One morning the hostess of the Town Cellars at Marstrand threwopen her doors to sweep the steps and the lobby, and then shecaught sight of a young maid sitting on one of the steps andwaiting. She was dressed in a long gray garment which was fastenedwith a belt at the waist. Her hair was fair, and it was neitherbound nor braided, but hung down on either side of her face.
As the door opened she went down the steps into the lobby, but itseemed to the hostess that she moved as though walking in hersleep. And all the time she kept her eyelids lowered and her armspressed close to her side. The nearer she came, the moreastonished was the hostess at the fragile slenderness of her form.Her face was fair, but it was delicate and transparent, as thoughit had been made of brittle glass.
When she came down to the hostess she asked whether there was anywork she could do, and offered her services.
Then the hostess thought of all the wild companions whose habit itwas to sit drinking ale and wine in her tavern, and she could nothelp smiling. "No, there is no place here for a little maid likeyou," she said.
The maiden did not raise her eyes nor make the slightest movement,but she asked again to be taken into service. She desired neitherboard nor wages, she said, only to have a task to perform.
"No," said the hostess, "if my own daughter were as you are, Ishould refuse her this. I wish you a better lot than to be servanthere."
The young maid went quietly up the steps, and the hostess stoodwatching her. She looked so small and helpless that the woman tookpity on her.
She called her back and said to her: "Maybe you run greater risksif you wander alone about the streets and alleys than if you cometo me. You may stay with me today and wash the cups and dishes,and then I shall see what you are fit for."
The hostess took her to a little closet she had contrived beyondthe hall of the tavern. It was no bigger than a cupboard and hadneither window nor loophole, but was only lighted by a hatch inthe wall of the public room.
"Stand here today," said the hostess to the maid, "and wash me allthe cups and dishes I pass you through this hatch, then I shallsee whether I can keep you in my service."
The maiden went into the closet, and she moved so silently thatthe hostess thought it was like a dead woman slipping into hergrave.
She stood the whole day and spoke to none, nor ever leaned herhead through the hatch to look at the folk who came and went inthe tavern. And she did not touch the food that was set beforeher. Nobody heard her make a clatter as she washed, but wheneverthe hostess held out her hand to the hatch, she passed out cleancups and dishes without a speck on them.
But when the hostess took them to set them out on the table, theywere so cold that she thought they would sear the skin off herfingers. And she shuddered and said: "It is as though I took themfrom the cold hands of Death himself."
II
One day there had been no fish to clean on the quays, so thatElsalill had stayed at home. She sat at the spinning-wheel and wasalone in the cottage. A good fire was burning on the hearth, andit was light enough in the room.
In the midst of her work she felt a light breath, as though a coldbreeze had swept over her forehead. She looked up and saw her deadfoster sister standing beside her.
Elsalill laid her hand on the wheel to stop it, and sat still,looking at her foster sister. At first she was afraid, but shethought to herself: "It is unworthy of me to be afraid of myfoster sister. Whether she be dead or alive, I am still glad tosee her."
"Dear sister," she said to the dead girl, "is there aught youwould have me do?"
The other said to her in a voice that had neither strength nortone: "My sister Elsalill, I am in service at the tavern, and thehostess has made me stand and wash cups and dishes all day. Nowthe evening is come and I am so tired that I can hold out nolonger. I have come hither to ask if you will not give me yourhelp."
When Elsalill heard this it was as though a veil was drawn overher mind. She could no longer think nor wonder nor feel any fear.She only knew joy at seeing her foster sister again, and sheanswered: "Yes, dear sister, I will come straight and help you."
Then the dead girl went to the door, and Elsalill followed her.But as they stood on the threshold her foster sister paused andsaid to Elsalill: "You must put on your cloak. There is a strongwind outside." And as she said this her voice sounded clearer andless muffled than before.
Elsalill then took her cloak from the wall and wrapped it aroundher. She thought to herself: "My foster sister loves me still. Shewishes me no evil. I am only happy that I may go with her wherevershe may take me."
And then she followed the dead girl through many streets, all theway from Torarin's cabin, which stood on a rocky slope, down tothe level streets about the harbour and the market place.
The dead girl always walked two paces in front of Elsalill. Aheavy gale was blowing that evening, howling through the streets,and Elsalill noticed that when a violent gust would have flung heragainst the wall, the dead girl placed herself between her and thewind and screened her as well as she could with her slender body.
When at last they came to the town hall the dead girl went downthe cellar steps and beckoned Elsalill to follow her. But as theywere going down the wind blew out the light in the lantern thathung in the lobby and they were in darkness. Then Elsalill did notknow where to turn her steps and the dead girl had to put her handon hers to lead her. But the dead girl's hand was so cold thatElsalill started and began to quake with fear. Then the dead girldrew her hand away and wound it in a corner of Elsalill's cloakbefore she led her on again. But Elsalill felt the icy chillthrough fur and lining.
Now the dead girl led Elsalill through a long corridor and openeda door for her. They came into a little dark closet where a feeblelight fell through a hatch in the wall. Elsalill saw that theywere in a room where the scullery wench stood and scoured cups anddishes for the hostess to set out on the tables for her customers.Elsalill could just see that a pail of water stood upon a stool,and in the hatch were many cups and goblets that wanted rinsing.
"Will you help me with this work tonight, Elsalill?" said the deadgirl.
"Yes, dear sister," said Elsalill, "you know I will help you withwhatsoever you wish."
Elsalill then took off her cloak, rolled up her sleeves and beganthe work.
"Will you be very quiet and silent in here, Elsalill, so that thehostess may not know that I have found help?"
"Yes, dear sister," said Elsalill; "you may be sure I will."
"Then farewell, Elsalill," said the dead girl. "I have only onemore thing to ask of you. And it is that you be not too angry withme for this thing."
"Wherefore do you bid me farewell?" said Elsalill. "I will gladlycome every evening and help you."
"No, there is no need for you to come after this evening," saidthe dead girl. "I have good hope that tonight you will give mesuch help that my mission will now be ended."
As they spoke thus Elsalill was already leaning over her work. Allwas still for a while, but then she felt a light breath on herforehead, as when the dead girl had come to her in Torarin'scabin. She looked up and saw that she was alone. Then she knewwhat it was that had felt like a faint breeze upon her face, andsaid to herself: "My dead foster sister has kissed my foreheadbefore she parted from me."
Elsalill now turned to her work and finished it. She rinsed outall the bowls and tankards and dried them. Then she looked in thehatch whether any more had been set in there, and finding none shestood at the hatch and looked out into the tavern.
It was an hour of the day when there was usually little custom inthe cellars. The hostess was absent from her bar and none of hertapsters was to be seen in the room. The place was empty, save forthree men, who sat at the end of a long table. They were guests,but they seemed well at their ease, for one of them, who hademptied his tankard, went to the bar, filled it from one of thegreat tuns of ale and wine that stood there, and sat down again todrink.
Elsalill felt as though she had come here from a strange world.Her
thoughts were with her dead foster sister, and she could notclearly take in what she saw. It was a long while before she wasaware that the three men at the table were well known and dear toher. For they who sat there were none other than Sir Archie andhis two friends Sir Reginald and Sir Philip.
For some days past Sir Archie had not visited Elsalill, and shewas glad to see him. She was on the point of calling to him thatshe was there at hand; but then the thought came to her, howstrange it was that he had ceased to visit her, and she keptsilence. "Maybe his fancy has turned to another," thoughtElsalill. "Maybe it is of her he is thinking."
For Sir Archie sat a little apart from the others. He was silentand gazed steadily before him, without touching his drink. He tookno part in the talk, and when his friends addressed a word to him,he was seldom at the pains to make them an answer.
Elsalill could hear that the others were trying to put life intohim. They asked him why he had left drinking, and even sought topersuade him that he should go and talk with Elsalill and sorecover his good humour.
"You are to pay no heed to me," said Sir Archie. "There is anotherthat fills my thoughts. Still do I see her before me, and still doI hear the sound of her voice in my ears."
And then Elsalill saw that Sir Archie was gazing at one of themassive pillars that upheld the cellar roof. She saw, too, whattill then she had not marked, that her foster sister stood besidethat pillar and looked upon Sir Archie. She stood there quitemotionless in her gray habit, and it was not easy to discover her,as she stood so close against the pillar.
Elsalill stood quite still looking into the room. She noted thather foster sister kept her eyes raised when she looked upon SirArchie. During the whole time she was with Elsalill she had walkedwith her eyes upon the ground.
Now her eyes were the only thing about her that was ghastly.Elsalill saw that they were dim and filmed. They had no glance,and the light was not mirrored in them any more.
After a while Sir Archie began again to lament. "I see her everyhour. She follows me wherever I go," he said.
He sat with his face toward the pillar where the dead girl stood,and stared at her. But Elsalill was sure that he did not see her.It was not of her he spoke, but of one who was ever in histhoughts.
Elsalill never left the hatch and followed with her eyes all thattook place, thinking that most of all she wished to find out whoit was that filled Sir Archie's thoughts.
Suddenly she was aware that the dead girl had taken her place onthe bench beside Sir Archie and was whispering in his ear.
But still Sir Archie knew nothing of her being so close to him orof her whispering in his ear. He was only aware of her presence inthe mortal dread that came over him.
Elsalill saw that when the dead girl had sat for a few momentswhispering to Sir Archie, he hid his face in his hands and wept."Alas, would I had never found the maid!" he said. "I regretnothing else but that I did not let the maiden go when she beggedme."
The other two Scotsmen ceased drinking and looked in alarm at SirArchie, who thus laid aside all his manliness and yielded toremorse. For a moment they were perplexed, but then one of themwent up to the bar, took the tallest tankard that stood there andfilled it with red wine. He brought it to Sir Archie, clapped himon the shoulder and said: "Drink, brother! Herr Arne's hoard isnot yet done. So long as we have coin to buy such wine as this, nocares need sit upon us."
But in the same instant as these words were spoken: "Drink,brother! Herr Arne's hoard is not yet done," Elsalill saw the deadgirl rise from the bench and vanish.
And in that moment Elsalill saw before her eyes three men withgreat beards and rough coats of skin, struggling with Herr Arne'sservants. And now it was plain to her that they were the three whosat in the cellar--Sir Archie, Sir Philip, and Sir Reginald.
III
Elsalill came out of the closet where she had stood and rinsed thehostess's cups, and softly closed the door behind her. In thenarrow corridor outside she stopped and stood motionless leaningagainst the wall for nearly an hour.
As she stood there she thought to herself: "I cannot betray him.Let him be guilty of what evil he may, I love him with all myheart. I cannot send him to be broken upon the wheel. I cannot seethem burn away his hands and feet."
The storm that had raged all day became more and more violent asevening wore on, and Elsalill could hear its roar as she stood inthe darkness.
"Now the first storms of spring have come," she thought. "Now theyhave come in all their might to set the waters free and break upthe ice. In a few days we shall have open sea, and then Sir Archiewill sail from hence, never to return. No more misdeeds can hecommit in this land. What profits it then if he be taken andsuffer for his crime? Neither the dead nor the living have anycomfort of it."
Elsalill drew her cloak about her. She thought she would go homeand sit quietly at her work without betraying her secret to anyone.
But before she had raised a foot to go, she changed her purposeand stayed.
She stood still listening to the roaring of the gale. Again shethought of the coming of spring. The snow would disappear and theearth put on its garment of green.
"Merciful heaven, what a spring will this be for me!" thoughtElsalill. "No joy and no happiness can bloom for me after thechills of this winter.
"No more than a year ago I was so happy when winter was past andspring came," she thought. "I remember one evening which was sofair that I could not sit within doors. So I took my foster sisterby the hand, and we went out into the fields to fetch greenboughs and deck the stove."
She recalled to mind how she and her foster sister had walked alonga green pathway. And there by the side of the way they had seen ayoung birch that had been cut down. The wood showed that it hadbeen cut many days before. But now they saw that the poor loppedtree had begun to put forth leaves and its buds were bursting.
Then her foster sister had stopped and bent over the tree. "Ah,poor tree," she said, "what evil can you have done, that you arenot suffered to die, though you are cut down? What makes you putforth leaves, as though you still lived?"
And Elsalill had laughed at her and answered: "Maybe it grows sosweet and green that he who cut it down may see the harm he haswrought and feel remorse."
But her foster sister did not laugh with her, and there were tearsin her eyes. "It is terrible for a dead man if he cannot rest inhis grave. They who are dead have small comfort to look for;neither love nor happiness can reach them. All the good they yetdesire is that they may be left to sleep in peace. Well may I weepwhen you say this birch cannot die for thinking of its murderer.The hardest fate for one deprived of life is that he may not sleepin peace but must pursue his murderer. The dead have naught tolong for but to be left to sleep in peace."
When Elsalill recalled these words she began to weep and wring herhands.
"My foster sister will not find rest in her grave," she said,"unless I betray my beloved. If I do not aid her in this, she mustroam above ground without respite or repose. My poor fostersister, she has nothing more to hope for but to find peace in hergrave, and that I cannot give her unless I send the man I love tobe broken on the wheel."
IV
Sir Archie came out of the tavern and went through the longcorridor. The lantern hanging from the roof had now been lightedagain, and by its light he saw that a young maid stood leaningagainst the wall.
She was so pale and stood so still that Sir Archie was afraid andthought: "There at last before my eyes stands the dead girl whohaunts me every day."
As Sir Archie went past Elsalill he laid his hand on hers to feelif it was really a dead girl standing there. And her hand was socold that he could not say whether it belonged to the living orthe dead.
But as Sir Archie touched Elsalill's hand she drew it back, andthen Sir Archie knew her again.
He thought she had come there for his sake, and great was his joyto see her. At once a thought came to him: "Now I know what I willdo, that the dead girl may be appeased and cease to haunt me."
He took Elsalill's hands within his own and raised them to hislips. "God bless you for coming to me this evening, Elsalill!" hesaid.
But Elsalill's heart was sore afflicted. She could not speak fortears, even so much as to tell Sir Archie she had not come thereto meet him.
Sir Archie stood silent a long while, but he held Elsalill's handsin his the whole time. And the longer he stood thus, the clearerand more handsome did his face become.
"Elsalill," said Sir Archie, and he spoke very earnestly, "formany days I have not been able to see you, because I have beentormented by heavy thoughts. They have left me no peace, and Ibelieved I should soon go out of my mind. But tonight it goesbetter with me and I no longer see before me the image thattormented me. And when I found you here, my heart told me what Ihad to do to be rid of my torment for all time."
He bent down to look into Elsalill's eyes, but as she stood withdrooping eyelids he went on: "You are angry with me, Elsalill,because I have not been to see you for many days. But I could notcome, for when I saw you I was reminded even more of what torturedme. When I saw you I was forced to think even more of a young maidto whom I have done wrong. Many others have I wronged in mylifetime, Elsalill, but my conscience plagues me for naught elsebut what I did to this young maid."
As Elsalill still said nothing, he took her hands again and raisedthem to his lips and kissed them.
"Now, listen, Elsalill, to what my heart said to me when I saw youstanding here and waiting for me. 'You have done injury to onemaiden,' it said, 'and for what you have made her suffer, you mustatone to another. You shall take her to wife, and you shall be sogood to her that she shall never know sorrow. Such faithfulnessshall you show her that your love will be greater on the day ofyour death than on your wedding day.'"
Elsalill stood still as before with downcast eyes. Then Sir Archielaid his hand on her head and raised it. "You must tell me,Elsalill, whether you hear what I say," he said.
Then he saw that Elsalill was weeping so violently that greattears ran down her cheeks.
"Why do you weep, Elsalill?" asked Sir Archie.
"I weep, Sir Archie," said Elsalill, "because I have too greatlove for you in my heart."
Then Sir Archie came yet closer to Elsalill and put his arm aroundher. "Do you hear how the wind howls without?" said he. "Thatmeans that soon the ice will break up, and that ships again willbe free to sail over to my native land. Tell me now, Elsalill,will you come with me, so that I may make good to you the evil Ihave done to another?"
Sir Archie continued to whisper to Elsalill of the glorious lifethat awaited her, and Elsalill began to think to herself: "Alas,if only I did not know what evil he had done! Then I would go withhim and live happily."
Sir Archie came closer and closer to her, and when Elsalill lookedup she saw that his face was bending over her and that he wasabout to kiss her on the forehead. Then she remembered the deadgirl who had so lately been with her and kissed her. She toreherself free from Sir Archie and said: "No, Sir Archie, I willnever go with you."
"Yes," said Sir Archie, "you must come with me, Elsalill, or elseI shall be drawn down to my destruction."
He began to whisper to the girl ever more tenderly, and again shethought to herself: "Were it not more pleasing to God and men thathe be allowed to atone for his evil life and become a righteousman? Whom can it profit if he be punished with death?"
As these thoughts were in Elsalill's mind two men came by on theirway to the tavern. When Sir Archie marked that they cast curiouseyes on him and the maid, he said to her: "Come, Elsalill, I willtake you home. I would not that any should see you had come to thetavern for me."
Then Elsalill looked up, as though suddenly calling to mind thatshe had another duty to perform than that of listening to SirArchie. But her heart smote her when she thought of betraying hiscrime. "If you deliver him to the hangman, I must break," herheart said to her. And Sir Archie drew the girl's cloak moretightly about her and led her out into the street. He walked withher all the way to Torarin's cabin, and she noticed that wheneverthe storm blew fiercely in their faces, he placed himself beforeher and screened her.
Elsalill thought, all the time they were walking: "My dead fostersister knew nothing of this, that he would atone for his crime andbecome a good man."
Sir Archie still whispered the tenderest words in Elsalill's ear.And the longer she listened to him, the more firmly she believedin him.
"It must have been that I might hear Sir Archie whisper such wordsas these in my ear that my foster sister called me forth," shethought. "She loves me so dearly. She desires not my unhappinessbut my happiness."
And as they stopped before the cabin, Sir Archie asked Elsalillonce more whether she would go with him across the sea. AndElsalill answered that with God's help she would go.
CHAPTER VII
UNREST
Herr Arnes penningar. English Page 6