, that he might carouse
at his ease, had put more money in his purse than was properly
permissible and feasible. And now, by this fatal step into the
apple-basket, all that he had about him had been swept away. Of
coffee, of double beer, of music, of looking at the bright damsels--in
a word, of all his fancied enjoyments, there was now nothing more to
be said. He glided slowly past, and at last turned down the Elbe road,
which at that time happened to be quite solitary.

[Illustration: Permission Berlin Photo Co., New York. HENSEL
ERNST THEODOR AMADEUS HOFFMANN]

Beneath an elder-tree, which had grown out through the wall, he found
a kind green resting-place; here he sat down, and filled a pipe from
the _Sanitaetsknaster_ or Health-tobacco, of which his friend the
Conrector Paulmann had lately made him a present. Close before him
rolled and chafed the gold-dyed waves of the fair Elbe-stream; behind
him rose lordly Dresden, stretching, bold and proud, its light towers
into the airy sky; which again, farther off, bent itself down toward
flowery meads and fresh springing woods; and in the dim distance, a
range of azure peaks gave notice of remote Bohemia. But, heedless of
this, the student Anselmus, looking gloomily before him, blew forth
his smoky clouds into the air. His chagrin at length became audible,
and he said: "Of a truth, I am born to losses and crosses for my life
long! That in boyhood I never could become the King on Twelfthnight,
that at Odds or Evens I could never once guess the right way, that
my bread and butter always fell on the buttered side--of all these
sorrows I will not speak; but is it not a frightful destiny, that now,
when, in spite of Satan, I have become a student, I must still be a
jolthead as before? Do I ever put a new coat on, without the first day
smearing it with tallow, or on some ill-fastened nail or other tearing
a cursed hole in it? Do I ever bow to any Councilor or any lady,
without pitching the hat out of my hands, or even slipping on the
pavement, and shamefully going heels-over-head? Had I not, every
market-day, while in Halle, a regular sum of from three to four
groschen to pay for broken pottery, the Devil putting it into my head
to walk straight forward, like a leming-rat? Have I ever once got to
my college, or any place I was appointed to, at the right time? What
availed it that I set out half an hour before, and planted myself at
the door, with the knocker in my hand? Just a