Chapter XXXVI: Conclusion: Of New Year's Eve--The Torch Train--The Exploit

OF THE RED FISHERMAN.

Following the distant sound of the fire-arms, they soon came to the troop of students, which was marching round to bring to the Prorector, and to some of the most popular professors, a "Vivat!" Music went before, accompanied with torches; and a noisy swarm of students followed it,--some in cloaks and great coats; some in dressing-gowns, and with their long pipes in their mouths. You could easily see that they had all of them suddenly started away out of their kneips, where they had celebrated the termination of the old year. They now arrived at the dwelling of a professor. The musicians placed themselves in the centre of the street, surrounded by the torches; the students closed in around them in a dense circle, and the music played a tune. A student then stepped forward, and gave a loud "hoch!" to the Professor. All joined in it three times, while the music blew a flourish, and the pistols thundered off all round. As the third "hoch!" ceased, a window opened above, a dark figure showed itself, and immediately below "Silentium" was commanded. All were still, and the Professor spoke as follows:--

"Gentlemen! Ever since I have resided in Heidelberg as teacher, have you annually paid me this testimony of your respect and esteem; but were I to live to be as old as Methuselah, and was this scene every year renewed, it would give me a fresh satisfaction.

"Gentlemen! Let the world judge of our worth as men; let the republic of the learned, which you are growing up to become a part of, decide on our services as learned men, on our ability as teachers,--the means of alone coming to a just conclusion oh those points will still lie constantly in the hands of the student youth. May they always use them with wise consideration, and free from all party spirit. So long as we are able to labour with the vigour of men for the good of the High-School, will our honest endeavours to fill our posts worthily as teachers, not be in vain; and we rejoice in this glad consciousness that we find in the acknowledgments of the student youth, only an echo of that which our inner self declares. But when the zenith of our career is past, so comes by degrees the weakness, and with it the doubtfulness of age; and then does it delight us to find in the acknowledgments of others, the conviction that, although our hair has become whitened with the snow of age, yet our labour still preserves its freshness and its green. And the Ruperto-Carola is also an ancient and venerable stem, which ages in their flight have already visited with their storms; but, if these storms have often and fiercely shook it, they have never been able to uproot it. So long as teachers dwell under the shadow of this tree, who, anxiously seeking its prosperity, cherish and nourish the old trunk; so long as scholars make to it their pilgrimage, who seek knowledge earnestly, so long shall Ruperto-Carola flourish and bloom."

[Here the Professor went over the past year in review, and stated what it had brought both of good and evil to the university, and then continued.]

"May Ruperto-Carola ever possess scholars, of whose approval an honest man will be proud! May yet many an age on the festive day resound the cry of--'Vivat Ruperto-Carola!'"

The sons of the Muses here joined in with their thundering "vivats!" The music made a flourish--the pistols resounded.

"Once more," cried the Professor, in conclusion, "my hearty thanks for this proof of your love. May your Fatherland receive you in a while with pride from our arms, where it yet only reluctantly leaves you for your good. May you live long and happy!"

The professor withdrew from the window; the music played yet another tune, and the troop then marched onwards. The four friends having separated themselves from the throng, in order to return home, heard yet for a long time, the distant uproar of the merry students, and the sounding of the fire-arms.

We must here further observe, that not only such night-music is brought; but also on some occasions, in order to do the more honour to the professors, the so-called solemn night-music, attended by a greater procession of the students, who carry torches, and have their appointed marshals and officers, to maintain order in the procession. The description of a torch-train will yet follow. Before this arrives at the house of the Professor, two or three deputies proceed thither in a carriage. These, in full gala costume, wait upon him for whom the compliment is intended, and make him a short address. The Professor returns them his thanks, and as he has always become aware of the intention of the students, he has his bottle of champagne ready, which he sets before the deputies, and _anstosses_ with them. They retire as the torch-train approaches the house, and when the customary hochs! have been given: first, by the students to the honour of the Professor; and then by the Professor in his speech to the prosperity of the university, the officers who have stepped forward for the purpose clash their swords wildly together. Before retiring they generally sing--"Stosst an! Heidelberg live thou!" and the torch-train marches away.

In some places, as in Munich, it is the custom that the Prorector when the New-Year's-night "Hoch!" is brought him, invites the students in, and treats them with punch. It may readily be imagined how much of this liquor is consumed on such an occasion, and into what a predicament a Professor once fell in Munich, who had prepared his punch, but waited for the students in vain, who out of dislike omitted to pay him this visit of honour.

But it was destined that the Englishman and his three friends, to whom we must now return from this digression, should not on this night yet retire to rest. They had just arrived in the Karl-platz, as a man galloped past, crying out with all his might,--"The ice goes! The ice goes!"

This messenger was from Neckargemuend, sent to announce to the inhabitants of Heidelberg this event, which the people living on the banks of the river, and especially the boat-people, always look forward to with great anxiety, and take their measures of precaution accordingly. But especially in that winter were people full of apprehension, as the ice-covering had acquired an extraordinary thickness; and indeed, in some places, could no longer be called a covering, since the flood in shallow places was completely frozen to the bottom. After a fierce and early-occurring season of severity, the actual warmth of spring suddenly broke out, and the soft south wind melted the snow so rapidly on the hills that the waters ran in streams down their sides. But all was in readiness; and as soon as the four students reached the bridge, they saw, wherever the houses on the banks of the Neckar did not completely occupy its strand to the edge, groups of men, who had provided themselves with cressets with rolls of pitched torches, called pitch garlands, and awaited the spectacle with eager looks. The bridge itself was covered with men, and scarcely a place at the balustrade was to be fought out. From this place an interesting scene presented itself. So far as you could see the banks of the Neckar, the torches flamed, and threw their flickering lights on the surface of ice, on the crowding spectators, and on the neighbouring landscape.

In the city itself, most of the houses were lit up for the festival, while above them, in the country, the mountains and the old castle shrouded themselves in the deepest gloom. Most of those who had assembled on the bridge, were men in their ordinary dress, who had, on the announcement of the ice-break, hastened hither from the punch-bowl. But others had been roused from their beds, and exhibited themselves in costumes singular enough, over which they had hastily thrown their cloaks; out of which their nightcaps peeped above.

The explosion, as of distant thunder, was now heard, and the floods of water that rushed up through the disrupted ice were seen pouring over the surface. The ice in the neighbourhood of the bridge cracked and groaned aloud; deep fissures opened, and ran with lightning speed far and wide. But as the mass of waters still rushed nearer and nearer, and the ice continued to resist its pressure, the floods rose, and forcing into the streets, made the people assembled on the banks flee back precipitately. On the other side of the bridge, all hands in the mean time were busy removing the piles of fire-timber which were ranged there, and in conveying them to a safe distance. The huge fragments of the already up-torn ice were sent with fury over the ice-surface that yet resisted; in some places, piling itself up into actual bulwarks, and in others was heaved into the streets. Thus it happened, that a little boy who, forgotten of the rest in their flight, had escaped to the top of a pile of wood, above the bridge, was, by one of the masses of ice which was forced forward by the water and driven directly under the pile, carried aloft, together with the pile. Ere any one could spring to his assistance, the moment was come when the opposing ice could no longer maintain its resistance to the accumulating flood. It burst with loud explosions, and raising itself furiously with the other fragments rushed forward towards the bridge. Through the long contest, the water had acquired the most terrible agitation, and when the victory came at once, it formed itself into a headlong stream, which carried the mass of ice on which the boy was, rapidly towards the middle of the flood. The boy, surrounded by the raging element, shrieked in the most fearful manner for help. His cries of misery were scarcely to be heard, but they were not necessary to fill every spectator with terror and commiseration. But who shall help him! Many an able swimmer was there, but none would undertake so desperate an enterprise. Some cried out to throw a rope from the bridge, that the boy might lay hold of, but this was impracticable, for in the moment in which the ice-masses struck the piers of the bridge, they were scattered into fragments, and the stone bridge itself trembled with the shock of their dashing against it. Already the ice-mass, on which the boy sate in despair, approached the piers. Every spectator watched the horrible catastrophe with breathless expectation; when the masses of ice which now passed in countless numbers, blocked up first one and then another arch of the bridge. There was a momentary pause in the progress of the ice. At the crisis of this terrific spectacle, a band of lively music approached the bridge. It was the wild troop of students, who, having completed their round, and finished all their Vivats! and Lebe Hochs! were marching past with their torches, and amongst them was seen the Red Fisherman, who holding in one hand a torch, and in the other a pipe, was striding on with open breast, and in his shirt-sleeves.

"Ackermann! Ackermann!" shouted the multitude, "he must help! He alone can do it!"

The approaching train rushed upon the bridge; the torch-bearers flew to the balustrades to cast a light upon the scene--the music ceased in an instant The Red Fisherman, on whom all eyes were turned, cast but one glance towards the child; threw his torch on the ice below, and ran down from the bridge to the banks of the Neckar. It was high time, for the ice-masses again began to put themselves in motion. Boldly the fisherman sprung from one block of ice to another; already was he near the boy, when the ice broke beneath him; yet he fought desperately against the rushing water. He reached the boy, and endeavoured to raise himself upon the ice-mass;--at the same moment it went to pieces, and both the fisherman and the boy disappeared for some seconds. The people gave them up as lost for ever, when a voice was heard from the other side of the bridge, crying "A rope! a rope!" It was the fisherman himself, who stood on the basement at the foot of the pier with the boy in his arms! He stood up to the middle in water, but he held fast by a projection of the pier. A rope with a large piece of wood tied to it was speedily let down by some of the fishermen, and Ackermann with the boy was hauled up with the help of the students. As soon as his head appeared on a level with the parapet, he handed over the boy to the people, and then himself leaped over the iron balustrade. With a loud "Vivat!" he was here received; and the musicians blew the finest flourish that they had executed on this remarkable New-Year's night. The troop of students accompanied the Red Fisherman with loud acclamations, who quickly put himself in dry clothes; not regarding some slight wounds which he had received from the ice-masses. The students took him into their midst, and "Free-night! free-night!" resounded on all sides.

This cry of triumph means that they will revel the whole night through; and this takes place either at the room of some student, or at a kneip. In the last case, the permission of the police is necessary. These free-nights are only held on extraordinary occasions, or, as in many cases, when without any particular cause the sons of the Muses find themselves in a thoroughly joyous humour.

These were especially frequent formerly amongst the so-called Lumpia. This means a union of students, who bind themselves for a certain time to give themselves up to the Lump; that is to doing nothing, and to the wildest pleasures,--to drinking, playing at hazard, and so on. To the honour of the students these wild engagements are rare, and are in the strictest manner prohibited by the laws.

The Red Fisherman warmed his stiffened limbs at the kneip with punch, and a collection was made on the spot, whose proceeds were handed to him as his reward. The four friends in the mean time had taken the child, and brought it into a neighbouring inn, where it was undressed and put to bed, until the mother, who did not till some time afterwards learn the whole of the circumstances, could be fetched.

After the many events of the night, the wearied party hastened home, to dream over again what they had witnessed, variously metamorphosed by fancy, and one image mixed up and exchanged with another.