so, as the man who pretends to put her into
a magnetic sleep collects one louisdor per person. My esteemed
colleague Professor Fulvius, who watched the demonstration
was not satisfied in all respects. Those bluish efflorescence’s
which you could observe perfectly, on the hands of
Emmerentia Gock in Ebersweiler, who is said to be possessed
by the devil, are completely absent, and everything that is
going on is just limited to some at times certainly astonishing
messages about the lives and fates of the people present.”
“Whereby it is respectfully to be noted,” said a small,
skinny man with a reddish wig in the highest falsetto “that the
prophesies of the woman, in so far as they refer to the future,
are completely worthless scientifically, because at present they
are unverifiable.”