her as tightly as decorum permitted. ‘What has happened?’ ‘What has happened!’ she cried, all trembling. ‘They’ve got at the silver, Wunderlich! That’s what has happened! And Jean lies there with erysipelas and can’t do anything – he couldn’t even if he were up. They are stealing my spoons, Wunderlich, and I am going into the river!’
“Well, I kept holding her, and I said what one would in such cases: ‘Courage, dear lady. It will be all right. Control yourself, I beg of you. We will go and speak with them. Let us go.’ And I got her to go back up the street to her house. The soldiery were up in the dining-room, where Madame had left them, some twenty of them, at the great silver-chest.
“‘Gentlemen,’ I say politely, ‘with which one of you may I have the pleasure of a little conversation?’ They begin to laugh, and they say: ‘With all of us, Papa.’ But one of them steps out and presents himself, a fellow as tall as a tree, with a black waxed moustache and big red hands sticking out of his braided cuffs. ‘Lenoir,’ he said, and saluted with his left hand, for he had five or six spoons in his right. ‘Sergeant Lenoir. What can I do for you?’
“‘Herr Officer,’ I say, appealing to his sense of honour, ‘after your magnificent charge, how can you stoop to this sort of thing? The town has not closed its gates to the Emperor.’
“‘What do you expect?’ he answered. ‘War is war. The people need these things.…’
“‘But you ought to be careful,’ I interrupted him, for an idea had come into my head. ‘This lady,’ I said – one will say anything at a time like that –‘the lady of the house, she isn’t a German. She is almost a compatriot of yours – she is a Frenchwoman. …’ ‘Oh, a Frenchwoman,’ he repeated. And then what do you suppose he said, this big swashbuckler? ‘Oh, an émigrée? Then she is an enemy of philosophy!’
“I was quite taken aback, but I managed not to laugh. ‘You are a man of intellect, I see,’ said I. ‘I repeat that I consider your conduct unworthy.’ He was silent for a moment. Then he got red, tossed his half-dozen spoons back into the chest, and exclaimed, ‘Who told you I was going to do anything with these things but look at them? It’s fine silver. If one or two of my men take a piece as a souvenir …’
“Well, in the end, they took plenty of souvenirs, of course. No use appealing to justice, either human or divine. I suppose they knew no other god than that terrible little Corsican.…”
5
“DID YOU EVER see him, Herr Pastor?”
The plates were being changed again. An enormous brick-red boiled ham appeared, strewn with crumbs and served with a sour brown onion sauce, and so many vegetables that the company could have satisfied their appetites from that one vegetable-dish. Lebrecht Kröger undertook the carving, and skilfully cut the succulent slices, with his elbows slightly elevated and his two long forefingers laid out along the back of the knife and fork. With the ham went the Frau Consul’s celebrated “Russian jam,” a pungent fruit conserve flavoured with spirits.
No, Pastor Wunderlich regretted to say that he had never set eyes on Bonaparte. Old Buddenbrook and Jean Jacques Hoffstede had both seen him face to face, one in Paris just before the Russian campaign, reviewing the troops at the Tuileries; the other in Dantzig.
“I must say, he wasn’t a very cheerful person to look at,” said the poet, raising his brows, as he disposed of a forkful of ham, potato, and sprouts. “But they say he was in a lively mood, at Dantzig. There was a story they used to tell, about how he would gamble all day with the Germans, and make them pay up too, and then spend the evening playing with his generals. Once he swept a handful of gold off the table, and said: ‘Les Allemands aiment beaucoup ces petits Napoléons, n’est-ce pas, Rapp?’ ‘Oui, Sire, plus que le Grand! ’ Rapp answered.”
There was general laughter – Hoffstede had told the story very prettily, even mimicking the Emperor’s manner. Old Buddenbrook said: “Well, joking aside, one can’t help having respect for his personal greatness. … What a nature!”
The Consul shook his head gravely.
“No, no – we of the younger generation do not see why we should revere the man who murdered the Duc d’Enghien, and butchered eight hundred prisoners in Egypt.…”
“All that is probably exaggerated and overdrawn,” said Pastor Wunderlich. “The Duke was very likely a feather-brained and seditious person, and as for the prisoners, their execution was probably the deliberate and necessary policy of a council of war.” And he went on to speak of a book at which he had been looking, by one of the Emperor’s secretaries, which had appeared some years before and was well worth reading.
“All the same,” persisted the Consul, snuffing a flickering candle in the sconce in front of him, “I cannot understand it – I cannot understand the admiration people have for this monster. As a Christian, as a religious man, I can find no room in my heart for such a feeling.”
He had, as he spoke, the slightly inclined head and the rapt look of a man in a vision. His father and Pastor Wunderlich could be seen to exchange the smallest of smiles.
“Well, anyhow,” grinned the old man, “the little napoleons aren’t so bad, eh? My son has more enthusiasm for Louis Philippe,” he said to the company in general.
“Enthusiasm?” repeated Jean Jacques Hoffstede, rather sarcastically.… That is a curious juxtaposition, Philippe Égalité and enthusiasm.…”
“God knows, I feel we have much to learn from the July Monarchy,” the Consul said, with serious zeal. “The friendly and helpful attitude of French constitutionalism toward the new, practical ideals and interests of our time … is something we should be deeply thankful for. …”
“Practical ideals – well, ye-s –” The elder Buddenbrook gave his jaws a moment’s rest and played with his gold snuff-box. “Practical ideals – well – h’m – they don’t appeal to me in the least.” He dropped into dialect, out of sheer vexation. “We have trade schools and technical schools and commercial schools springing up on every corner; the high schools and the classical education suddenly turn out to be all foolishness, and the whole world thinks of nothing but mines and factories and making money.… That’s all very fine, of course. But in the long run, pretty stupid, isn’t it? … I don’t know why, but it irritates me like the deuce. … I don’t mean, Jean, that the July Monarchy is not an admirable régime. …”
Senator Langhals, as well as Gratjens and Köppen, stood by the Consul.… They felt that high praise was due to the French government, and to similar efforts that were being made in Germany. It was worthy of all respect – Herr Köppen called it “re-speck.” He had grown more and more crimson from eating, and puffed audibly as he spoke. Pastor Wunderlich had not changed colour; he looked as pale, refined, and alert as ever, while drinking down glass after glass of wine.
The candles burned down slowly in their sockets. Now and then they flickered in a draught and dispersed a faint smell of wax over the table.
There they all sat, on heavy, high-backed chairs, consuming good heavy food from good heavy silver plate, drinking full-bodied wines and expressing their views freely on all subjects. When they began to talk shop, they slipped unconsciously more and more into dialect, and used the clumsy but comfortable idioms that seemed to embody to them the business efficiency and the easy well-being of their community. Sometimes they even used an over-drawn pronunciation by way of making fun of themselves
