abandon yourself to this madness if already you cannot overpower it, but be circumspect lest you lose in this abyss your whole life, and perhaps your honour. Mark to yourself beforehand terms and limits, and beware overstepping them when your soul is aflame and your mind powerless to give counsel.”
I took out of the belt the coins sewn within it, and divided my savings into three equal shares: one share I decided to spend with Renata, another I desired to give to my father, and the third I kept for myself, so that, returning to New Spain, I should be able to live there an independent life. At the same time, I resolved that I should not stay with Renata for more than three months, whatever wind might blow upon our life together, for after the happenings of the night I did not trust completely her words about the relatives who were supposed to be waiting for her in Köln: and the immediate future soon showed me how correct I was in that surmise.
Having thus thought out everything reasonably and soberly, I went to the host of the inn and for a fair price sold him my horse. Next I went to the river quay and bargained with one of the barges that were descending the Rhine with Netherland goods, for her to take us as far as Köln. Then I acquired various necessaries proper to a journey with a lady, such as—a pair of cushions, soft coverlets, victuals and wines; and at last I returned to the hostelry.
Renata displayed real joy at seeing me, and it seemed to me that perhaps she had imagined I had flown secretly and left her. We breakfasted together in care-free spirit, once more without recalling the torments of the night, as if in daylight we were quite different beings. Immediately after the meal we walked over to the barge, for she was quite ready to set sail. The barge was of goodly bulk, with steep sides, and two-masted, and we were given on board a large cabin situated in the bow part of the vessel, which was raised high and terminated in a peaked roof. I spread blankets on the floor, and, in such accommodation, an envoy of the Great Mogul himself might have travelled without fatigue.
We cast off from the docks of Düsseldorf soon after noon, and travelled without much adventure until Köln itself, two days and nights, spending the hours of darkness riding at anchor. During all this journey, both by day and by night, Renata remained very calm and reasonable, and she showed no signs either of deceitful gaiety, as on the day when we were riding to Geerdt, or of dark despair, as during the night spent under the sign “ Im Lewen .” Very often she joined with me in being enchanted by the beauty of the places past which we travelled, and engaged with me in conversation upon various matters of common life or art.
Certain words said to me by Renata at this time I think it necessary to enter here, as far as I remember them, for later I found in them the key to the riddle of certain of her actions.
They were uttered when the owner of the barge, a stern mariner named Moritz Krock, broke into our conversation and it happened to turn to events that had taken place just about that time at Münster. At first glance Moritz had not the appearance of a fanatical reformer, he was attired in ordinary sailor’s clothes, like myself, and carried on the duties of his profession, but he spoke with such fervour of the new prophet from Leyden, whom he called “Iohann the Righteous, mounted upon the Throne of David,” that I began to doubt whether he were not himself one of the re-baptised. Having related to us how the citizens of Münster had destroyed images, organs and all church properties, and lumped together all their goods to have and use in common, how they had established twelve elders, according to the number of the twelve tribes of Israel, and placed Iohann Bockelszoon at their head, and how the Münsterners, fortified by the armies of Heaven had successfully repulsed the episcopalian landsknechts, Moritz continued, as if
I took out of the belt the coins sewn within it, and divided my savings into three equal shares: one share I decided to spend with Renata, another I desired to give to my father, and the third I kept for myself, so that, returning to New Spain, I should be able to live there an independent life. At the same time, I resolved that I should not stay with Renata for more than three months, whatever wind might blow upon our life together, for after the happenings of the night I did not trust completely her words about the relatives who were supposed to be waiting for her in Köln: and the immediate future soon showed me how correct I was in that surmise.
Having thus thought out everything reasonably and soberly, I went to the host of the inn and for a fair price sold him my horse. Next I went to the river quay and bargained with one of the barges that were descending the Rhine with Netherland goods, for her to take us as far as Köln. Then I acquired various necessaries proper to a journey with a lady, such as—a pair of cushions, soft coverlets, victuals and wines; and at last I returned to the hostelry.
Renata displayed real joy at seeing me, and it seemed to me that perhaps she had imagined I had flown secretly and left her. We breakfasted together in care-free spirit, once more without recalling the torments of the night, as if in daylight we were quite different beings. Immediately after the meal we walked over to the barge, for she was quite ready to set sail. The barge was of goodly bulk, with steep sides, and two-masted, and we were given on board a large cabin situated in the bow part of the vessel, which was raised high and terminated in a peaked roof. I spread blankets on the floor, and, in such accommodation, an envoy of the Great Mogul himself might have travelled without fatigue.
We cast off from the docks of Düsseldorf soon after noon, and travelled without much adventure until Köln itself, two days and nights, spending the hours of darkness riding at anchor. During all this journey, both by day and by night, Renata remained very calm and reasonable, and she showed no signs either of deceitful gaiety, as on the day when we were riding to Geerdt, or of dark despair, as during the night spent under the sign “ Im Lewen .” Very often she joined with me in being enchanted by the beauty of the places past which we travelled, and engaged with me in conversation upon various matters of common life or art.
Certain words said to me by Renata at this time I think it necessary to enter here, as far as I remember them, for later I found in them the key to the riddle of certain of her actions.
They were uttered when the owner of the barge, a stern mariner named Moritz Krock, broke into our conversation and it happened to turn to events that had taken place just about that time at Münster. At first glance Moritz had not the appearance of a fanatical reformer, he was attired in ordinary sailor’s clothes, like myself, and carried on the duties of his profession, but he spoke with such fervour of the new prophet from Leyden, whom he called “Iohann the Righteous, mounted upon the Throne of David,” that I began to doubt whether he were not himself one of the re-baptised. Having related to us how the citizens of Münster had destroyed images, organs and all church properties, and lumped together all their goods to have and use in common, how they had established twelve elders, according to the number of the twelve tribes of Israel, and placed Iohann Bockelszoon at their head, and how the Münsterners, fortified by the armies of Heaven had successfully repulsed the episcopalian landsknechts, Moritz continued, as if
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