The Deserter from Matzleinsdorf.

Woodville Examiner, Volume XX, Issue 37220, 16 September 1904, Page 4 (Supplement)

The Deserter from Matzleinsdorf.

As one uniy read in all the chronicles from that lime, the winter 1789-90 was very mild, and lives and bushes were blooming and budding everywhere a! Christmas time. This came as a great surprise after the severe winters of the preceding years. In 1788 the influenza, or, as it was then called, the "llu.vhin catarrh,’’ appeared in Vienna for the lirst time, and more than fifty thousand fell victims to it. Vienna was like an immense tomb then, no sign of joy anywhere, only an unending lino of funerals. And now the delightful spring of 1780 had come, but the beautiful weather had failed to arouse the people of Vienna from their depression. The Emperor, the beloved Joseph 11., who, though misunderstood by many, laid earnestly tried to be a father to his people, was dying, and everybody bowed down with grief. Emperor Joseph’s reforms had been many and had affected all branches of public life. In the army, however, he had changed very little, with the exception of creating the riilan regiments and the Bombardiers. Though the most liberal of men, ho demanded perfect self-sacrifice and discipline in the army, and he tiiought the occupation of a soldier the highest of all. He was the first monarch to wear a uniform at court functions. In October, 1789, Anton Krenmayer, the tallest and handsomest of all the young men in Matzleinedorf, was drafted for military service and put in the uniform of the Hohenzoilern Cuirassiers, the regiment in which Archduke Franz served as an officer. When he appeared in his dazzling uniform in the cottage of his parents his sweetheart, the pretty Salerl, from Nicolsdorf, laid her head on his shoulder and cried bitterly, “ What is it, darling? ” Anton asked, and took her in his arms. “ Oh, Anton, it makes me so sad to think that they have made you a soldier for my sake.” she cried. “For your sake? I do not understand you.” baled wiped away her tears, and then told how a young nobleman was running after her, and when she had told him that she was engaged to the strong Anton Krenmayer he had sworn that he would soon get him out of the town. Anton turned red as blood at her words ; the veins in his forehead stood out like cords, and, drawing a deep breath, he burst the straps which held together his glittering armour, which fell to the floor with a crash. “ The regiment will never see me any more,” lie said with a mighty oath, and rushed out. The deserter was not caught. When the soldiers came to his parents’ home he was with Salerl at Nicolsdorf, and when they arrived he run away like a deer. Then an order was made out for his arrest, and when the authorities proved unable to capture him a regiment was stationed at Matzlcinsdorf. Now, Anton Krenmayer had a friend, Franz Wolfingcr, a rough and ready fellow, with the reputation of being the worst poacher for miles around. One day the young Baron, who was in love with baled, came to him and said; “ Wolfinger, do you sec the purse full of gold coins ? It is yours ns soon ns Krenmayer is caught.” “ They shall have him in an hour,” Franz said, and hurried out. Anton Krenmayer was at Nicolsdorf, and was trying to cheer up Salerl. when there was a knock on the door. Snatching his pistol, Anton jumped to his feet. “ Who is there?” he shouted. “ Franz Wolfinger,” came the answer. Anton opened the door to his friend, who, having had a few minutes’ chat with the two. left again, saying they would probably rather be alone. As be went he left bis pipe behind, find hurried into the garden, where the soldiers were hidden. lie made a sign to them to follow him. Again he knocked on the door ” 1 forgot my pipe, Anton.” The moment the door was opened the soldiers forced their way in, and, in spice of bis furious resistance, Anton was so on bound and sent to the military prison in Vienna. For almost a year ho sat there, the dreadful monotony of prison life only broken by the visits of Salerl, who tried in every way to cheer him up. “ I will soon have you out, Toni,” she said, one day, “ and in two weeks we will be married—in two weeks. No, I will not tell you how, you must have patience, and wait.” That same afternoon a beautiful country girl found her way into the imperial palace. She was stopped by the sentry who guarded the Emperor’s private apartments. ‘‘The Emperor is sick. He cannot see you.” “But I must sec him. It is a matter of life and death. You just tell him that, and if he says no, I have nothing to do but to jump in the Danube.” “ What do you want with the Emperor ? ” she heard a feeble voice ask, and when she turned around a tall bony man, in the green uniform of the Chevaux Legers, stood before her. Salerl recognised the beloved monarch, and threw herself down before him. He gently lifted her up. and made her tell the whole sad story. She told him how proud Anton bad been that he had been chosen to serve the Emperor until she told him why he had been put in the uniform. The pale features of the sick monarch turned still paler, and his eyes shot fire. “ I thank you from my inmost heart for having come to me, and as sure as there is a God above us I shall bring the scoundrels to justice. Go home, Salerl, and trust to me. Your Toni will soon be with you.” How Salerl ever got home she could never tell, but the next day Anton came home to Matzleinsdorf a free man. The will of the Emperor had opened the prison doors. Franz Wolfinger was taken to serve in the Cuirassiers in his place, but what happened to the Baron no one knows. He was never seen in the neighbourhood again. Only three weeks later, on the 20th of February, 1790, Emperor Joseph died, and when he was buried two days later all Vienna was in tears. But probably no one cried more or prayed more sincerely for the rest of ins soul than Salerl from Nicolsdorf and the deserter from Matzleinsdorf, whose happiness was due to the dying monarch’s love of justice to all, even the humblest of his subjects.