, so that he might be in a
position to refund the debt and break the bargain. But he never did. He
was both ambitious and idle. He wanted to fly at once; he had a horror
of beginnings of apprenticeships. His early education had been so
neglected that in order to recover lost time he would have been
compelled to study hard--all the more so because, although he was
quick-witted, and had a marvellous facility for entering into the
thoughts of others, his own stock was poor; he had no ideas of his own,
nor individuality of mind. He possessed a collection of half-talents;
even in music, he was incapable of originating; when he attempted to
compose, his inspirations proved mere reminiscences. He did himself
justice; he felt that, strive as he might, his half-talents never would
aid him to secure the first position, and he disdained the second. In
fact, what he most needed was will, which, after all, makes the man. He
tried to fling himself from his horse, which carried him where he did
not desire to go; but he felt that his feet held firm in the stirrup; he
had not strength to disengage them, and he remained in the saddle. Not
being able to be a great man, he abandoned himself to his fate, which
condemned him to be only a knave. At the expiration of his term of
freedom, he declared himself solvent, and the princess took possession
of her merchandise.

"Yes, poets are corrupters," thought Count Abel Larinski. "If Samuel
Brohl never had read _The Merchant of Venice_, or _Egmont_, a tragedy in
five acts, or Schiller's ballads, he would have been resigned to his new
position; he would have seen its good sides, and would have eaten
and drunk his shame in peace, without experiencing any uncomfortable
sensations; but he had read the poets, and he grew disgusted, nauseated.
He was dying with desire to get away, and the princess suspected it. She
kept him always in sight, she held him close, she paid him quarterly,
shilling by shilling, his meagre allowance. She said to herself: 'So
long as he has nothing, he cannot escape.' She mistook; he did escape,
and he was so afraid of being retaken that for some time he hid like a
criminal, pursued by the police. He fancied that this woman was always
on his track. It was then, for the first time, that he felt hunger, for
they eat in the land of Egypt. He lived by all sorts of expedients,
and cursed the poets. One day he learned that his father was dead; he
hastened to the old tavern in order t