But I, unhappy I, must perish in want and woe, if she, whom I so
inexpressibly love, do not deliver me!"
Then, waving in faint tinkles, Serpentina's voice flitted through
the room: "Anselmus! believe, love, hope!" And every tone beamed
into Anselmus' prison; and the crystal yielded to his pressure, and
expanded, till the breast of the captive could move and heave.
The torment of his situation became less and less, and he saw clearly
that Serpentina still loved him, and that it was she alone, who
had rendered his confinement in the crystal tolerable. He disturbed
himself no more about his frivolous companions in misfortune, but
directed all his thoughts and meditations on the gentle Serpentina.
Suddenly, however, there arose on the other side a dull, croaking,
repulsive murmur. Ere long he could observe that it proceeded from an
old coffee-pot, with half-broken lid, standing over against him on a
little shelf. As he looked at it more narrowly, the ugly features of
a wrinkled old woman by degrees unfolded themselves; and in a few
moments, the Apple-wife of the Black Gate stood before him. She
grinned and laughed at him, and cried with screeching voice: "Ey, Ey,
my pretty boy, must thou lie in limbo now? To the crystal thou hast
run; did I not tell thee long ago?"
"Mock and jeer me; do, thou cursed witch!" said the student Anselmus.
"Thou art to blame for it all; but the Salamander will catch thee,
thou vile Parsnip!"
"Ho, ho!" replied the crone, "not so proud, good ready-writer! Thou
hast smashed my little sons to pieces, thou hast burnt my nose; but I
must still like thee, thou knave, for once thou wert a pretty fellow;
and my little daughter likes thee too.
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