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100

FROM THE MEMOIRS OF

with energy. In the midst stood a pale but infinitely beautiful woman, infinitely lovely and delicate, as if made from lily-perfume, and she sprang ashore. The boat with its spectral row-men shot like an arrow back into the rising sea, and in my arms lay Panna Jadviga, who wept and laughed, "I pray to thee!"[1]

CHAPTER III.

My first flight after leaving Schnabelewops was towards Germany, and, indeed, to Hamburg, where I remained six months, instead of going directly to Leyden and applying myself, as my parents wished, to the study of theology. I must confess that during that half-year I was much more occupied with worldly than with heavenly affairs.

Hamburg is a good city, all of solid, respectable houses. It is not the infamous Macbeth who governs here, but Banko.[2] The spirit of Banko rules and pervades this little free city, whose

  1. ↑ The unexpected ending of this chapter referring to a beautiful woman and death, in a mysterious, uncanny manner, is a tour de force which Heine employs several times in the Reisebilder.—Translator.
  2. ↑ Of course Banquo. Pun on bank.
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