Selected Prose of Heinrich Von Kleist Read Free Page B

meantime engaged in a heated, furtive exchange with Donna Elvira, cry out: “Don Fernando!” and followed the agitation of her tongue with restless steps. Don Fernando stopped and turned around, awaiting her, without letting go of Josephe’s arm; and since Donna Elisabeth herself stopped a fair distance away, as though she expected him to advance toward her, he asked what she wished of him. Hereupon, the latter approached him, albeit, so it seemed, with a certain hesitation, and whispered a few words in his hear, so softly that Josephe could not hear them.“What of it?” asked Don Fernando, “What’s the worst that can happen?” With a troubled look Donna Elisabeth went on whispering in his ear. His face red with consternation, Don Fernando replied: “Enough! Donna Elvira had best calm herself down”; and led Josephe onwards.
    As soon as they entered the Church of the Dominicans, the organ’s sweet strains wafted forth with melodious splendor; an immeasurably large crowd was pressed within. The crush of people continued past the portals and all the way out to the esplanade, and along the walls in the spaces between paintings stood boys with their caps in their hands, casting longing looks aloft. The chandeliers glimmered, and in the twilight threw eerie shadows among the columns; the big, stained-glass rose window in the far background glowed like the setting sun that lent it its light, and as soon as the organ stopped playing all was silent in the gathered throng as if not a single soul had a sound left in his breast. Never before in a Christian cathedral had such a fervent flame climbed up to heaven as that day in the Dominican Cathedral of Santiago; and no human breasts gave more heat to the flame than those of Jeronimo and Josephe!
    The service began with a sermon delivered from the pulpit by the oldest canon decked out in festive finery. He started right in, stretching his trembling hands out from under his flowing vestments up to the heavens, praying with praise, thanks, and glory that there were still people left in this devastated corner of creation able to mutter thanks to God. He described what had occurred as a wink of the Almighty; human law could not surpass God’s in severity; and when, after indicating the telltale crack which the cathedral had sustained, he nevertheless referred to yesterday’s earthquake as a mere foretasteof what was to come, a collective shudder ran through the hearts of all those gathered together. Hereupon, in the flow of priestly oratory, he lashed out against the moral corruption of the city; horrors as not even Sodom and Gomorrah had endured would be their just deserts; and it was only thanks to the infinite forbearance of God that they were not totally wiped off the face of the earth.
    But the canon’s words cut like a dagger into the hearts of our two poor unfortunates, already torn to shreds by his sermon, when he proceeded to refer in detail to the sacrilege committed in the cloister garden of the Carmelite nuns; he called the worldly mercy that spared the sinners’ lives a godless abomination, and in a vitriolic harangue, mentioning the perpetrators by name, he consigned their souls to all the devilish demons of Hell! Jerking her hand from Jeronimo’s arm, Donna Constanza cried out: “Don Fernando!” But the latter replied so firmly and yet so furtively, binding both in his command: “Be silent, woman, don’t even blink an eye, and pretend to fall into a faint, whereupon we will quietly slip out of the church.” But even before Donna Constanza was able to carry out this sensibly devised rescue measure, a loud voice interrupted the canon’s sermon: “Take heed, ye burghers of Santiago, for here they stand, the godless sinners!” And when, after a wide ring of outrage spread around them, another voice exclaimed in horror: “Where?” a third voice replied: “Here!” and the