The Blue Light
There was once on a time a soldier who for many years had served the
king faithfully, but when the war came to an end could serve no longer because of the many
wounds which he had received. The king said to him, "You may return to your home, I
need you no longer, and you will not receive any more money, for he only receives wages
who renders me serve for them." Then the soldier did not know how to earn a living,
went away greatly troubled, and walked the whole day, until in the evening he entered a
forest. When darkness came on, he saw a light, which he went up to, and came to a house
wherein lived a witch. "Do give me one night's lodging, and a little to eat and
drink," said he to her, "or I shall starve." "Oho," she answered,
"who gives anything to a run-away soldier? Yet will I be compassionate, and take you
in, if you will do what I wish." "What do you wish?" said the soldier.
"That you should dig all round my garden for me, tomorrow." The soldier
consented, and next day labored with all his strength, but could not finish it by the
evening. "I see well enough," said the witch, "that you can do no more
today, but I will keep you yet another night, in payment for which you must tomorrow chop
me a load of wood, and chop it small." The soldier spent the whole day in doing it,
and in the evening the witch proposed that he should stay one night more. "Tomorrow,
you shall only do me a very trifling piece of work. Behind my house, there is an old dry
well, into which my light has fallen, it burns blue, and never goes out, and you shall
bring it up again."
Next day the old woman took him to the well, and let him down in a
basket. He found the blue light, and made her a signal to draw him up again. She did draw
him up, but when he came near the edge, she stretched down her hand and wanted to take the
blue light away from him. "No," said he, perceiving her evil intention, "I
will not give you the light until I am standing with both feet upon the ground." The
witch fell into a passion, let him fall again into the well, and went away.
The poor soldier fell without injury on the moist ground, and the
blue light went on burning, but of what use was that to him. He saw very well that he
could not escape death. He sat for a while very sorrowfully, then suddenly he felt in his
pocket and found his tobacco pipe, which was still half full. "This shall be my last
pleasure," thought he, pulled it out, lit it at the blue light and began to smoke.
When the smoke had circled about the cavern, suddenly a little black dwarf stood before
him, and said, "Lord, what are your commands?" "What my commands are?"
replied the soldier, quite astonished. "I must do everything you bid me," said
the little man. "Good," said the soldier, "then in the first place help me
out of this well." The little man took him by the hand, and led him through an
underground passage, but he did not forget to take the blue light with him. On the way the
dwarf showed him the treasures which the witch had collected and hidden there, and the
soldier took as much gold as he could carry. When he was above, he said to the little man,
"Now go and bind the old witch, and carry her before the judge."
In a short time she came by like the wind, riding on a wild tom-cat
and screaming frightfully. Nor was it long before the little man re-appeared. "It is
all done," said he, "and the witch is already hanging on the gallows. What
further commands has my lord," inquired the dwarf. "At this moment, none,"
answered the soldier, "You can return home, only be at hand immediately, if I summon
you." "Nothing more is needed than that you should light your pipe at the blue
light, and I will appear before you at once." Thereupon he vanished from his sight.
The soldier returned to the town from which he had come. He went to
the best inn, ordered himself handsome clothes, and then bade the landlord furnish him a
room as handsome as possible. When it was ready and the soldier had taken possession of
it, he summoned the little black mannikin and said, "I have served the king
faithfully, but he has dismissed me, and left me to hunger, and now I want to take my
revenge." "What am I to do?" asked the little man. "Late at night,
when the king's daughter is in bed, bring her here in her sleep, she shall do servant's
work for me." The mannikin said, "That is an easy thing for me to do, but a very
dangerous thing for you, for if it is discovered, you will fare ill." When twelve
o'clock had struck, the door sprang open, and the mannikin carried in the princess.
"Aha, are you there?" cried the soldier, "Get to your work at once. Fetch
the broom and sweep the chamber." When she had done this, he ordered her to come to
his chair, and then he stretched out his feet and said, "Pull off my boots," and
then he threw them in her face, and made her pick them up again, and clean and brighten
them. She, however, did everything he bade her, without opposition, silently and with
half-shut eyes. When the first cock crowed, the mannikin carried her back to the royal
palace, and laid her in her bed.
Next morning when the princess arose she went to her father, and
told him that she had had a very strange dream. "I was carried through the streets
with the rapidity of lightning," said she, "and taken into a soldier's room, and
I had to wait upon him like a servant, sweep his room, clean his boots, and do all kinds
of menial work. It was only a dream, and yet I am just as tired as if I really had done
everything." "The dream may have been true," said the king, "I will
give you a piece of advice. Fill your pocket full of peas, and make a small hole in the
pocket, and then if you are carried away again, they will fall out and leave a track in
the streets." But unseen by the king, the mannikin was standing beside him when he
said that, and heard all. At night when the sleeping princess was again carried through
the streets, some peas certainly did fall out of her pocket, but they made no track, for
the crafty mannikin had just before scattered peas in every street there was. And again
the princess was compelled to do servant's work until cock-crow.
Next morning the king sent his people out to seek the track, but it
was all in vain, for in every street poor children were sitting, picking up peas, and
saying, "It must have rained peas, last night." "We must think of something
else," said the king, "keep your shoes on when you go to bed, and before you
come back from the place where you are taken, hide one of them there, I will soon contrive
to find it." The black mannikin heard this plot, and at night when the soldier again
ordered him to bring the princess, revealed it to him, and told him that he knew of no
expedient to counteract this stratagem, and that if the shoe were found in the soldier's
house it would go badly with him. "Do what I bid you," replied the soldier, and
again this third night the princess was obliged to work like a servant, but before she
went away, she hid her shoe under the bed.
Next morning the king had the entire town searched for his
daughter's shoe. It was found at the soldier's, and the soldier himself, who at the
entreaty of the dwarf had gone outside the gate, was soon brought back, and thrown into
prison. In his flight he had forgotten the most valuable things he had, the blue light and
the gold, and had only one ducat in his pocket. And now loaded with chains, he was
standing at the window of his dungeon, when he chanced to see one of his comrades passing
by. The soldier tapped at the pane of glass, and when this man came up, said to him,
"Be so kind as to fetch me that small bundle I have lying in the inn, and I will give
you a ducat for doing it."
His comrade ran thither and brought him what he wanted. As soon as
the soldier was alone again, he lighted his pipe and summoned the black mannikin.
"Have no fear," said the latter to his master. "Go wheresoever they take
you, and let them do what they will, only take the blue light with you." Next day the
soldier was tried, and though he had done nothing wicked, the judge condemned him to
death. When he was led forth to die, he begged a last favor of the king. "What is
it?" asked the king. "That I may smoke one more pipe on my way." "You
may smoke three," answered the king, "but do not imagine that I will spare your
life." Then the soldier pulled out his pipe and lighted it at the blue light, and as
soon as a few wreaths of smoke had ascended, the mannikin was there with a small cudgel in
his hand, and said, "What does my lord command?" "Strike down to earth that
false judge there, and his constable, and spare not the king who has treated me so
ill." Then the mannikin fell on them like lightning, darting this way and that way,
and whosoever was so much as touched by his cudgel fell to earth, and did not venture to
stir again. The king was terrified, he threw himself on the soldier's mercy, and merely to
be allowed to live at all, gave him his kingdom for his own, and his daughter to wife.
--The End-- |
