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THE TWO CAPTAINS
THE TWO CAPTAINS LA MOTTE-FOUQUE by Friedrich Heinrich Karl Freiherr de La Motte-Fouque
CHAPTER I.
A Mild summer evening was resting on the shores of Malaga awakening
the guitar of many a merry singer among the ships in the harbor and
in the city houses and in many an ornamental garden villa.
Emulating the voices of the birds the melodious tones greeted the
refreshing coolness and floated like perfumed exhalations from
meadow and water over the enchanting region. Some troops of
infantry who were on the shore and who purposed to spend the night
there that they might be ready for embarkation early on the
following morning forgot amid the charms of the pleasant eventide
that they ought to devote these last few hours on European soil to
ease and slumber; they began to sing military songs to drink to each
other with their flasks filled to the brim with the rich wine of
Xeres toasting to the long life of the mighty Emperor Charles V.
who was now besieging the pirate-nest Tunis and to whose assistance
they were about to sail. The merry soldiers were not all of one
race. Only two companies consisted of Spaniards; the third was
formed of pure Germans and now and then among the various fellow-
combatants the difference of manners and language had given rise to
much bantering. Now however the fellowship of the approaching sea-
voyage and of the glorious perils to be shared as well as the
refreshing feeling which the soft southern evening poured over soul
and sense united the band of comrades in perfect and undisturbed
harmony. The Germans tried to speak Castilian and the Spaniards to
speak German without its occurring to any one to make a fuss about
the mistakes and confusions that happened. They mutually helped each
other thinking of nothing else but the good-will of their
companions each drawing near to his fellow by means of his own
language.
Somewhat apart from the merry tumult a young German captain Sir
Heimbert of Waldhausen was reclining under a cork-tree gazing
earnestly up at the stars apparently in a very different mood to the
fresh merry sociability which his comrades knew and loved in him.
Presently the Spanish captain Don Fadrique Mendez approached him;
he was a youth like the other and was equally skilled in martial
exercises but he was generally as austere and thoughtful as Heimbert
was cheerful and gentle. "Pardon Senor" began the solemn Spaniard
"if I disturb you in your meditations. But as I have had the honor
of often seeing you as a courageous warrior and faithful brother in
amrs in many a hot encounter I would gladly solicit you above all
others to do me a knightly service if it does not interfere with
your own plans and projects for this night." "Dear sir" returned
Heimbert courteously "I have certainly an affair of importance to
attend to before sunrise but till midnight I am perfectly free and
ready to render you any assistance as a brother in aims." "Enough"
said Fadrique "for at midnight the tones must long have ceased with
which I shall have taken farewell of the dearest being I have ever
known in this my native city. But that you may be as fully
acquainted with the whole affair as behoves a noble companion listen
to me attentively for a few moments.
"Some time before I left Malaga to join the army of our great emperor
and to aid in spreading the glory of his arms through Italy I was
devoted after the fashion of young knights to the service of a
beautiful girl in this city named Lucila. She had at that time
scarcely reached the period which separates childhood from ripe
maidenhood and as I--a boy only just capable of bearing arms--
offered my homage with a childlike friendly feeling it was also
received by my young mistress in a similar childlike manner. I
marched at length to Italy and as you yourself know for we have
been companions since then I was in many a hot fight and in many an
enchantingly alluring region in that luxurious land. Amid all our
changes I held unalterably within me the image of my gentle
mistress never pausing in the honorable service I had vowed to her
although I cannot conceal from you that in so doing it was rather to
fulfil the word I had pledged at my departure than from any impelling
and immoderately ardent feeling in my heart. When we returned to my
native city from our foreign wanderings a few weeks ago I found my
mistress married to a rich and noble knight residing here. Fiercer
far than love had been was the jealousy--that almost almighty child
of heaven and hell--which now spurred me on to follow Lucila's steps
from her home to the church from thence to the house of a friend
from thence again to her home or to some noble circle of knights and
ladies and all this as unweariedly and as closely as was possible.
When I had at length assured myself that no other young knight
attended her and that she devoted herself entirely to the husband
chosen for her by her parents rather than desired by herself I felt
perfectly satisfied and I should not have troubled you at this
moment had not Lucila approached me the day before yesterday and
whispered in my ear that I must not provoke her husband for he was
very passionate and bold; that not the slightest danger threatened
her in the matter because he loved and honored her above everything
but that his wrath would vent itself all the more furiously upon me.
You can readily understand my noble comrade that I could not help
proving my contempt of all personal danger by following Lucila more
closely than ever and singing nightly serenades beneath her flower-
decked windows till the morning star began to be reflected in the
sea. This very night Lucila's husband sets out at midnight for
Madrid and from that hour I will in every way avoid the street in
which they live; until then however as soon as it is sufficiently
dark to be suitable for a serenade I will have love-romances
unceasingly sang before his house. It is true I have information
that not only he but Lucila's brothers are really to enter upon a
quarrel with me and it is for this reason Senor that I have
requested you to bear me company with your good sword in this short
expedition."
Heimbert seized the Spaniard's hand as a pledge of his readiness
saying as he did so "To show you dear sir how gladly I will do
what you desire of me I will requite your confidence with
confidence and will relate a little incident which occurred to me in
this city and will beg you after midnight also to render me a small
service. My story is short and will not detain us longer than we
must wait before the twilight has become deeper and more gloomy.
"On the day after we arrived here I amused myself with walking in the
beautiful gardens with which the place abounds. I have now been long
in these southern lands but I cannot but believe that the dreams
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