This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of thefile for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making anentire meal of them. D.W.]
By Georg Ebers
Three years passed.
Barbara occupied with her husband and the two sons she had given him apretty little house in the modest quarter of Saint-Gery in Brussels.
Here the capital of wealthy, flourishing Brabant certainly looked veryunlike what she had expected from Gombert's stories; and how little shareshe had had hitherto in the splendour which on the drive to Landshut shehad expected to find in Brussels!
Since the musician had described the city, she had seen it distinctlybefore her in her vivid imagination. The lower portion, intersected bythe river Senne and numerous canals, belonged to the rich, industriouscitizens, the skilful artisans, and the common people; the upper, whichoccupied a hill, contained the great Brabant palace, the residence of theEmperor Charles. This edifice, which, though its exterior was almostwholly devoid of ornament, nevertheless presented a majestic aspect onaccount of its vast size, adjoined a splendid park, whose leafy groups ofancient trees merged into the forest of Soignies. Here also stood thepalaces of the great nobles and, on the side of the hill which sloped tothe lower city, the Cathedral of St. Gudule towered proudly aloft.
Much as Barbara had heard in praise of the magnificent market-place inthe lower city, with its marvellous Town Hall, it was always the upperportion of Brussels she beheld when she thought of the capital. She hadfelt that she belonged to this quarter, where all who had any claim toaristocracy lived; here, near the palace and the beautiful leafy trees,her future home had been in her imagination.
The result was different, and now the longing for the brilliant Brusselson the hill was doubly strong. True, there dwelt also those who had thegreatest power of attraction for her.
She was just returning home from the palace park, where stood a pleasantsummer house in which Adrian Dubois lived with his wife and one child.It was this child especially that drew Barbara to the upper city as oftenas possible, and constantly forced her thoughts to linger there and stillto follow the "higher" of the imperial motto, which everywhere else shewas compelled to renounce.
True, a limit was fixed to these visits to the Dubois couple. For onewhole year Frau Traut had successfully concealed the child from themother; then Barbara had once met the boy outside the house, and the wayin which he was hurried out of her sight led to the conviction that thiswas her child, and Frau Dubois had imprudently betrayed the secret.
From this time Barbara knew that her John had been confided to the careof the valet and his wife. At last Frau Traut had been unable to resisther entreaties, and allowed her to see her son and hold him a short timein her arms.
He was a strong, splendid child, with his mother's thick, curling locksand large blue eyes. Barbara thought that she had never seen a handsomerboy; and not only the Dubois, who had yielded their whole hearts to theirnursling, but strangers also admired the magnificent development of thisrare child. The young mother saw in him something grander, more perfectthan the children of other human beings, even than the two boys whom shehad given her husband, alt